The Queen of the Cow Towns… Dodge City

My last out of state trip for the summer took me to Dodge City, Kansas. Once again, there was excitement at the Denver airport: My hair had stayed perfectly curled throughout my flight to Denver, and I somehow managed to keep my hat from getting rained on throughout my travels thus far. Then came the walk to my Great Lakes puddle jumper that would take me to Dodge City. Through the course of that 50 yard walk I came the closest I have ever come to losing my hat, my hair and hat got doused, and I almost got blown away as well. Needless to say, the thought of taking off in this inclement weather in a plane on which we had to reorganize our seating so the plane was balanced well, was a bit scary. But we took off in it anyways and made it into Dodge City.

This airport was much like North Platte’s: we were the only plane there, the person who guided us in with the glow sticks was the same one who unloaded my luggage and brought it into the airport.

I was picked up and immediately taken to the rodeo’s Tough Enough to Wear Pink performance Wednesday night. They call the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo the Greatest Show on Dirt, and it was a lot of fun. It is a Silver rodeo on Wrangler’s Million Dollar Tour with world champions competing in every event. The stock was wonderful as well, and were giving even some of our best cowboys a run for their money!

Along with the rodeo, I had the pleasure of participating in the Miss Rodeo Kansas Pageant. The current Miss Rodeo Kansas, Meredith Holland, has become a very dear friend so it was a blast to spend the weekend in support of her! They treated us visiting royalty well!

One of my favorite things was learning about the history of Dodge City from the Boot Hill Museum. We got to take a walk into the 1870′s on the Boot Hill boardwalk.

Dodge City was founded in 1871 and served as a trade center for travelers and buffalo hunters. It also was a supply base for troops fighting Indian Wars and a frequent stop for wagon trains. Initially, there was no law enforcement. In this time period, the city earned it’s notorious reputation.

“Kansas has but one Dodge City, with a broad expanse of territory sufficiently vast for an empire; we have only room for one Dodge City; Dodge, a synonym for all that is wild, reckless, and violent; Hell on the Plains.”

– A Kansas Newspaper in the 1870′s

Of course, this town eventually was tamed by such names as Wyatt Erp. For my stay in Dodge, I was impressed by the way the city clinged to the history- the good and the bad! I loved the brick streets and the western and old-fashioned feel.

: The weather after taking off. It pretends to be all sweet with that pretty rainbow- but that was maybe five minutes after it doused and nearly tore off my hat and straightened my hair as I made that 50 yard walk to my plane.