Dodge is one of the preeminent Old West towns. This is the first city tamed by Wyatt Earp. When you visit, historic elements from those cowboy days litter the town. From Earp to the Santa Fe Trail to an old Western fort, there is much to see an experience that will take you back to the time of the Wild West.
Be prepared, though, this town is also the location of the biggest grouping of cattle processing plants in the country. That status comes with a smell! While I feel I smelled that smell throughout the town, we did stay directly across the street from a processing plant, so the smell may have soaked into my nose and stuck with me.
When looking for where to stay in the town, I had no clue there was a need to correlate hotel placement to cattle processing. However, I quickly spotted a hotel named after the town's most famous cowboy, Wyatt Earp. I convinced myself that, if you're going to the land of Wyatt Earp and there's a hotel or motel named after the man, then YOU STAY in that place!
Turns out, maybe you don't. The place, which I won't TOTALLY call out by name, was old, dirty, and maybe smelled. Again, though, it was difficult to distinguish the smell of the hotel from the putrid smell of cow processing directly across the street. What the place lacked in atmosphere, though, it made up for with their humorless, unfriendly front desk staff. My wife likely still hasn't forgiven me for this pick.
Unfortunately, Dodge has experienced a number of fires over the years, so much of the authentic Old West architecture is gone. So, today, you come see the recreation of Old West Dodge at the Boot Hill Museum. They entertain with gunfights, a stagecoach, a saloon, and a cemetery with often hilarious epitaphs on the tombstones.
Elsewhere in town, you can tour the Home of Stone which is the oldest surviving home in Dodge. Being stone, I guess, it was unaffected by the fires. You can also visit the Santa Fe Trail tracks. Actual wagon wheel tracks from the Trail are still visible. The Trail itself was a major transportation trail that connected Missouri to New Mexico. Think "interstate" well before those were a thing. That passageway was protected in Dodge City by Fort Dodge. Today, you can visit the remnants of Fort Dodge, but it is now more of a neighborhood with some really cool, still standing elements of the old fort.
Then, there's the Gunfighter's Wax Museum. This wax museum is both educational, as it teaches about the iconic figures of the Old West, and very cheesy. The wax figures are a bit comical, but to top that off, the museum includes figures of classic monsters such as Frankenstein. While in the Gunfighter's Wax Museum, you can also check out Kansas' Teacher Hall of Fame.
Thanks to its reputation as part of the "Wild" West, Dodge is synonymous with the phrase, "Get the heck outta Dodge". However, today, it makes for a fun touristy stop, regardless of the smell. So, instead, we should all get the heck into Dodge!
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