DODGE CITY, KAN. City aims to display real Old West

Many visitors ask about 'Gunsmoke' characters as though they were real.
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) -- It's a scene familiar to "Gunsmoke" fans -- Marshal Dillon faces the gunslinger in the middle of a Dodge City street. Guns are drawn; shots are fired.
Dillon wins, and another show begins about life in Old West Dodge City, or at least the Hollywood version.
But to find out what life was really like in the Old West, spend some time where the likes of Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday really did walk the streets.
"We like to attract visitors with the romance of the Old West and show them the real history of what Dodge City and the Old West was like," said Andy Stanton, director of the Dodge City Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Many of the 100,000 visitors each year arrive with a preconceived idea of what the west Kansas town should be. They come from just about every state and many foreign counties, particularly Germany and the United Kingdom.
"It's amazing. People are disappointed that the streets aren't dirt and we don't ride horses to work. But when they see there is a lot of history, they're surprised by all that's here," Stanton said.
In its Old West heyday, Dodge City gained fame as a buffalo hunter's trade center and then as a cow town, some say a lawless cow town. Cattle were driven from Texas on the Western Trail for railroad shipment back East. The town still thrives on meatpacking plants and feedlots, where on any given day, visitors can see all the cattle they want.
Boot Hill Museum
One attraction is the Boot Hill Museum, which includes an 1876 replica of Front Street, based on journals and photographs of the time.
Founded in 1947, the museum has 11,000 artifacts on display out of 28,000 it has gathered over the years from around Dodge City.
Exhibits include a collection of old pistols, rifles and shotguns, including one used in 1873 to kill Ellsworth County Sheriff Chauncy Whitney, one of the first lawmen killed in Kansas.
On a wall hangs a collection of signatures of scores of Dodge City notables, including Wyatt Earp, Luke Short and Bill Tilghman.
The inside of old stores is replicated, complete with furnishings, in what almost seems like a trip back in time. The hardware store includes tools and nails used back then, and the print shop has a press and type that Earp would recognize. There's also replicas of a saloon with a gambling table and bar and a period bank with the wooden counter and iron safe.
"It takes you back to relive the legend. We're trying to preserve the history for the public. We love to entertain people, but our main purpose is protecting that history," said Gloria Barngrover, the museum's general manager.
Although the characters were fictional, "Gunsmoke" did make Dodge City known to just about every American household.
The museum pays tribute to the show with a display including furniture from the 1960s and an old television tuned to the show. On the walls are numerous signed photographs from the show's actors and other memorabilia.
"The 'Gunsmoke' exhibit is a big attraction. Dodge City has a lot of history, but 'Gunsmoke' brought it into their living rooms," Barngrover said.
There's a section of the old Boot Hill Cemetery where visitors can walk and read reproduced grave markers with actual epitaphs. It served as a cemetery for about six years before the bodies were moved in 1879 because the land was needed for the expanding town.
Fort Dodge is 5 miles east of town. Built in 1865, it's now a home for retired veterans and has a self-guided walking tour and a library-museum.