Our anxiety intensified as we approached one of the most fabled towns of the Old West--Dodge City, Kansas. Again, it was not my first visit to Dodge City but it was a first for B. J. and Ole Red. We would stop and bunk up a while and visit the renowned sites in this celebrated Old West landmark and relive a legend.

Soon we saw a sign that conspicuously announced the city limits of Dodge City. Our heartbeats picked up as we viewed the eye-catching sign. We were in Dodge City, Kansas, built at the crossroads of America’s western history where millions of Texas longhorns met the railroads. The rich western heritage and hospitality is still very evident today in this bustling community of approximately 30,000 “westerners”.

We spotted our bunkhouse. I reined Ole Red up to the hitching rail, and we “got down” and went in to get the keys to our hut. We unloaded our rags from Ole Red’s Saddlebag and stashed them in our room. We could hardly wait to hit the streets of Old Dodge and begin summoning up visions and thoughts of how it might have been to walk these streets in the rip-roaring days of Dodge.

We first paid a visit to the welcome center and gift shop to get some directions and a map of the historic district. Entering the gift stop was a step back in time. The décor and atmosphere was definitely “old wild west”. We were caught up in the mood and surroundings and suddenly we were “in” Old Dodge City.

Dodge City is an unadulterated classification of the West in the raw; it is an access to history that began with the opening of the Santa Fe Trail by William Becknell in 1821. The Santa Fe Trail became a great commercial route between Franklin, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico until 1880.

Thousands of wagons traveled the Mountain Route of the trail, which went west from Dodge City along the north bank of the Arkansas River into Colorado. For those willing to risk the dangers of waterless sand hills, a shorter route called the Cimarron Cutoff crossed the river near Dodge City and went southwest to the Cimarron River.

Across the years, Dodge City has been immortalized in legend and song. The movies made about the place are multitude and books about the notorious city are countless. B. J., I, and Ole Red were in the midst of history.

However, it is not all myth and fable. Dodge City was known as the “wickedest little city in the west”. During those early years, Dodge acquired its infamous stamp of lawlessness and gun-slinging; it was the frontier. There was no local law enforcement and the military had no jurisdiction over the town. Buffalo hunters, railroad workers, drifters and soldiers scrapped and fought, leading to the shootings where men died with their boots on and that created a hasty need for a local burial place--Boot Hill Cemetery. The cemetery is now a part of downtown Dodge City. It was used until 1878. For six years before Boot Hill, Dodge City had no official cemetery. Persons dying who had friends, enough money or sufficient standing in the community were buried in the post cemetery at Fort Dodge. Others, penniless or unknown, were buried where it was convenient to dig a hole.

We got our map and bought our tickets which included a walking tour of a replica of Old Dodge, a self-guided tour of Boot Hill Cemetery (we would do that the next day), a buffet supper at the Boot Hill Chuckwagon Diner and a “night out” in the Long Branch Saloon.

We strolled out onto the ancient streets of Dodge. In our imagination, we could envision such legendary personalities as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Bat Masterson, and other notable figures walking beside us.

With our thoughts running wild, we mounted the board sidewalk and sauntered along trying to grasp how it was to walk here in the days of old.

Then on the end of the street, we saw a sign that read: BOOT HILL CHUCKWAGON DINER. We were hungry. “Let’s eat,” I said to B. J.

“Okay,” she came back. “I’m hungry too.”

The Boot Hill Chuckwagon Diner was like something right out of the Old West. The servers and cooks dressed in the attire of a bygone day and there was live entertainment and a buffet with a savory aroma that ran our taste buds wild.

The buffet was loaded with corn-slaw, potatoes, slow-roasted beef brisket (an old west specialty) and Grandma Sally’s Apple Crisp, sho-nuff campfire biscuits, lemonade and water. It was delicious. We ate our fill and bragged on it so much until our server gave us a plate to go. - Next Week: Shootout in Dodge.