Dodge City Believed in Strict Gun Regulations

Wyatt Earp

The reputation of Dodge as a hell on earth with an overflowing Boot Hill dated from its time as the rowdy end of the track of the westward-building Santa Fe railroad. When things got out of hand, a city government was organized. Laws were drawn up banning livestock on the sidewalks; horses above the ground floor; public drunkenness and disorderly conduct; the carrying of guns within the town limits (all who entered had to place their weapons on pegs provided in most public places), and the discharge of firearms within the city limits except on such holidays as the Fourth of July and New Year's Day.

The gun toter was subject to being shot on sight by the town police. Strict gun control was vital for public safety. During the cattle boom of the 1870's and 80's, Dodge was the largest cattle market in the world. Cattle were brought up the trail from Texas to be loaded onto trains or driven north. The cowboys who drove the cattle had been on the trail for two or three months. They were paid their back salary and, as the movies would you have believe, they instantly spent it on whisky, women and cards.

The businessmen of Dodge understood the potential for violence in a town full of drunken cowboys who had just blown three months wages, Rebs in a Yankee town. This is why there had to be gun-control laws. Men like Wyatt Earp, Jim and Ed Masterson, Bill Tilgman and Mysterious Dave Mather had a reputation, and their presence on the police force made these laws stick.

Dodge's most celebrated killing occurred when Spike Kenedy, a Texas rancher, came to town to avenge an insult by Mayor Dog Kelly. He rode up to Kelly's cottage and fired through the door, killing not the Mayor, but a music hall entertainer known as Dora Hand. The subsequent chase by a posse ended with Kenedy's capture by the combined marksmanship of Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. Kenedy's father, a partner in the King Ranch, came to Dodge, and is believed to have spent $50,000 on the release of his son, whose trial was held in chambers.

The collapse of the cattle trade meant the end of the fearsome police force. Dodge City today is the major agricultural center of southwestern Kansas.

Source: NY Times Letter To The Editor 1990










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