Key Takeaways
- Real-life lawmen like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp worked there
- It earned the nickname ‘The Wickedest Little City in America’
- Today, it celebrates its connection to the historic series
Dodge City was a real place long before Gunsmoke ever came along.
Located in southwestern Kansas, Dodge City was one of the most famous frontier towns of the Old West. In the late 1800s, it earned nicknames like “The Wickedest Little City in America” and “Queen of the Cowtowns” because of its rowdy saloons, gunfights, gambling halls, and cattle drives along the Santa Fe Trail.
Real-life lawmen such as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp actually worked there, keeping order during the city’s wildest years.
The Gunsmoke TV and radio series used Dodge City as its setting because it was such a well-known symbol of the untamed West—though the show’s version was filmed mostly on Hollywood sets and backlots, not in Kansas. However, many real locations were mentioned (Front Street, Long Branch Saloon, Fort Dodge).
Today, Dodge City, Kansas, celebrates its connection to Gunsmoke. There’s a Boot Hill Museum, a recreated Front Street, and tributes to James Arness and other cast members. Tourists often go expecting to see “Matt Dillon’s Dodge,” and the town has embraced that legacy.
So while the Dodge City you saw on Gunsmoke was fictionalized, it was based on a very real and historically wild Western town.
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About the Author
Jay Coffin has worked in journalism, digital media, television, communications, and the media fields for the last three decades. Most of that time has been spent in the sports and golf industry, helping to raise the profile of two prominent golf websites, appearing regularly on television, creating two successful podcasts, and boosting numerous social media accounts to record engagement metrics. He lives in Orlando, Fla.
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