A Trip To Dodge City, Kansas In 2021

ClassicRockr

ClassicRockr

Well-known Member
Ever been to Dodge City?

We never gave it a thought of going to Dodge City when we lived here in Colorado before. We are major fans of Gunsmoke tv show and there are tourist attractions there about the show. We are also major fans of professional rodeo, of which I use to be a member of, and there is a big rodeo there at the end of July. At the same time, they have a big Western Celebration. Both of which we love!

Hopefully, by then, this "virus" thing will have settled down. And, hopefully, next summer will be full of stuff that we like to do. IOW, the things we moved back to Colorado to do in the summer.
 

We made the trip back in 2016 and was kind of disappointed. The whole strip of buildings only had an entrance at both ends. Inside were broken into small museums, but, I was expecting a bit more. :( Apparently they had moved the whole setup over to boot hill.

Dodge city.jpg Dodge city3.jpg
 

I found Tombstone to be a lot more authentic, and definitely more historic. It was actually cooler to explore just the basement at the Bird Cage theater than anything I'd seen at Dodge City. Plus the fact that when you're standing on Allen street and looking at the Dragoon Mts. you're quite possibly standing in the same spot as many famous western folks. You can feel the spirits still wandering those streets at night.

DSC00131.JPG DSC01273.JPG
 
I don't think we get enough tourism in Kansas for them to keep a lot of these places set up the way they want to. It's too costly for them to utilize the utilities to keep these places open to the sparse amount of visitors.
 
I'd think that Dodge City would be much, much more set-up for a pro-rodeo and Western Celebration than just an ordinary day there. The rodeo and celebration is a major tourist attraction.
 
Well, yesterday we reserved a car rental here and hotel room there for their combination of Dodge City Days and Rodeo. It's going to be so, so cool being around other rodeo and Gunsmoke fans!
 
squatting dog said:
We made the trip back in 2016 and was kind of disappointed. The whole strip of buildings only had an entrance at both ends. Inside were broken into small museums, but, I was expecting a bit more. :( Apparently they had moved the whole setup over to boot hill.

View attachment 121707 View attachment 121708
Click to expand...

We found Dodge City to be a bit underwhelming after some of the other notable Old West towns.

squatting dog said:
I found Tombstone to be a lot more authentic, and definitely more historic. It was actually cooler to explore just the basement at the Bird Cage theater than anything I'd seen at Dodge City. Plus the fact that when you're standing on Allen street and looking at the Dragoon Mts. you're quite possibly standing in the same spot as many famous western folks. You can feel the spirits still wandering those streets at night.

View attachment 121831 View attachment 121832
Click to expand...

Tombstone was great. Fantastic atmosphere and we loved the Birdcage and its history. You can combine a visit to Tombstone with a side trip to Bisbee. A tour of the Queen copper mine there is incredible.
 
Dodge City is a whole lot closer to us than Tombstone is, when living in northern Colorado. On top of that, Dodge City has a casino in it, whereas Tombstone doesn't. The closest casino to Tombstone is 66 miles away.
 


Back
Top