Tag Archives: Kansas

Get The Heck INTO Dodge

Posted on by kathousekelli70

As the billboards display, it’s into Dodge, not outta Dodge.

After a good nights sleep in Colby we headed down the 83 to Garden City. Kansas has a lot of fertile farming land and it’s no wonder they call it Plainsmen country as it is just that – very very flat. Full of corn fields and feed lots, and then more corn fields and oil derricks.

On the outskirts of Garden City seems to be a large industrial hub and also a manufacturer for wind turbines. These things are huge when you see all the parts laying in a plant yard!

Onward we went heading east to Dodge City arriving around lunchtime.

Dodge City town burnt down twice in the 1880’s, front street as depicted now at The Boot Hill Museum (some buildings or facades were moved to the site, the rest was replicated in 1958) is a replica of what it looked like back then, however was originally about 2 blocks away.

Dodge City was dubbed The Wickedest Little City in the west. Now it seems to hold the history and the spirit but is a booming cattle industry/meat producing town amongst corn, wheat and other crops.

Other interesting facts to note, (there was so much information to take in on the Trolley Tour I couldn’t keep up!). Other than the famous and infamous cowboys, lawmen etc that travelled through and worked in Dodge City.

– Fort Dodge was established in 1865, originally a campground of sorts for wagons travelling the Santa Fe Trail.

– George Hoover established the first saloon in Dodge. A sod hut erected in 1872, he later became Mayor.

– First burial on Boot Hill was in 1872 (named Boot Hill because people were usually buried with their boots on) and the Alice Chambers, a dance hall girl reportedly to be the only woman to have been ‘planted’ on Boot Hill, however supposedly by natural causes.

– Dodge City was known as queen of the cowtowns until the Kansas quarantine law came into effect in 1885 when the longhorns carried a tick disease that infected local cattle.

– there were 2 front streets, the more ‘decorum’ North side where no firearms or dance halls were allowed (north of the tracks and on the side where the reproduction street is), and the South side which was the main business block of the 1880’s popular with buffalo hunters and cowboys, saloons, gunfights and ruckus! Separated during the times of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson trying to bring order to the city.

– The Long Branch Saloon was the most popular. Owned and operated by Beeson and Harris, later made famous by the television series ‘Gunsmoke’. Regular entertainment was given by the Dodge City Cowboy Band and was known for gambling and fine whiskey.

– between 1866 and 1872 it is said the population was around 1000 citizens that reportedly consumed enough alcohol to the equivalent of 150 miles/ year!!!

– it was also known during that time that only 13 people were Christians. Gospel Hill becoming know for it’s churches, the St Cornelius Episcopal church still has the original building from 1891 the stained glass windows are still original. The Presbyterian church that is there now is built on the original site, the gable being where the first church was and the bell in the courtyard is from the original Presbyterian Church.

– The Mueller-Schmidt house is original and listed as a historic landmark today and you can take tours through it.

– The Santa Fe Depot once a famed Harvey Hotel was one of the finest depots. The building at the end of the depot is the original Harvey girls dormitory.

– The first Marshall for Dodge was in 1875. The famous Wyatt Earp was an assistant Marshall or Deputy in 1877 and had a quite way of enforcing law. Bat Masterson also embodied the colourful tales of the Wild West. He was one of the first citizens buffalo hunting with his brother and a friend. Bat’s brother Ed was a Marshall which was a short tenure when he was shot by a cowboy in a saloon as he attempted an arrest.

– Butter & Egg Rd was originally used as a street for farmers to bring butter and eggs into town to be sold. The county here wanted to change it for 911 upgrade purposes to Laryette but the community got together and protested keeping the name of the road as it’s original. It sits out in amongst the feedlot heartland.

– There are huge feedlots here with up to 1.3million cows capability. 85% cow hides are used for leather goods like shoes and car upholstery. Nothing is wasted, even the manure is used for fertiliser on other crops.

– Dodge City is one of the richest wheat and cattle industries in the world.

– When Francisco Vasquez de Coronado came through on his quest for gold in 1541 when he gave up looking for the City of Gold they left the horses here which in part is how the Indians became proficient horsemen and they became the ride for cowboys to navigate the plains.

– 3 years of intense buffalo hinting nearly eliminated the buffalo by the end of the late 1870’s. Prior to the hunting a buffalo herd could be a mile long and one and a half miles in width.

– at Fort Dodge, the Custom House original building was the original commanding officers quarters. The wooden building housed military men.

– The museum library is situated in the original store house.

– The quarters for the men, two stone barracks and one of Adobe. All now sits inside the Military Kansas Veterans and is a state soldiers home, like a retirement home.

– 1500 trucks a day service business in Dodge, for meat processing and other major manufacturers.

– There are two major meat processing plants in Dodge, employing around 2 thousand people each. The Winter Livestock lots is the biggest privately owned and runs auctions every Wednesday.

Phew! A history bombardment, fabulous! Hot day too, 106F/41C. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

We decided to move on at around 4.40pm and not do the wax museum. Tonight we spend in Pratt, KS, homeward bound to Edmond, OK tomorrow.

See you on the trail again next week as we head to Kentucky! Yee haa!

Kat xo

http://www.visitdodgecity.org/index.aspx?NID=157

http://www.boothill.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prince of Pistoleers

Posted on by kathousekelli70

The Powder Creek Cowboys have a gorgeous range in Kansas, in a setting surrounded by trees, every stage is a replica of old Kansas establishments.

With 5 covered walkway town ranges and 2 uncovered ranges it's set for a great weekend. The Dewey Cattle Co yards (uncovered range) are actually named after THE Dewey Cattle Co.

So a really good thunderstorm through the night and still raining in the morning, clearing to a fine humid afternoon. However, that didn't stop a group of cowboys n cowgirls from shooting a 3 stage Wild Bunch match and then some great side events during the afternoon with others rolling in to join in the fun.

 

 
 

The usual speed pistol, rifle, shotgun was also complimented by speed derringer and pocket pistol, a prairie dog shoot (2 very small prairie dog targets set wayyyyy out, alternating between the two), and in the spirit of Wild Bill Hicock, 5 trick shots duelist style. Lot of fun.

A quite evening tonight before first day Main Match tomorrow.

 

Cheers Kat!

Want to find out more about the Prince of Pistoleers and the Powder Creek Cowboys? Click on the link below.

http://powdercreekcowboys.com/home.html

 

 

On To Lenexa, Kansas

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Breakfast was had and we were heading back through the Main Street of Miami and through the gate of Oklahoma.

Made a short stop at the Vintage Iron Museum which houses many of the old ‘iron horses’. Found my all time favourite Harley Davidson Soft Tail, check out the price tag!! I love the colour too, I could live with that.

They had Indian, Harley and Triumph bikes and a an exhibit of Evel Knievel here.

The Evel Kneivel plus many more pics are on the phone so they will be on Facebook later

 

Quapaw – O-Gah-Pah – a small town that was heavily hit by a tornado last month, site incredible. We sat in the car waiting for a builder to find some one and give us directions to the Indian Museum, looking at a half destroyed building. (Pieces of 4×2, like pins in a pin cushion) Gentleman we spoke to where they were doing rebuilding said thankfully no one was killed.

At the Museum we spoke with a lady about many of the artefacts and photos there. She explained the allotment roll with the Indian names of those moved into the Oklahoma Territory who were then issued land lots.

She told us the difference between ‘pure’ blood and ‘full’ blood and went on to say about Jean Ann Quapaw Blue and her husband were the last of the pure bloods. She also said Jean Ann Blue was her Aunt, before we left I asked her name, she is also Jean Ann (Lambert) and I commented then to the connection I made with some of the pieces in the first cabinets I had seen that she had of her Aunts.

Very interesting, in it’s early stages and will be expanding soon.

 

Baxter Springs, Kansas – again where tornadoes hit and yet everywhere you look there are people out repairing and rebuilding.

Found a sign for their Historic Museum and decided to stop. Glad we did, spent about 2 hours there, lots of original pieces from Civil War and through their mining history etc. lots of display cases with pieces donated or dug up out of the ground. Very nicely laid out.

I also spied a picture of a late 1800’s gown, the woman sporting a pocket watch (I’ve been reading about them in the hopes of including a pocket for one in a bodice at some point) tucked into her bodice worn on a brooche chain I think, can’t quite tell if it’s a necklace one.

Downstairs is the town like set up showcasing different professions and then the mining area. Very much steeped in history their were so many mines in this area or Picher (a sink hole waiting to happen), the water table is so high that during the mining days they had to continuously pump out but when they were finished in each shaft would then turn the pumps off and let it fill up with water.

Back in the car and we are back on Hwy 69 now and heading up to Pittsburg, Fort Scott – every now and then you just have to Sonic! Hot dog and Oreo Cheesecake Shake for me and Strawberry Shake for Jack. Yum!

Didn’t have to leave the car which is a good thing, see?! Nothing like giving yourself a pedicure on the road.

Okay so we weren’t going to deviate off the path but we saw the sign for the National Monutment Site for Fort Scott and decided to go check it out, and are we glad we did!

Some archaeology works had been undertaken and the National Parks have had the Fort re established as it was in the Civil War, a then functioning barracks, hospital, dragoon stables and barracks, post headquarters, officers headquarters, a carriage house, powder magazine, quartermaster storehouse and guardhouse – all situated within walking distance of the old town Main Street with it’s many ornate buildings.

Some of the buildings have been done in period furniture etc, the hospital with its ward of rope based beds, the stables are just gorgeous for the timber work alone! The dragoon barrack, shows the dormitory bunks which we thought were quite spacious to start with until we realised there were two names on the foot of the beds which means they slept two soldiers in each (I assume top and tail) so they really didn’t have much room at all and would not have been particularly comfortable.

The quartermasters storehouse has all the barrels of salted pork, bins for rice and beans and down in the cellar there are some very old kegs. I felt a little uneasy coming up out of the cellar, maybe there were other ‘visitors’ in that area, was glad to breathe the outside air again.

The guardhouse our final stop before heading off, had an interesting slanted board built into one side of the room which turns out to be the guards sleeping rack, that’s about all you could call it. No bedding, they took a kip on there during there 2hr on, 4hr off 24hr shift. Four confined jail cells in back for the long termers and a group cell.

While I’m busy taking a pic of the cell door to my height and the next cell door for comparison Jack says, “There’s three girls on the floor in there” and I’m like, “What??”. Of course he just wanders out and when I get to the cell door I started laughing, I will pay that one! Can you see it in the pic below?

It’s warm, that Shake is not sitting too well now, glutton! 🙂

Back in the car and let’s get to Lenexa!

 

Cheers Kat xo

June 12th