Our last day. We have found that if we plan brief stops along our driving trips, it slows the 
coming home depression that often exists on the final day of vacation. This trip, that short destination stop on the way home was Dodge City’s Front Street and Boot Hill museum.
We arrived at the museum just in the nick of time for the high noon shoot out. The historical reenactment between some saloon card players, the
sheriff, a bar maid and a granny entertained the boys immensely. 
The shoot out began with a fist fight between two drunken cow-hands accusing each other of cheating. One cow-hand summarily beat the second in the fight while the first’s buddies showed up. While the three buddies congratulated themselves over the win, the loser limped into the saloon. He returned with a gun and shot the other fighter in the leg. Shooting and shouting ensued until the instigator of the 
fight was dead and the sheriff showed up. The sheriff tried to arrest the three buddies and confiscate their guns. This caused another shoot out which ended after the three buddies were dead on the ground. It was all very exciting.
After that, we headed into the museum and wandered through the Front Street displays. There were displays on the famous outlaws, law men and soiled doves who lived and reigned in Dodge City. There was a live piano player entertaining us in the saloon. A live demonstration of old time printing processes was available. And there were cases and cases of fun and interesting newspaper stories about the raucou
s, crazy, wild residents of the frontier town.
We walked quickly through the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, stopping to see Aunt Jill Allen’s Uncle Gerald’s picture and information on the wall. Gerald Roberts was an inductee in 2005, the tribute to his accomplishments was impressive.
From there, we headed on up Boot Hill to the Boot Hill museum. Here, were more interactive exhibits and movies demonstrating the importance of bison to the Native American as well as the importance of cattle and cattle drives to the past and modern economy of Dodge City. There was also a great exhibit dedicated to the show Gunsmoke. We almost lost Sam at this spot.
We wandered a bit more through the cemetery and then headed to the gift shop and lunch. After lunch, we drove to the corner of Vine and Avenue A to tour the Home of Stone. The young lady there gave us a tour of all three floors and showed us what life was like for a wealthy boot maker and Register of Deeds on the prairie. We learned two things from our tour guide that we hadn’t learned before. One was about a doorknob, imported from Germany. Instead of turning it to open
the door, there was a thumb latch that opened and closed the door. The house was full of them. The second was the origin of the phrase “mad hatter.” Top hats made out of Beaver were very popular to wear during the frontier period. To keep the bugs from eating the fur on the hat, they would often be dusted with arsenic. The arsenic would seep into the skin of the wearers and the men would ultimately lose their minds – hence becoming a “mad hatter.”
After this, we hit the road again traveling slowly through Greensburg to see the rebuilding there. Then it was on to Wichita and Winfield where we arrived around 6:30 p.m. The trip was over, we were glad to be home, but we will always cherish the memories that we made while we were gone.
coming home depression that often exists on the final day of vacation. This trip, that short destination stop on the way home was Dodge City’s Front Street and Boot Hill museum.We arrived at the museum just in the nick of time for the high noon shoot out. The historical reenactment between some saloon card players, the
sheriff, a bar maid and a granny entertained the boys immensely. 
The shoot out began with a fist fight between two drunken cow-hands accusing each other of cheating. One cow-hand summarily beat the second in the fight while the first’s buddies showed up. While the three buddies congratulated themselves over the win, the loser limped into the saloon. He returned with a gun and shot the other fighter in the leg. Shooting and shouting ensued until the instigator of the 
fight was dead and the sheriff showed up. The sheriff tried to arrest the three buddies and confiscate their guns. This caused another shoot out which ended after the three buddies were dead on the ground. It was all very exciting.After that, we headed into the museum and wandered through the Front Street displays. There were displays on the famous outlaws, law men and soiled doves who lived and reigned in Dodge City. There was a live piano player entertaining us in the saloon. A live demonstration of old time printing processes was available. And there were cases and cases of fun and interesting newspaper stories about the raucou
s, crazy, wild residents of the frontier town.We walked quickly through the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, stopping to see Aunt Jill Allen’s Uncle Gerald’s picture and information on the wall. Gerald Roberts was an inductee in 2005, the tribute to his accomplishments was impressive.
From there, we headed on up Boot Hill to the Boot Hill museum. Here, were more interactive exhibits and movies demonstrating the importance of bison to the Native American as well as the importance of cattle and cattle drives to the past and modern economy of Dodge City. There was also a great exhibit dedicated to the show Gunsmoke. We almost lost Sam at this spot.
We wandered a bit more through the cemetery and then headed to the gift shop and lunch. After lunch, we drove to the corner of Vine and Avenue A to tour the Home of Stone. The young lady there gave us a tour of all three floors and showed us what life was like for a wealthy boot maker and Register of Deeds on the prairie. We learned two things from our tour guide that we hadn’t learned before. One was about a doorknob, imported from Germany. Instead of turning it to open
the door, there was a thumb latch that opened and closed the door. The house was full of them. The second was the origin of the phrase “mad hatter.” Top hats made out of Beaver were very popular to wear during the frontier period. To keep the bugs from eating the fur on the hat, they would often be dusted with arsenic. The arsenic would seep into the skin of the wearers and the men would ultimately lose their minds – hence becoming a “mad hatter.”After this, we hit the road again traveling slowly through Greensburg to see the rebuilding there. Then it was on to Wichita and Winfield where we arrived around 6:30 p.m. The trip was over, we were glad to be home, but we will always cherish the memories that we made while we were gone.
