A town where buffalo hunters rested their weary legs, liquored-up, gambled and told their tales of adventures on the plains.
A town in Kansas which, to this day, is a cultural metaphor for violence and anarchy. The town which brings us our famous, “Get out of Dodge…”. Dodge City
.
But how did Dodge City – the onetime buffalo capital of the west – come to be…?
During the latter part of the 19th Century, alongside the Santa Fe Trail out in western Kansas there once stood a destination point for buffalo hunters. A destination point which history has allotted with fables, tales and lore.
Late in the 19th Century, this settlement became a favorite among those who were brave enough (or maybe, crazy enough) to seek out potential fortunes that westward expansion held in store.
This destination point – frequented by some of the roughest and toughest characters our country has ever seen – became Dodge City.
Dodge City is the product of a confluence of circumstances. So let’s look at a few of those interesting circumstances…
One early congregation point for buffalo hunters – located in what would go on to become Dodge – was, a modest three-bedroom house.
Henry Sitler constructed his three-bedroom house near Fort Dodge in Kansas. Stiter’s home became known as a place where buffalo hunters’ could stop by. For a stay over.
Circumstance…
Within a few years of Stitler building his house in what would go on to become Dodge City, over 1 million buffalo were being loaded onto trains – near Fort Dodge, near Stitler’s home – and being shipped east.
While hunters and traders were drawn to buffalo hunts by the profit they could realize through buffalo leather – used for boots and belts – the federal government promoted bison hunting.
In Washington D.C. – as the thinking went in D.C. late in the 19th Century – America was intent on further expanding to the west. So, by reducing the buffalo population in the west, native peoples – people who stood in the way of America’s westward expansion – would lose their primary food source. Bison. Thus, turning – I.e.: forcing – natives towards an American product as their main food source.
The thinking in D.C. at that time went something like this… Too many natives. And too many buffalos.
So we’ve established some foundational framework for how – and why – Dodge City emerged.
The American government wanting to reduce the bison population…
Though D.C.’s endorsement, military forts facilitated the extinguishment of bison…
Traders profiteering from buffalo leather…
The inevitable confrontations with native tribes that buffalo hunters – as well as soldiers – were certain to encounter as they slaughtered bison – the primary food source of an indigenous people…
Those, a few of the situational circumstances encountered by visiters to Henry Sitler’s house.
One million buffalo being extinguished…
Alongside Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad tracks…laden with train cars loaded with bison, en route to the east, Dodge City emerged as a major shipping center. While simultaneously becoming an American media darling.
Attracting rugged hunters and traders from all over the nation, American newspapers were gobbling up tales of Dodge City’s bedlam and belligerence. So, Americans’ introduction to Dodge City came by way of stories which made their way to printing presses. Churned out to American newspapers. Sensationalism sells news. Dodge City, in its raw, rough and wild manner, was sensational. Tales of Dodge City’s wildness – the hunters, the traders… – sold newspapers. Dodge City became a favorite topic among American media.
As Dodge City was growing, at its earliest stages, there had been no law enforcement. Buffalo hunters, railroad men and fisticuffs. Coupled to saloons. The perfect elixir for lawlessness. And lawlessness did prevail. In fact, the origin for the name of Dodge City’s famous cemetery – Boot Hill Cemetery – emanates from Dodge City gunfighters who died with their boots on. In raucous Dodge City.
Dodge City, a town built on an economy which had been linked to buffalo. The buffalo trade and Dodge City. The prevalence of buffalo to Dodge City’s story is dynamic…yet short lived.
As Dodge City was growing – as a result of the buffalo trade – back east, in Washington D.C., the American government was intent on permanently putting down Indian resistance to American expansion. Orders were sent to one noted general, General William Sherman. Those orders? Slaughter the bison. Wipe out the natives’ primary food source. Drive natives onto reservations.
Within a few years, the buffalo population was reduced from millions to hundreds. Driving Dodge City’s buffalo hunters out of business. But not driving Dodge City out of business. The extinguishment of American bison simply served to function as a prelude to Dodge City continuing on as a real rough place out west.
With buffalo having been removed from the plains, the cattle business took off in Dodge. Dodge City became a cowboy town. A still-lawless cowboy town, at that.
The burgeoning lawlessness of the former buffalo capital of the west needed some sort of order to be established. As a more formal American cattle business replaced the informal buffalo trade in Dodge. And this need for order paved the way for Dodge City’s place within the curiosity of newspaper writers, Hollywood producers and, more broadly, American culture.
Tame Dodge City…
So an old buffalo hunter was brought in to do the job. He himself then proceeded to bring in his friend. Another old buffalo hunter. Together, they were going to temp down this unhinged town.
The man brought in to get Dodge under wraps became the deputy marshall. That man – the former buffalo hunter – was Wyatt Earp.
And the man Wyatt Earp brought in to help him to tame Dodge. The man Wyatt Earp appointed as his deputy marshall? That man – another former buffalo hunter – was Bat Masterson.
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