Dodge City, formerly a boomtown. becomes a…

Dodge City, formerly a boomtown. becomes a sleepy little town much like other communities in western Kansas by 1886, when the cowboys, saloon keepers, gamblers, and brothel owners have moved west to greener pastures,.

Thousands of cattle once passed annually through Dodge City's stockyards.

The peak years of the cattle trade in Dodge City are from 1883 to 1884, and during this time the town had grown tremendously.

In 1880, Dodge City had gotten a new competitor for the cattle trade from the border town of Caldwell.

For a few years the competition between the towns had been fierce, but there were enough cattle for both towns to prosper.

Nevertheless, it is Dodge City that has become famous, and rightly so, because no town can match Dodge City's reputation as a true frontier settlement of the Old West.

Dodge City had more famous (and infamous) gunfighters working at one time or another than any other town in the West, many of whom had participated in the Dodge City War of 1883.

It also boasted the usual array of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels established to separate a lonely cowboy from his hard-earned cash, including the famous Long Branch Saloon and China Doll brothel.

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.

As more agricultural settlers moved into western Kansas, pressure on the Kansas State Legislature to do something about splenic fever had increased.

Consequently, in 1885 the quarantine line had been extended across the state and the Western Trail had been all but shut down.