Booze and Battles in the Wild West: Keith Wondra's Intriguing Exploration of Dodge City's Early Saloons and their Impact on Town Life

Have you ever paused to ponder how the iconic saloons of Dodge City sprang to life? If you have, then this episode is designed just for you! Picture yourself journeying through time as you uncover the captivating chronicles of Dodge City's early saloons with our esteemed guest, Keith Wondra, the freshly minted curator at Dodge City Museum and a renowned author and historian.

From dark, inexpensive origins to their influence in shaping the city's cultural and economic landscape, Keith guides us through every nook and cranny of these saloon stories, revealing fascinating details about these establishments that were Dodge City's lifeblood during its formative years. We discuss the infamous Saloon War of 1883 and its monumental impact on the city and its economy. We also delve into the prohibition era that significantly changed the city's saloon culture.

To wrap up our thrilling journey, we touch upon the devastating blizzard of 1887, which marked the end of Dodge City as it was known. A modern, respectable town emerged from the remnants of the old city. To learn more about this extraordinary transformation and Keith's exciting new initiative, the Coffee with the Curator program, make sure to tune in to this riveting episode. You’re about to embark on an unforgettable trip into the wild past of Dodge City's early saloons!

Transcript

Brad Smalley: 0:11

In this podcast we will reveal how saloons over time became a wide range of entertainment and pleasure facilities that offered gambling and drinking, depicting an image of saloons that early temperance movers would have apprehended. Early saloons in Dodge City were dark and cheaply built and set to take all the money off early buffalo hunters and cattle drivers. As a result, violence sometimes transpired due to the mix of guns, whiskey, girls and the isolated life on the prairie. Throughout the podcast, we will discuss how the Dodge City saloon culture developed after the railroad arrived on September 12, 1872. In the beginning, dodge City was a buffalo town for a few years before the cattle drives began in 1874, and its cultural vices continued to grow in saloons until the Kansas Prohibition took effect in 1881. In this session, we will explore how Dodge City became the crossroads for many factors that affected the West the cattle trade, military presence, railroad prohibition and prosperity. The topic of early saloons in Dodge City will also allow us to examine the relationship between the saloon and prohibition when the West was becoming civilized. Dodge City consequently makes a revealing subject in examining the saloon's early history, partly because of the precise ways the city and population tried to negate the money brought in by saloons and the immoral behavior that some saloons promoted. In addition, dodge City's saloon story demonstrates how the public opinion of the saloon changed as the world they found themselves in changed. The specific story we are about to explore and the details of the early history of Dodge City saloons may be unique. Still, the overall theme of how saloons were founded in Dodge City is similar throughout the history of the West.

Brad Smalley: 2:20

The West podcast is proud to present Early Saloons in Dodge City with our special guest, mr Keith Wundra, the newly appointed curator at Dodge City Museum. Keith Wundra was born and raised in Wichita, kansas. He graduated from Wichita State University with bachelor's and master's degree in history Before being employed at Boot Hill Museum. Mr Wundra worked at Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita as an assistant curator and curator of collections and exhibits at the Royal Gorge Regional Museum in Canyon City, colorado. He is also the author of several books on Kansas and Wichita history. Welcome, keith. Thanks, keith. Can you tell us a little bit about your plan to share Dodge City history through your coffee with the curator program?

Keith Wondra: 3:15

Yes, the coffee. The curator program will highlight Dodge City's history topics once every two or three months. Some of the presentation topics will coincide with traveling exhibits that Boot Hill Museum is doing, such as the Smithsonian Voices and Votes exhibit that will be at the museum from March 25th to May 7th 2023. And also my goal with the program is to educate the public about Dodge City's history and to help promote Boot Hill Museum, especially during the non-busy months.

Brad Smalley: 3:43

I think that's a great idea.

Brad Smalley: 3:45

That's something kind of filling a gap that has never really been done here, so I think it's pretty awesome that you're doing that as Keith, before there was a Dodge City, there was, of course, a Fort Dodge.

Brad Smalley: 3:58

Many of the first ranches established in the vicinity of the post during the formative years proved to be frequent sources of trouble for the garrison. These enterprises were referred to as whiskey ranches by the military, reflecting their proprietors' intentions. The Indian tribes along the Arkanthus River tolerated these ranches because they served as a primary source of liquor, guns and ammunition. An astute owner of such an undertaking could expect as much as a 20-to-1 return on his investments when his trade goods were exchanged for horses, buffalo robes or annuity currency that had been given out to the Indians by government reservation agents. The public trains which frequently passed by the Fort proved to be a severe problem for the garrison's officers. Enterprising wagon hands were well aware of the lucrative market for whiskey that could be found among the troops and civilians on the post, and gallons of the forbidden spirits were smuggled onto the post despite the rigorous inspections that the post officers carried out. The topic for discussion would be what significant decision was made by the post commander at Fort Dodge that promoted the saloon business and the forming of a township.

Keith Wondra: 5:18

Well, maybe you have to look at the construction of the settler store, which was built around 1865, made out of wood. Whiskey was available from 6.30pm to 8.00pm. That was not just for soldiers but it's also for civilians. The soldiers used the saloons, regulated closely by the military, with it being shut down when soldiers got to the joint too freely. And this really became a problem when Colonel Richard Irving Dodge became the commanding officer at Fort Dodge in the summer of 1872. He was opposed to the cell whiskey at the post. During the summer of 1872, the saloon was closed due to soldiers assigned to escort mail to camp supply in Oklahoma being so drunk that they had trouble mounting their horses when Dr William S Tremaine, the post surgeon, complained at Colonel Dodge that whiskey was being smuggled into the hospital, that he could not heal soldiers if they kept on drinking excessive amounts of whiskey. The two owners of the settler store is Richard M Wright and AJ Anthony, and their clerks were AJ Peacock and J Fringer. Peacock and Fringer would come into hand in the future Dodge City because they own saloons on Long Front Street.

Keith Wondra: 6:31

The expectation of a new town in the coming of the road led George Hoover, a 24-year-old Canadian, to go to Kansas City and buy a wagon load of whiskey. He then returned to Fort Dodge, tied a rag to his wagon wheel and it measured out five miles west of the Fort Dodge military reservation. He set up shop on June 17th 1872 at eight o'clock in the morning, about halfway between present day 2nd and 3rd Avenue, south of the tracks. Hoover had to set up his saloon five miles west of Fort Dodge because Colonel Dodge banned the sale of alcohol on the Fort, and then Hoover and his partner John G McDonald erected a tent and started a pour of whiskey at 25 cents per ladle in the newly formed Dodge City 25 cents a ladle.

Brad Smalley: 7:16

What about what do you figure that would be in today's dollars? I mean, I'm figuring maybe a four or five ounce ladle.

Keith Wondra: 7:26

I think I looked it up on one of the many inflation calculators that are available on the internet and it's about a little over $600.

Brad Smalley: 7:34

A little over $600?. Yep.

Keith Wondra: 7:36

Oh wow, and in 2021 money. So Hoover was making quite a bit of money even back in 1872.

Brad Smalley: 7:43

Well, he died one of the richest people in the state of Kansas, so I guess that's a good way to start. So then, as you talk about Hoover and McDonald's and of course there were others as well I mean, the first business in Dodge City was a bar, so it was the second, as I recall. So the first saloons in Dodge City Hoover, mcdonald's and the others were hastily thrown together tents or lean-toes where a Buffalo Hunter, soldier or cattle drover might make a deal while away on their off hours. And talking about the first saloons in Dodge City, what did they look like? Who were the first men to establish them?

Keith Wondra: 8:26

Well, they weren't really fancy like you see in if you go to the museum in the Long Branch exhibit that we at that boot hill. They were really plain. They were either tents and or wood frame buildings and they all and both of them had dirt floors and then tears were plain and didn't really have any of the fancy paintings and bars that it became in future Dodge City saloons. And also they didn't have billiard tables either. That was one of the big major things that a lot of saloons had After 1872 was a bunch of billiard tables and each of them claimed they had the best billiard table in Dodge City in Kansas.

Keith Wondra: 9:06

The second saloon and one of the first wood buildings in Dodge City was George Houdou Brown's and Charlie Stewart's saloon. On the south side of the tracks they built a 200 square foot structure with lumber from Russell Kansas. They first went to Hayes but found but found none. Brown and Stewart bought a gallon of whiskey for $2 and served 25 cent drinks. By the fall of 1872, dodge City had 13 wood frame buildings, with five of the 13 being saloons.

Brad Smalley: 9:32

I appreciate the way you described, that described the early days saloons, especially it's as I've always kind of looked at it when these were being thrown together in 1872, you know there was no way in the world to believe that Little Buffalo City was gonna last till 1873, and of course you know it wasn't. Dodge wasn't incorporated until three years after that, so the, they were very functional. Well, the, the fancy Came along much, much later as the as the money started trekking in. Besides, who do Brown being the second Saloon in Dodge City, what were some of the other early saloons and who operated them?

Keith Wondra: 10:17

Well, one of the most probably the most famous of the early ones was the Dodge house. It was actually a hotel restaurant and and it also had a saloon was built in 1832 by Thomas Essington and was known as the Essington house. A little bit after 1832, a B Boyd and George Deacon Cox Bought it. Bought it after Essington got drunk and was killed by his cook is the building was renamed the Dodge house. It's partially destroyed by fire in 1890 but it was also moved to 112 to 114 West Front Street. It was torn down around 1909. Another early one was a sped was Tom Sherman's dance hall in Saloon. It's built in 1872 by Tom Sherman. South of the tracks, on the corner of Locust Street, which is now Trail Street, and Bridge Street, which is now 2nd Avenue, is a simple frame building. Hamilton hand bell by Sherman's dance hall. In May 1875 Tom Sherman leaves Dodge a little bit after Bell's buying of the dance hall and Then Sherman's dance hall becomes hand bells varieties dance hall.

Brad Smalley: 11:20

So, keith, I'm I'm glad you mentioned Tom Sherman's dance hall. Of course, sherman, being part of the, the vigilante group and such a, I think, one of the most quintessential characters of earliest pre incorporation, pre law enforcement vigilante run Dodge City, when it was, literally, I'd say, about as close to hell on earth as you could you could get. One of my favorite Western stories actually comes from Tom Sherman's dance hall. That has been a A almost a print, the legend kind of story for for decades, until really maybe in the last 1520 years. It's it's really all the researchers really become together to prove that this is, in case, a fact that one of the most well known Western cowboy ballads Actually has its origins in Tom Sherman's dance hall.

Brad Smalley: 12:19

So, and as the, as the story goes, I Sherman, after being the, the bar owner, business man that he was, sorry cowboy was being a rather Bulligerent in the saloon, sherman took it upon himself to throw the young black guard out of the front door, walked back out through the front door, followed him out in the street and shot him and Didn't kill him, although the man was just kind of staggering out there in the, the street and the mud and the blood and the beard Use Johnny Cash's lyrics, I guess. And Sherman looked around the street, said to anybody who, within your shot, said, well, I guess I better shoot him again, hadn't I boys, and put his gun between the man's eyes and blew his head off. Well, that happened to be witnessed by a Cowboy who was traveling through by the name of Francis Maynard. Maynard was a a poet of very little note in in the modern era, although he is.

Brad Smalley: 13:33

Several collections of his his poetry can be found today. He wrote a poem, lyrics that were sort of based on the old Irish ballad, bard of Armagh set to tune and, as it started out, as I wrote out past Tom Sherman's bar room, and these, these lyrics eventually evolved into the cowboy ballad we know now as streets of Laredo, which originally, just you know said, has its origins in Tom Sherman's bar room in Dodge City. So One of the stories that I love about old Dodge. So then, besides those two saloons that you mentioned, what other early 1872 saloons of Note were there?

Keith Wondra: 14:19

Well, yeah, yeah, hoover McDonald's saloon along and that kind of coincide with that, their wholesale liquor warehouse Around the fall of 1832 for McDonald move their saloon to Woodins frame building on Front Street Originally that that this loom is actually originally south of the tracks and in a tent and and and they moved at five doors east of the northeast corner of Second Avenue in Front Street. They were in this location till 1875 and In about 1875 Hoover bought out McDonald's interest and moved one door west which is big, four doors east of the northeast corner of Second Avenue, front Street. He was actually one door east of the law of the future of Long Branch Saloon. Hoover was at this location in 1884 when he moved to his saloon and wholesale liquor business to three doors west of the northwest corner of Rural Avenue and Front Street. He closed the saloon and will also liquor business in 1885 that he kind of felt that the prohibition was getting gearing up and he wanted to be, he wanted to get ahead of it. So he sold it and actually started Constantly mainly on his mill that he had south of town.

Keith Wondra: 15:27

Another early saloon was the Alhambra. It opened 1872 on the northwest corner, first Avenue, front Street is opened by P L, peter L Beatty and James dog Kelly Billion. The house of saloons is extremely well traveled. By the time it got to Dodge City In August of 1872 it was first erected in Leavenworth, kansas, then moved to Junction City, then Ellsworth, then to Hayes and then to finally to Dodge. 1874, kelly reinforced the frame structure and added a restaurant and a billiard table. In 1879, the one-story structure was moved and work began on a two-story structure which later became the opera house.

Keith Wondra: 16:06

Another early one was the billiard hall saloon. It opened in the summer of 1872 by AJ Peacock who originally was a clerk in the settler's store at Fort Dodge. His saloon was actually four doors west of the northwest corner of First Avenue and Front Street. Peacock heavily mortgaged the property and by September 1896 he sold it to Chalkley Beeson, then renamed the saloon the Saratoga.

Keith Wondra: 16:30

Another one was Waters and Hannaurans billiard hall saloon not to be confused with Peacock's billiard hall saloon, which makes doing research on saloons in Dodge City very complicated. Opened in the summer of 1872 by Moses Waters and James Hannauran, two doors east of the northeast corner of First Avenue and Front Street, their saloon was one of the first in Dodge City to have a billiard table. By 1874 they had attached a livery and feed stable. Moses Waters became the sole owner in 1877. Waters then turned the operation over to Henry Sturm, who renamed it the Occident Saloon. Sturm remodeled the Occident by adding a Bond Tom parlor where his German-American friends could sip their lager beer quietly. And those were basically the earliest saloons in Dodge City that are known. There's quite a few more that aren't known. They aren't printing the newspaper or in books.

Brad Smalley: 17:26

In the 1872 hard scrabble days of Dodge City, the whiskey served some of the wickedest stuff made with raw alcohol, burnt sugar and maybe a little chewing tobacco. These early whiskeys carried names such as Tanglefoot, forty Rod, trantula, juice, tau's, lightning, red Eye and Coffin Varnish. Also famous was Cactus Wine, made from a mix of tequila and peyote tea, and Mule Skinner made with whiskey and blackberry liquor. The house rod gut was often at least 100, proof though the bar keeps sometimes cut it with turpentine, ammonia, gunpowder or cayenne. Some brands of these types of whiskey were distilled on whiskey ranches and others were purchased outright from distilleries. What were some of the prominent brands of whiskey sold in the first saloons of Dodge City?

Keith Wondra: 18:19

The main type of whiskey sold in Dodge City saloons was Corn Mashed Whiskey. It contained 40-50% ethyl alcohol by volume and it also contained three main ingredients grain, water and yeast. It was aged in new charred oak barrels and was called bourbon. Almost every type of whiskey during that time period was called bourbon. It didn't matter where it came from. If it had corn in it it was called bourbon. One of the other types of whiskey was called the Old Steakhead.

Keith Wondra: 18:43

It's ingredients were one gallon of alcohol, one pound of plug or black twist of tobacco for color, one pound of black strapped molasses for flavor, one handful of red Spanish peppers for spice, five gallons of river water, two rattlesnake heads per barrel this gives it spirit. Then drop it in a horseshoe. If the shoe sinks, it isn't ready. When it rises to the surface and floats, the whiskey is ready to drink. Another type of whiskey was the overnight whiskey.

Keith Wondra: 19:10

They watered down with water or other unmentionable adulterations. The water down at whiskey made the saloon owner a big profit. A gallon of whiskey cost the saloon keeper $2 a gallon and he sold a drink for 25 cents. He got about a 700% profit. If you watered down more of it you got more of a profit because you got more out of your gallon of whiskey. You had Just to give an example, kind of a rough estimate the amount of whiskey drank, and didgeridishly, from 1872 to 1876 was 2,250 barrels, which is about 70,875 gallons or about 4,536,000 drinks. Because after the railroad reached Dodge City on September 5th 1872, beer branding, champagne, wine and various types of whiskey was available in Dodge City saloons.

Brad Smalley: 19:58

If that's not a recipe for a drunken wickedest city in America, I don't know what is. No wonder we had all those awesome colorful nicknames. So eventually there was every type of saloon that one could imagine. These were gambling saloons, restaurant saloons, billiard saloons, dance hall saloons and, of course, the ever-present plain old-fashioned just-drinking saloon On the south side of the tracks. They took on names such as Lady Gay. On the north side of the tracks were the saloons where dance hall girls were prohibited, such as Long Branch, saratoga, old House and Lone Star. Some of these saloons never closed, catering to their ever-present 24-hour days, seven days a week. A vital talking point on these saloons is their locations, how city ordinances regulated them and why. Actually, I noticed a couple of times, keith, you mentioned, that certain businesses saloons started on what is now the south side of the tracks and then eventually moved north. That seems to be kind of the origin of a plot line that goes throughout Dodge City. So kind of lay some of that on us if you would.

Keith Wondra: 21:15

Well, actually Dodge City actually started out on the south side of the tracks and then, once they figured out that Buffalo City would actually become an actual city, they then moved north on Front Street and built the famous wood-sided houses that, of course, majority of them all had false fronts. For people that didn't know what false fronts are, it basically made it look like a one-story building, was actually two stories. That's very common in the old west. It was an easy, cheap way to make or one-story building to look like a two-story building. But really the city ordinances were really the main regulation of saloons.

Keith Wondra: 21:49

Dodge City had no taxes during the Caltown years because all their money came from the vices. Regulation of the vices, such as gambling, prostitution and saloons. They were very easy targets to get from city leaders. They were the immoral part of the living in the city so it was easy to. It was kind of what we call sin taxes now. It was easy to tax them. Not a lot of people complained about those being taxed.

Keith Wondra: 22:19

City Ordinance Number 3 is passed in 1875, which set the price of getting a dram shop license, which was basically if you had a saloon you had to have a license to run it In 1889, the cost of that license went to $200. The city treasury in 1882 received $1,120 from saloons, $865 from gambling and prostitution. Really, the only money they had to spend on was law enforcement. They didn't have to spend money on streets or parks or anything like what we do nowadays. It was basically just law enforcement only and the ordinance paid for all the city services and costs. There were no taxes. Licensing applied to saloons on Front Street and to saloons south of the tracks, so there's really no difference between the two of them. That mainly regulated that way. You didn't have a saloon open up and the city didn't know about it Because prostitution was still it was illegal in Kansas during this time. But all your cow towns basically had these fines and dram shop licenses which mainly made them all their money.

Brad Smalley: 23:16

So, keith, something I'd like to maybe go into a little more detail about is, I guess, a good starting point. You talked about the ordinances. What was illegal? Illegal in Dodge City and I'm actually going to go to a very famous photograph that many people have seen in Dodge City, recreated at Boothill Museum is the old front street. Well, with the sign there on the well said carrying of firearms strictly prohibited. Now, this doesn't say anything about the north side of the railroad tracks, the south side of the railroad tracks, even though so often we hear the deadline. You know things that are legal on the south side or illegal on the north. What's the truth of that?

Keith Wondra: 24:01

Well, you know, the reason you had the strictly caring, forbidding the carrying of firearms was to try and basically came with the violence that happened early, early Dodge City when then had all the vigilante committees that was the main, the main reason that they had they started passing the gun control ordinance. You really tell you, the whole myth of the violence in Dodge City, especially during the Caltron years, is way overblown. You probably have average one or two deaths per year and really you got to think about this in common sense terms is that if you're, if you're a cowboy coming up and you all your cowboys keep on getting killed, we would, you still go. That city and Dodge City depended so much on the prostitution saloon, all those ordinances that are passed, that they would rather just have the cowboys sleep it off in the jail and then come back again. We want cowboys be killed and that's why you know, like Wyatt Earp, for example, would strike the guy over the head with his butt, the butt of his revolver, and that would knock the, knock the cowboy out and then he could sleep in the sleep it off in the jail and come back and spend whatever money he had left the next day.

Keith Wondra: 25:03

The ordinances, the deadline was kind of was true because you kind of you really the south side wouldn't enforce the ordinances that much. It was kind of rarely did the marshals ever go down south of the tracks. And then I was especially true after when Ed Masterson got shot in 1878. Ed Masterson was a brother of bat Masterson After Ed's shooting, like some marshals rarely went down south of the tracks, and Ed Masterson was shot in front of the Lady Gaze dance hall in Saloon.

Brad Smalley: 25:32

So we've already kind of talked at length about, you know, the 7000 gallons of whiskey and all of the other, the drinking and the carousing and the trouble, if not out and out brutality, of violence than in Dodge City in the early days. And something had to change. One thing that I've always found interesting about Dodge City is that so many, so many of those famous Western towns you've got, you know the, that one law man, that sort of tamed a town, you know, like Abilene or Hayes, had Wild Bill Hickok, and you know it's just, you know the one name here, the one name there, and Dodge City had all of them at the same time Wider, bill Tillman, bat Masterson, charlie Bassett, ed Masterson, all of the entire Masterson and Irp family all served in the law over the same period of years. And I think it took that, that much manpower to corral early Dodge to, to calm it down, so to speak, and even going beyond that. Eventually the laws sort of had to change as well, not just in Dodge City but across the state of Kansas, if you will, and with that we're actually going into sort of early Kansas prohibition. We beat the federal government by at least a couple of decades. So Kansas entered the Union without a liquor law and when the state's population was burgeoning. Indeed, kansas population increased threefold from 1860 to 1870, and then tripled again during the 1870s.

Brad Smalley: 27:20

Temperance advocates were not pleased that the liquor problem was left unsolved by the New State Constitution, especially with the influx of saloon capers, gamblers and prostitutes. Although a state temperance society was organized in Kansas in April 1861, this group needed to be more effective in its early years. Nearly a decade past, before the temperance movement had any real cohesion, many Kansans became adamantly opposed to liquor and its effects. They immediately galvanized their efforts to bring about a stricter dram shop law, being inspired by church revivals throughout the country and the advent of the Murphy movement.

Brad Smalley: 28:00

In 1876, a new triad of jurists Horton, brewer and Valentine also authored several significant decisions in Kansas, fledgling years under the state's new Prohibitionary Law. The result was these justices seceded in the Kansas Senate passing a prohibition resolution by a vote of 37 to 0 on February 21, 1879. It was sent to the House, where it passed 88 to 31 on March 5, 1879. Senate Joint Resolution Number 3, which read in part the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors shall be forever prohibited in the state except for medical, scientific and mechanical purposes would be presented to the people of Kansas for acceptance or rejection. It was not until January 1, 1881 that the Kansas Constitution ensured that Kansas became legally dry through the Prohibitory Enforcement Act. It took almost two years for the reformers in Dodge City to take action, and when they did, it became known as the Saloon War of 1883. Skeeth, what were the initial phases of prohibition leading up to the Saloon War of 1883, and what were the after-effects on the sale of liquor in Dodge City?

Keith Wondra: 29:22

The whole of the acts leading up to the prohibition was the temperance movement which in Kansas became well-organized by 1878. It started earlier than that but it really didn't become a factor until 1878, especially until you got the election of John St John to become governor a very pro-temperance governor and then, especially when you passed the Constitutional Amendment and started in 1881, that really was supposed to make Kansas dry, but unfortunately that did not happen. Cities like Dodge City, for example, ignored the rule. Even to the chagrin of the governor, they ignored it. Then Dodge City continued to ignore the amendment so much, and so that prompted important figures such as Governor St John in 1881 to single out Dodge City, along with other towns such as Wichita and even Topeka, where we're ignoring the constitutional amendment, even towns like Hays which had this very strong German immigrant population. They weren't going to give up their alcohol, especially Dodge. The mayor, alonzo Webster, made a compromise with the Dodge City Templars in June of 1882. Dodge Timbers promised to refrain from corroborating with the governor's influence interference in Dodge City. Webster promised to appoint a pro-Templar member to be City Marshal. Therefore the mayor discharged the city's law officers and hired new ones.

Keith Wondra: 30:47

Mayor Webster installed 14 new regulations for the police department, with several of them addressing longstanding problems. The regulations included the following officers could not engage in private businesses outside their official duties. That was in referent to Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. Drinking on duty was no longer allowed, liquor is banned from going into the city jail. And a few other regulations were also in effect, such as officers had to wear badge on them all the time and also if they wanted to get time off, they had to ask the mayor, because before that the city police would just take time off whenever they needed and no one really knew if they had police officers available. And Pete Beamer was appointed City Marshal with Clark Chipman as Assistant Marshal. Unfortunately, beamer resigned the City Marshal less than two weeks on the job. Mayor Webster took over the City Marshal duties.

Keith Wondra: 31:39

By 1883, dodge City newspapers claimed that state prohibition calmed the town. Other newspapers disagreed with Dodge and one of them was the medicine lodge Cresset, who wrote the following the last preacher we understand has left are talks of leaving Dodge City. This is a regular case with the city of the Plains. The last distributor of the gospel fleas with his family and household goods to the mountains. A blizzard or a storm of hailstones and coals of fire will innailliate the whole town. Dodge City was really ignoring the whole thing. And then Webster then endorses Lawrence Digger for Dodge City Mayor, with many believing that Digger would continue with Webster's compromise. Lawrence Digger becomes mayor in 1883. And then that really starts off the Saloon War of 1883.

Brad Smalley: 32:24

Well, we could certainly spend an entire podcast episode talking about nothing but the Saloon War of 1883. And in fact we have probably more than one at this point. Please go back to the old episodes and look that up. Send us some questions if you want to know more about that. But it wasn't really the Saloon War itself, in its resolution, that wound up closing the Saloons of Dodge City. In fact it didn't really close at all. After the end of that, what was kind of the aftermath of this whole, kind of the heyday of the Saloon era of Dodge City?

Keith Wondra: 33:07

Well, really the aftermath was like, especially in the Saloon War, luke Short was still allowed to run the long branch with Harris. Really, what really ended the Saloon War was the fires of 1885 and 1886. It wasn't the temperance movement or prohibition that ended it and really the fires were really very devastating, especially to even to Dodge City's economy. The Saloons were such an integral part of Dodge City's economy that once they burned down the ground that crippled Dodge City's economy. But of course Dodge City grew, rebuilt and then they rebuilt in stone brick buildings. I mean you had three fires that really started in 1885 and 1886 that totally destroyed Front Street and Chestnut Street and they really those two fires rumors abounded that temperance movement and the prohibitions were the ones that started and so you really kind of but of course those were just rumors they were the first fire which occurred on November 27th 1885, which destroyed basically many of the Saloons on Front Street, because you got to remember back then all those buildings were wood-framed buildings. So that started. That November 27th fire started seven in a room above the Junction Saloon. Last was a kerosene lamp exploding and then the fire just took out pretty much basically the whole 200 block of West Front Street. And then the second fire burned down many of the Saloons, the old slums and the boardwalks. According to the Kansas Cowboy, which was an early Dodge City newspaper, the old Dodge, with its worldwide celebrity, has disappeared.

Keith Wondra: 34:36

And the third major fire occurred on December 7th 1885 and it damaged the buildings north of Chestnut Street, which was a street directly north of Front Street. And this fire started in a room occupied by what the Dodge City Democrat called two fair young ladies. In reality, these two ladies were members of the sporting crowd, family prostitutes, and with the night being cold, one of the ladies, floor mans filled notice, sawed off, asked the shoe shiner to go to her room and light the stove. He set a fire in the stove and left. Moments later a passerby saw flames beside the chimney and sounded the alarm. A strong north wind hit her at.

Keith Wondra: 35:11

The firefighting efforts as the civilians to the south burned down 10 days before the fire could do no damage there. Sparks soon drifted to the south side. Ham Bell organized 40 men to stop the fire from spreading across the tracks. Fire lasted an hour and caused $25,000 worth of damage. Those two fires, they claim, the cleanse Dodge City of its morally obnoxious goods and services. November 27th fire affected the Saloons. The December 7th fire affected prostitutes and the sporting houses, and the fires also stopped the evil from encroaching on the respectable Dodge City north of the tracks and then then the rest of the Dodge City. Saloons were destroyed in August 20th by an 1886, by another fire. You can see straight everything, starting from the corner, 100 block, west front street all the way to the Dodge House. The Dodge House was spared. Any other wood frame buildings that were on that side of front street basically went up in flames.

Brad Smalley: 36:05

A very, very destructive year there in Dodge City, made only worse by the following year, the winter of 1886, 1887, with the destructive blizzards that really sealed the end for old Dodge City. That was kind of the end of the original Dodge City. The fires, the blizzard really sort of just washed away, as you said, all the evils and vice of old Dodge and we're left with a nice modern town now, so as much of a cattle town as it ever was, but maybe not with the over drunkenness, gambling, prostitution and all the fun stuff. So thank you very much, keith, for being here. It's great to sit down with you, talk with you, wishing you all the best with the upcoming coffee with curators and just your curator job as a whole, and blessings on what you can bring to the Butte Hill Museum. We do love that place. Well, that's it for now.

Brad Smalley: 37:12

Remember to check out our Wild West Podcast shows on iTunes or WildwestPodcastBuzzsproutcom. You can catch us on Facebook at facebookcom slash Wild West Podcast or on our YouTube channel at Wild West Podcast, mike King YouTube. Also, make sure you subscribe to our shows listed at the end of the descriptive text of this podcast to receive notifications on all new episodes. Thanks for listening to our podcast. If you have any comments or would like to add to our series, you can write us at wildwestpodcastgmailcom. We will share your thoughts as they apply to future episodes. Join us next time as we continue our story of the life and times of Dave Mather. Top three return to Dodge City.