Get the Heck Into Dodge!

This lineup of wild cowboys greets you as you are approaching Dodge City, Kansas.  It was once known as the "Wickedest Little City in America"  or "Beautiful Bibulous Babylon of the Frontier"!   Since we go to Dodge every Thursday to teach an Institute class, we decided to take in some of the sights.

This very tired, downtrodden looking Indian is just off a side road by the wild cowboys cutout.

This wild and wooly town had many famous lawmen such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Masterson brothers.  Here is Wyatt in the main part of town and here you see Elder Riggs ready for a card game with him.

When the railroad was established here in Dodge, they began the long cattle drives from Texas.  The cowboys discovered that sometimes a long horn steer would establish himself as the leader of the herd.  When that happened, drovers often kept the steer for use on later cattle drives.  The monument here is "El Capitan"  a tribute to those longhorn cattle leaders.  I wouldn't want to mess with those horns!

These two are part of the Dodge City Trail of Fame Medallions honoring actors who played key roles in movies about Dodge City. Henry Fonda is honored for playing starred as Wyatt Earp in a 1946 movie.

James Arness played Marshall Matt Dillon in 617 episodes of Gunsmoke over a 20 year period.  

We haven't been  in to tour the Boot Hill Museum and the rebuilt fake Front Street.  The original Front Street, along the railroad track burned down a couple of times so they rebuilt it with brick buildings and just made this one for tourists.

As the cattle drives ended and the town became more civilized, they built some lovely buildings like this Andrew Carnegie Library which has now become home to the Dodge City Arts Council.

This is Dodge City Community College or DC3 as they call it for shorthand.  

This sculpture stands on the campus.  I think it is a fitting tribute to those plainswomen who weathered the constant wind and loneliness to help settle the 'west' as it was known then.

Outside of Dodge you come to this Historical Marker telling about the Santa Fe Trail which became a great commercial route between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.  

You can see the actual wagon ruts still there from thousands of wagons that traveled this trail and went west from Dodge City along the north bank of the Arkansas River into Colorado.

I have more pictures to post but haven't taken them off my camera yet.  So this is probably enough  for one post.  This country is very interesting and we are enjoying getting to know the culture of the 'Old West'.  Funny, but we thought we lived in the West!

Dorothy in Oz Kansas!

Look who we met in Liberal, Kansas!  Here I am with Dorothy and her dear little Toto.

We had to drive to Liberal, about and hour and 20
minutes from Garden City, to meet the Stake President.  He suggested that we meet him there since he would be there for a ward conference.  He lives way northwest in Goodland, a little town near the Colorado border.  These Kansas folk think nothing of driving several hours for most anything.  We are getting used to it since we drive for more than an hour for all three of our institute classes.













This is the sign we spotted on the highway as we were driving around doing a little exploring.  Brannick remembered seeing it as we drove north from New Mexico, then Oklahoma, then into Kansas.  Our stake actually goes south a little further to Guymon Oklahoma.

Here we found Dorothy and Toto.  Her blue checkered dress is a little faded from the weather but she still has her ruby slippers and perky pigtails.

Here we find her friend the Scarecrow who wanted a brain. Doesn't he look like he could use one?

Here is our Tin man without any rust on him at all.  Guess he kept the oil can going through the humidity and cold winters here.  

And of course, our Cowardly Lion who looks pretty cowardly.  

This is the Museum which looked pretty interesting from the outside but it was closed since it was Sunday.  Hope we get that far south sometime again so we can check out the inside.

This is a view that takes in a lot of the Yellow Brick Road whose bricks were inscribed with donor's names.  Don't you love the sunflowers ?  They must be the state flower as we see them everywhere.

Well, there now you have taken a trip to Dorothy's Oz in Kansas. Just remember as Dorothy said, 'There's no place like Home!'  (At least I think she said that  :)