Tracks of grass, roads of brick

Dodge City, KS – Standing on a hilltop just west of town, Val and I gazed on traces across the grass that were left by the wooden wheels of wagon trains more than 180 years ago.  The trail ruts developed over a period of 60 years as soldiers and settlers trekked from the east to new lands. This particular trail, the Santa Fe Trail, originated in Missouri and ended in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and we learned that, most of the time, the wagons traveled up to four abreast in part so the drivers could form a circle quickly if they should come under attack.

Attack was a definite possibility as wave upon wave of white people swarmed across what had been exclusively native territory up to that time. When people found out that a buffalo hide was worth good money, they hunted the animals into near extinction and destroyed the livelihood of the native tribes.

The teeming natural life in this prairie region – game, birds, fish – also faded away as more and more settlers arrived.  The railway that came to Dodge City made the town a go-to location for cattle drivers from Texas who rode the range with their herds to this place so they could be shipped to cities in the east.  Though the longhorn cow no longer grazes its way from San Antonio to Dodge, some 11,000 beef cattle per day are processed here now to supply grocery stores and restaurants across the country.

Dodge City tells the stories of all these human developments at the Boot Hill Museum a couple of miles from our RV park, on Wyatt Earp Boulevard.  The original Boot Hill is still there, where miscreants and shootout victims were buried with their boots on.  The bodies were removed some time back to a new burial ground, but worn wooden slabs carved with colourful epitaphs are still in place.

The museum is disguised on the out-side as a cowboy town, com-plete with general store, saloon, blacksmith shop and other enterprises. Inside, many buildings are joined together, and visitors can browse through displays about the buffalo, clothing of the day, a huge array of guns and rifles, quaint potions and linaments, and portraits of iconic personalities like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson.

At the height of tourist season, there are daily gunfights at noon, stage-coach rides, plus can-can dancers in the saloon and cones and sodas at the ice cream parlour. You can even get a sepia portrait done in period dress at the photographer’s studio. But not today.  Still, it was interesting to learn about the pivotal role this small town played in American history.

We took a short drive through the neighbourhoods as well, and were intrigued to see how many streets were paved with red bricks.  It made us wonder whether it had any connection to the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz!