June 2, 2009

We are in Dodge City, Kansas to learn about the infamous Boot Hill Cemetery. The hill is still in the original location but most of the graves have been moved due to the growth of Dodge City. The Boot Hill Museum is located at the base of the cemetery and you can still walk through and read the names and stories on the markers of the remaining graves. The cemetery was only used for about six years and was for drifters, troublemakers and other less fortunate souls with no family in the area. There is a lot to see and do so we spend the entire day at the museum, which included a fantastic Chuckwagon Dinner at the Occident Saloon.

Front Street at the Boot Hill Museum.

The Long Branch Saloon.

We also took a ride around town in an original two-horse power stagecoach. It was a lot of fun and the ride was a lot smoother than we expected. The inside of the coach was small and I wondered about how people managed to make long journeys in such a confined space. Our ride was on paved streets and not across the rough prairie where they traveled. Perhaps we are slightly spoiled by traveling in a 36-foot motor home with air bag suspension and comfortable individual captains chairs.

Here you can see how small the coach was on the inside.

As you can see, this was a regular sized stagecoach.

After the stagecoach, we took a trolley tour of the town, the nearby feedlots and Fort Dodge. We learned a lot but the most surprising was the feedlots. We have seen feedlots before but not this large. One feedlot is home for 45,000 cattle. It was cattle in pens for a far as you could see.

This picture was taken in the rain and is a little fuzzy.

After the trolley tour, we sat in the trolley for about a half hour waiting for the rain to stop. When it slowed down the driver dropped us off at the Boot Hill Museum entrance. We went back through to look at the many things we missed on our earlier visit. There are approximately 20,000 artifacts on display. We learned later there are almost twice that many still in a warehouse waiting to go on display.

The rain continued the rest of the afternoon. While enjoying our visit, we heard the town sirens warning of a tornado. The museum staff went through the complex sending everyone to the basement storage area. We didn’t make it to the basement before the all-clear signal was given. About ten minutes later we heard the sirens again. This time everyone, including the staff, went to the basement. It was a little crowded but we felt safe and made new friends. After about 15 minutes, we learned there wasn’t a tornado and everyone left the basement. Someone in a town office had mistakenly pushed the siren button by mistake. Twice. I felt good that we saw first hand the concern and plans of the museum staff when facing imminent danger from a tornado. A plus from this experience was that we did get to see an area that is not generally open to the public.

This is one of the two rooms used as a shelter.

I felt good that we saw first hand the concern and plans of the museum staff when facing imminent danger from a tornado. A plus from this experience was we did get to see an area that is not generally open to the public.