Dodge City

As some of you may know, one of our flimsy excuses for wandering around the country is to visit places where our favorite, or maybe not so favorite, movies were made or were supposed to have taken place. Dodge City, Kansas, certainly takes care of a lot of cinema, Errol Flynn's Dodge City, Henry Fonda in John Ford's My Darling Clementine that had one, or maybe the only, great performance by Victor Mature. He once said he was not an actor and had 62 movies which proved it. Like Clementine most of the Tombstone/OK Corral flicks begin in Dodge. We all have seen the 600 plus episodes of Gunsmoke.

Dodge was railroads, cattle, farming and all those related businesses. Dodge is still railroads, cattle, farming and all those related businesses. History is remembered here but it is secondary at best. Statues, plaques, and the Boot Hill Museum with periodic gunfights play to the tourist. Not a major market.

Although Dodge City was a tad disappointing, the Dodge House did have a good breakfast buffet, not that I care about food. After that we took the short drive to Fort Dodge which is now a Kansas veteran's home and retains and uses some of the buildings from when it was an active military post.

The Custer House. Georgie never lived here but hey, it's only history, details details. Then there is the building next door. We will call it the building next door.

And the post office that I found unique.