Our journey continued west. Through a part of the Great Plains. I understand the portion we are going though is accurately the High Plains.
The land is flat and frequently dotted with oil wells.
It was a trip zig zagging through small state highways with lots of farming and flat open fields.
The only excitement we had was limited to passing by at 70 mph. The police had this car stopped, the cop on the right was drawing his gun and the other cop was searching inside the driver side of the car. Wouldn't this be a good time for a police scanner??????? I really wanted to know what was happening.
And there was a scene that looked like it was from the movie "The Birds." The sky was dark with them. Must be safety in numbers.
There were many abandoned farm houses. With several traveling hours and not many distractions it left me quite a bit of time to wonder about what caused the families to leave these old homes. Did they come into some money and move into a big house in town? Were times so tough that they packed up what they could and went in search of a better life? Did the younger family members build a new house and when Mom and Dad died they just left the old house stand empty? If walls could talk we were too far away to hear.
It is windy on the plains so there are hundreds of wind turbines. Kansas is the second windiest state in the U.S. so it makes sense that they are planting "wind farms."
At last! We made it into Dodge City, KS. We checked in to the Gunsmoke RV Park and got set up.
It was just in time to enjoy a Kansas sunset.
The next day it was time to check out Dodge. We were surprised to find about 16 miles of brick streets in Dodge. They were constructed between 1912 and 1925. We enjoyed driving up and down the streets looking at the old houses and business buildings. I was sad to see that they were filling pot holes in them with black top. I wish they would take the time and pay the expense to repair them with bricks. They are such a historic feature of the town.
We spent several hours at the Boot Hill Museum. Dodge City, Kansas is famous in history as a wild frontier town of the Old West.
Boot Hill Museum was built on the original location of the infamous Boot Hill Cemetery. In the late 1870's to early 1890's the killings in Dodge were so numerous that it was impossible to keep track of them all. With the gunfighters dying with their boots on and being buried that same way the cemetery was called Boot Hill. There are several children there too who died of things like scarlet fever and diptheria.
Nice poem posted at the cemetery. The frontier "cowtown"and "buffalo capital" of Dodge City was so lawless for several years that burials in the cemetery were frequent.
For being such a lawless town the jail was awfully small. But, it was only used as a temporary fix..............if it was a serious offense the prisoners were sent to the stockade at Fort Dodge.
They have a nice display about the American Indians that were in the area. Kiowa, Cheyenne and other plains tribes inhabited the area. Again it was one of those times that I have such a hard time reconciling what was done to them. This time it was that the government ordered the slaughter of the buffalo to starve the Indians and drive them to reservations.
Seeing these brought back memories for Walt. He had some like these that his Dad had gotten from the Shoshone-Bannocks at Fort Hall. Wish he still had them.
They had a room dedicated to the TV show "Gunsmoke" since it was set in Dodge City. FYI there was no real Marshal Matt Dillon. Who remembers rabbit ears? You could make really good ones out of coat hangers.
The Museum has replicated the main street of Dodge from old photos and written documentation. There are some original buildings that have been moved to the location as well. Along Front Street are the Rath General Store, the Long Branch Saloon Cigar Shop, Dry Goods Store, Tonsorial Parlor, Doctors Office and more.
You can go inside the buildings that have the museum displays of what life was like in Dodge City.
You learn a lot about the World Famous Boot Hill Gunfighters. Lawmen and Outlaws alike. Cowboys had been on the trail for many weeks and when they finished their duties on the trail, they were ready to have some fun. Conflict often arose and you never knew what to expect in the wild and wicked city of Dodge.
I love the old bottles that the medicines came in. Wouldn't it be great to go into the pharmacy today and see the drugs displayed in pretty glass bottles?
I'll bet when they handed out your medicine it wasn't in those impossible to open bottles or those blister packs that have to have the pill popped out of. But, I am sure the medication didn't work like it does today.
The bank was so small. The safe was right in front of the teller window. No wonder there were so many bank robberies. Easy pickin's.
Any of you ladies looking for a new hobby? Since this one was not open at the top it was not a mourning wreath. An open-end at the top of the wreath symbolized the deceased’s ascent to heaven. So, this might have been a family wreath or churches, schools and other groups might make a hair wreath from the current congregation or school. How times have changed.
It was good to spend a day transported back to the 1800's. Not so nice to be transported back to the present that night for the scariest storm I have ever experienced. I was very frightened and Walt was his cool, calm self. Suffice it to say I was happy when we "Got Outta Dodge!"
“The weather is nature's disruptor of human plans and busybodies. Of all the things on earth, nature's disruption is what we know we can depend on, as it is essentially uncontrolled by men.”
Criss Jami, Killosophy