Wyatt Earp and the Horseshoe Cow

Betcha didn't know that we have a larger than life size statue of Wyatt Earp in the middle of Dodge City, KS.

But I betcha aren't surprised by that little tidbit of information either.  

I nice statue too, just a hint of a Kurt Russell influence. Or maybe Wyatt Earp influenced Kurt Russell? 

Betcha didn't know there is a cow made entirely of horseshoes in Dodge City too. I think of the two I'd rather have the horseshoe cow in my front yard though. 

Someday, when my kids are older and I can justify playing around with fire and hot metal with them, I'm going to learn to weld and fill my front yard with tacky yard art made from scrap metal. I once saw a pink flamingo sculpture whose body was made from the gas tank off a motorcycle. It was so cool! I want one. 

Ah, to have life goals! LOL 

Shootout at High Noon!

My family lives very close to Dodge City, Kansas.

Dodge City makes people think of two things; Boot Hill and Wyatt Earp. 

Last week I took my visiting family to the Boot Hill and Front Street Museum. 

The museum does sit at the base of the original Boot Hill and contains some of the original graves. Probably not the original grave markers though and real cowboy boots aren't sticking out of the ground. 

Much of the museum is much like any other....full of old stuff and signs that quickly bored my kids. However, the artifacts are not the main attraction of the Boot Hill Museum. 

The main attraction is the living museum and replica of Dodge City's famous Front Street. 

There is the Long Branch Saloon where we watched a snake oil salesman trying to sell his "medicine", Prickly Ash Bitters. Yip smelled it but wasn't about to taste it! The show ended with a 'customer' and the salesman running out the swinging doors followed quickly by the sound of a pistol shot. As soon as my boys heard the shot they were out the door looking for a dead body. One lady commented that watching my boys was the best part of the show! This is also where Yahoo, Mom, Melinda Sue and I learned how to do the Can Can. 

At about 10:30 the Marshall and his deputy were looking for some help and were having new deputy tryouts. There was the running and hopping on one leg test. Because every deputy has to know how to chase the bad guy hopping in case he gets shot in the leg. 

Then there was the moseying test. The deputy up front was an expert and was giving the kids the best tips on how to mosey around town. Moseying is much more important skill for a deputy than you'd think! 

Of course the shooting test. Funny, the kids aimed and "shot" the deputy in the background. When he fell down they all ran up to see if he was really dead and because the Marshall hollered, "Kick him to see if he's really dead!", there were five little kids kicking this poor guy in the ribs! 

During the summer at noon everyday at Boot Hill there is a shootout...with blank ammunition of course. It all started with two guys busting out of the swinging doors of the saloon carrying on about one of em' cheatin' at cards. Well, there was a bit of a scuffle. 

Then Mr. Red Pants ran off and returned with a gun and proceeded to totally miss Mr. Card Cheat who he was aiming at. 

Mr. Card Cheat was much steadier with his gun and leveled Mr. Red Pants. 

But then Mr. Marshall showed up and Mr. Card Cheat was joined by a couple of his buddies and another gunfight was on! 

And all four em' went down! Wouldn't have been much of a gunfight if they hadn't! 

There is plenty more to the Dodge Hill Museum than just a gunfight of course.

There is a steam engine outside to climb on, an old school house and blacksmith shop, an old time general store, a place to get a sepia photo taken wearing old fashioned clothes and plenty of artifacts to see. 

But the gunfight was the highlight of the day because when you think of Dodge City, you think of rough and rowdy cowboys and gunfights in the streets. And there are some pretty interesting stats on Dodge City of the Old West.

Click here for a great read about the history of Dodge City. 

• 1,500,000 buffalo hides were shipped from Dodge City between 1872 and 1878 during the years when the buffalo were nearly brought to extinction.
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• The city passed an ordinance that guns could not be worn or carried north of the "deadline" which was the railroad tracks (Note: The railroad tracks lay less than two city blocks from the original Front Street.) The south side where "anything went" was wide open. In 1877 the population was 1,200 and nineteen businesses were licensed to sell liquor
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•  For a time in 1884, Dodge City even had a bullfighting ring where Mexican bullfighters imported from Mexico would put on a show with specially chosen longhorn bulls.

Although the Old West is no longer it's really something to come to Dodge City and see the tracks, the river and the first streets in town and imagine how wild this town once was. Living history is the best way to understand it. 

Rodeo!!

On Wednesday night we all headed to the rodeo in Dodge City. Me, DR, Yip and Yap, Mountain Man, John Deere, Melinda Sue, Mom and Dad. Poor Yahoo had to stay home with the babysitter. (Thanks Mom for all the great photos you too that I've posted here!)

Now I've seen rodeos before....in Indiana. 

And they don't even come close in comparison to a western rodeo. Dodge City's rodeo was fabulous! There were PRCA World Champions, National College Rodeo Champions, a cowboy from Australia, a troupe of trick riders who've performed on 4 continents and a barrel racer from Indiana. 

And the stock!! Wow, the bulls and rough stock horses they had were AMAZING! I've never seen so many quality animals in one rodeo before. 

We had the bull riders. Believe it or not but I've always wanted to try this! 

Doesn't that look FUN to you? No? It does to me! 

The Dodge City Boot Hill Museum Stage Coach came by between events. Those are pretty fun to ride in by the way. 

Steer wrestling. Let me tell ya, these cowboys were NOT small guys! They were big and most of em' looked as though they'd fit in on the front line of the Notre Dame football team! 

There were saddle bronc riders and bareback riders and the bareback, pictured above and below, looked much more difficult than the saddle bronc! 

There were other events too; barrel racing, calf roping, and a rodeo clown but I was too busy watching to rodeo to get many other good photos of everything.

These girls were awesome! There were 6 of them in the troupe and they did rope tricks and trick riding. I don't have any other good pics but one of them rode around the ring on the back of the horse doing a backbend! Can you imagine???? 

Despite the drought we had fireworks at the end. It was more than enough to make up for the fireworks we missed on the 4th of July. 

A western rodeo seems to be a much more patriotic event than others I've been to. Before the events began the American Flag was brought out and the emcee for the evening gave a moving speech about the freedom of our country and how freedom isn't free. And how we need to remember those everywhere fighting to keep us safe. The importance and respect for the military was felt deeply in the manner of the cowboys and the crowd from the very beginning. The crowd prayed and then sang the Star Spangled Banner before the rodeo started.

With that bit of background, let me tell you about my proudest moment of the evening. I had signed Yap up for the Boot Scramble. (Yip didn't want to do it.) 

A Boot Scramble is where you have a huge crowd of little kids in their socks all crowded to one end of the arena. 

(Sorry, no more better pics than this.)

All these rascals are in their socks because their shoes have been dumped in a couple of piles in the middle of the arena. At the count of three they run to the pile and find their boots/shoes/sandals, put them on and run back to where they started from. Pretty hilarious to watch! And the winner for each age group won $25.

Yap's cowboy boots were orange. My family could see them from the other end of the arena. So, no surprise, Yap won his age group and the $25. But that's not what I'm proud of.

Yap was lifted up on the gate by a cowboy and the cowboy emcee came over  on his horse and asked Yap's name and, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"A SOLDIER!" Yap answered brightly and with great enthusiasm.

Now here's where my heart grew three sizes and I was so proud. 

The emcee looked at my little son and son, "Boy, I take my hat off to you for wanting to be a soldier." And the crowd. went. wild. 

Yap talks about wanting to be a soldier all the time and I encourage him and try my best to explain a soldier's responsibilities and dangers. But for a stranger, and a cowboy, to honor my son's dreams like that in public...I don't have the words to express how happy I was for them both at that very moment. 

And for me, that was the very best part of the rodeo. 

Doing the Can Can!

Yesterday my parents, brother and sister in law, kids and I went to the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, KS. 

What a great little museum! 

We women got up on the Long Branch Saloon's stage and learned to do the Can Can! Yahoo stole the show though! Have a look at our video! 

So? Ready to do the Can Can too?