DODGE CITY

city, seat (1873) of Ford county, southwestern Kansas, U.S., on the Arkansas River. Fort Dodge, 5 miles (8 km) east, was established in 1864 and named for Colonel Henry I. Dodge. Settled in 1872, Dodge City attained notoriety as a frontier town on the old Santa Fe Trail, the rendezvous of picturesque characters, the centre of freight lines, and headquarters of the cattle business. At the peak of the cattle drives, in 1884, herds totaling 8,000,000 head passed through from Texas. Lawlessness and gunfights resulted in the establishment of Boot Hill Cemetery, and a succession of marshals and sheriffs, including Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, won fame in the annals of the West. The famous Front Street has been restored. Beeson Museum exhibits many pioneer relics. The modern city has railroad shops, cattle feed yards, and farm implement plants and is the supply centre for a wheat, sorghum, and stock-raising area. The meridian separating central from mountain time passes near Dodge City. It is the site of Dodge City Community College (1935). Inc. 1875. Pop. (1990) 21,129.