Dodge City: Cattle Drives, Gunfighters, and the Meatpacking Industry
Dodge City was founded in 1872, five miles west of Fort Dodge on the Santa Fe Trail. Within a few years it became the terminus of the Western Cattle Trail, where longhorn herds from Texas were loaded onto Santa Fe Railway cars. Between 1876 and 1886, an estimated five million cattle passed through Dodge City. Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson both served as lawmen here during those years.
When the cattle trade moved on, Dodge City reinvented itself around wheat farming and, eventually, meatpacking. National Beef Packing and Cargill Meat Solutions operate large processing plants in the area, employing thousands of workers. The influx of immigrant labor for the packing plants has made Ford County one of the most ethnically diverse counties in Kansas, with significant Hispanic, Somali, and Burmese communities.
Boot Hill Museum on the site of the original Boot Hill Cemetery recreates Front Street as it appeared in the 1870s. The Long Branch Saloon replica hosts seasonal performances. Dodge City's population is close to 28,000, and the surrounding county depends heavily on agriculture and food processing for its economic base.
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Dodge City was founded in 1872, five miles west of Fort Dodge on the Santa Fe Trail. Within a few years it became the terminus of the Western Cattle Trail, where longhorn herds from Texas were loaded onto Santa Fe Railway cars. Between 1876 and 1886, an estimated five million cattle passed through Dodge City. Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson both served as lawmen here during those years.
When the cattle trade moved on, Dodge City reinvented itself around wheat farming and, eventually, meatpacking. National Beef Packing and Cargill Meat Solutions operate large processing plants in the area, employing thousands of workers. The influx of immigrant labor for the packing plants has made Ford County one of the most ethnically diverse counties in Kansas, with significant Hispanic, Somali, and Burmese communities.
Boot Hill Museum on the site of the original Boot Hill Cemetery recreates Front Street as it appeared in the 1870s. The Long Branch Saloon replica hosts seasonal performances. Dodge City's population is close to 28,000, and the surrounding county depends heavily on agriculture and food processing for its economic base.
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