Get the Hell out of Dodge! Part 1

The vast green lush fields of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri stretched as far as the eye could see.  Communities grew smaller and further apart as we traveled further and further west in our intrepid truck Benny, pulling our trusty 5th Wheel, the Jet.  How different our lives to those pioneers who came before us, in their ox-pulled wagons.  No fear of starvation for us, as we pass Walmarts in nearly every sizable town.  No risk to life or limb for us, as traffic eases and the locals prove friendly. 

As we pass through Independence, Missouri, I recall this is where Brigham Young set off from with his Latter Day Saints, searching for Deseret, which he found westwards in Utah.  Earlier traders and pioneers had followed the Santa Fe Trail south west. The Santa Fe Trail was set up to trade with that city which was once in Mexico.  Santa Fe is now in the state of New Mexico, territory won from the Mexicans as a result of the American-Mexican War which ended in 1848.

The remains of those treks are marked not just as ruts in fields, but in local museums, to honor those who claimed the land, and developed communities.  

Knowing your place in your family, community and your world history has shown itself a fundamental need for humankind.  Museums, genealogy and family gatherings help build pictures of family traits, and understanding yourself.  Yet some families are better at keeping ties than others.  Take Richard’s family, for example.  On his mother’s side, family reunions have taken place every two years as longs as I have known him, and the history of four generations is being kept alive.  On his father’s side, however, Richard has no knowledge. 

Until, that is, a friend of the family took it upon herself to do some research for Richard.  She traced back the Tepe family to the early 1800’s in Germany and Switzerland.  Richard’s great-great grandparents immigrated to the USA, to the area that is now Ohio. His great grandparents moved on to Dodge City Kansas in 1876 and set up a boot-making business.  (Strange to think we had just taken roughly the same route west).

Richard’s grandparents expanded into the hardware and lumber business which widened their sphere of commerce from Kansas to the Texas panhandle, and beyond to southern Colorado and north-east New Mexico, where Richard’s father, and eventually Richard, was born.  Richard’s Dad, Ben, had only ever told him that his family had come from Dodge City, so you can imagine that we were looking forward to following up on all that ready research when we visited Dodge in the second week of July. But first we stayed for a week in Wichita, to visit a former navy colleague of Richard’s.

We were surprised how green the plains of Kansas were – but then we should have expected it.  This area was once the grazing ground for enormous herds of Bison, and both Wichita and Dodge City were trading posts originally built on the money made from hunting the skins of those herds, and wiping them out in the process.  With the coming of the railway, Wichita briefly became a center for transporting the Bison skins and bones east.  As demand for beef replaced Bison, a new economy grew.  Cowboys herded cows to the trains and were happy to spend their money in saloons on whiskey and women. 

Wichita lay on the Chisholm Trail (the route taken by cowboys from Texas to drive their cattle to the railroad based in Abilene). However, it was the existence of a tick carried by Texas longhorn cattle that spread splenic fever, known locally as Texas fever, which spread among other breeds of cattle, which would change its future.  Alarmed Kansas farmers in the more populated east of the state, fearing for the health of their cattle, persuaded the Kansas State Legislature to establish a quarantine line in central Kansas, where Wichita lies. It subsequently became a key destination for cattle drives traveling north from Texas to access railroads, earning it the nickname "Cowtown" in 1882.  These city maps show growth explosion between 1873 and 1878.

In the 1920's and 1930's, businessmen and aeronautical engineers established a number of successful aircraft manufacturing companies in Wichita including Beechcraft, Cessna, and Stearman Aircraft. The city transformed into a hub of U.S. aircraft production and became known as "The Air Capital of the World". Beechcraft, Cessna, and other firms including Learjet, Airbus and Spirit AeroSystems continue to operate design and manufacturing facilities in Wichita today, and the city remains a major center of the U.S. aircraft industry.  It is now the largest city in Kansas.

Dodge City also enjoyed a quick cattle based boom.  Originally a bi-product of Fort Dodge which was set up to safeguard passage for those on the Santa Fe Trail against Indian attack, it provided food and shelter for travelers. However, in 1876 the Kansas State Legislature responded to pressure from farmers settling in central Kansas and once again shifted the quarantine line westward, which essentially eliminated Abilene and Wichita from the cattle trade. With no place else to go, Dodge City suddenly became the "queen of the cow towns." 

A new route known as the Great Western Cattle Trail or Western Trail branched off from the Chisholm Trail to lead cattle into Dodge City. Dodge City became a boom town, with thousands of cattle passing annually through its stockyards. The peak years of the cattle trade in Dodge City were from 1883 to 1884, and during that time the town grew tremendously. Whilst the numbers of stores, hotels, saloons and brothels increased to cash in on this new found wealth, this vast influx of cowboys brought other problems.  It took deputy-Marshalls like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp to bring the law down hard on the gunslingers this “Wild West” town became so infamous for.

As more agricultural settlers moved into western Kansas, pressure increased on the Kansas State Legislature to do something about splenic fever. Consequently, in 1885 the quarantine line was extended across the state. By 1886, the cowboys, saloon keepers, gamblers, and brothel owners moved further west to greener pastures, and Dodge City became a sleepy little town, much like it is today.  Its biggest employers are meat packaging and agricultural service industries.  The pungent smell of feed lots still fills the air, but I cannot begin to imagine how these cow towns smelled in their heydays.  

OK – history lesson is over – next blog will be about our experiences in both places.