Dodge City and the Birth of the Wild West

 

(Wild West Magazine) Some folks may want to get out of Dodge, but most Wild West readers can’t get into Dodge enough. As iconic Old West towns go, Dodge City, Kansas, is rivaled only by Deadwood, Dakota Territory, and Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
Another 2017 book, Tom Clavin’s Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and the Wickedest Town in the American West, is entertaining as all get-out, but as reviewer Johnny D. Boggs noted in the June 2017 Wild West, Clavin “cites a few incidents other historians have questioned if not completely debunked.”
Robert Dykstra and Jo Ann Manfra have also produced an engaging book about the real Dodge, and their careful research indicates the community likely deserved its wicked reputation only during its first year of existence. Continued