For a taste of frontier life, follow this road trip through four Kansas cities featured in the iconic TV show Gunsmoke
The camera pushes into a close-up of Matt Dillon, the gruff but honorable marshal of Dodge City. Dillon resigns from his position after being falsely accused of killing a man in cold blood. Soon the camera cuts to a new man entering the scene: Wild Bill Hickok. He is the sheriff in the wild and woolly cattle town of Abilene, and he has arrived in Dodge City to clear his friend’s name once and for all.
Dillon’s name is eventually cleared in this notable Season 4 episode of Gunsmoke, an Emmy award-winning television series that aired weekly from 1955 to 1975. The popular drama featured marshal Matt Dillon as he kept the peace in Dodge City during the 1890s with the support of a dynamic cast of characters, including the feisty “Miss Kitty” Russell, the firm but kind Galen “Doc” Adams, and loyal sidekick Festus Haggen.
Gunsmoke still airs on select networks and streaming services, maintaining a passionate fan base decades after it originally aired. Now, fans who wish to experience the cities that inspired this classic series can mosey down the new and exciting Gunsmoke Trail.
Fans Make History
After seeing the huge following the television show still has on social media, Julie Roller Weeks, director of the Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), came up with the idea for the Gunsmoke Trail—a road trip that connects four cities that played a role in the show’s storylines.
“There was a Gunsmoke group that popped up on my Facebook feed, and somebody had asked the question, ‘Are there still towns in Kansas you can visit that have a connection to Gunsmoke?’” Roller Weeks says. “This group has over 140,000 members who have actively joined to talk about Gunsmoke, which is remarkable considering this show aired many years ago.”
Roller Weeks partnered with the tourism directors in Hays, Wichita and—of course—Dodge City to brand their cowboy-themed attractions as the Gunsmoke Trail. “It’s a fun way to retell a story about what we already have; it’s something people can get excited about and hang their hat on,” Roller Weeks says.
The project began with a blog post that spurred the development of KansasGunsmokeTrail.com, a website that offers a “wealth of information” to Gunsmoke enthusiasts, says Megan Welsh, director of the Dodge City CVB.
In addition to following the path of the Gunsmoke Trail, fans can connect to related events and attractions using the Gunsmoke Trail Pass, a mobile-exclusive passport that rewards visitors who round up enough points on the website when touring sites on the route. “It’s a website widget, so you don’t have to download another app to your phone. It’s based on geography, so you can filter the stops based on what is near you at the time,” Welsh says.
Dodge City
A great place to start the Gunsmoke Trail is in the show’s primary setting: Dodge City. Boot Hill Museum is one of the most popular of the nearly 60 attractions and events available along the trail. The museum complex includes replicas of the businesses that stood along Dodge City’s Front Street in the 1800s.
“Every time I go to Boot Hill Museum, I find something new,” Welsh says. “The bulk of that museum is artifacts from Dodge City’s early days that belonged to the original residents. This would have been from the same time period Gunsmoke was portraying, so the things that you would have seen on the show are going to be very similar to the artifacts you will see in the museum.”
Welsh encourages fans to take the Historic Dodge City Walking Tour, which includes the Dodge City Trail of Fame, featuring sidewalk medallions dedicated to local historical figures as well as actors who starred in Gunsmoke (James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone and Ken Curtis).
“All of those very important figures from Gunsmoke have medallions in honor of them, and some of them have included their handprints,” Welsh says. “It also encompasses our sculptures, such as the life-size sculpture of the late James Arness, who played Matt Dillon.”
If you don’t care to walk, the Historic Trolley Tour provides a narration of Dodge City history as visitors ride past historic locations in a climate-controlled vehicle. It journeys to nearby Fort Dodge and sites related to today’s cattle industry.
Abilene
Next stop on the tour is Abilene, the home of Sheriff James Butler Hickok. Stroll the boardwalk in Old Abilene Town during the summer travel season to watch mock gunfights or belly up to the same bar from the original Alamo Saloon to watch cancan dancers kick up their heels. While in Old Abilene Town, stop by the Great Western Cattle Company to see a 1:24 scale version of Abilene’s original Texas Street during the height of its cattle days and visit the Trail Center to see the Bulls Head Saloon Longhorn. Bulls Head is a popular saloon from Old West lore with ties to the real-life Hickok who inspired the TV show character.
Nearby, visitors can climb aboard the Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad. The Flint Hills Express, an excursion train featuring vintage passenger cars, travels through the Smoky Hill River Valley while offering passengers a chance to learn about the area’s rich history. “That’s how people were traveling back then, and you see the train in so many episodes of Gunsmoke,” Roller Weeks says. “That’s something people can go and experience; it’s really unique.”
The Cowboy Art Trail is another must-see attraction in Abilene. It includes the World’s Largest Belt Buckle, one of the world’s largest spurs, and a dozen large hand-painted cowboy boots that pay homage to T.C. McInerney’s Drovers Boot Store from the 1870s. Many historians believe McInerney invented the American-style cowboy boot in 1871. Before you leave, don’t forget to visit the Heritage Center, which displays a bronze statue of Hickok. The famed Abilene sheriff is also the subject of a downtown mural.
Hays & Wichita
Gunsmoke characters also visited Hays and Wichita. In Hays, a herd of bison attract a large number of onlookers in Frontier Park, according to Melissa Dixon, director of the Hays CVB. The herd started in 1952 with a bull named Wild Bill and a cow named Calamity Jane. The City of Hays Parks Department staff takes care of the herd. “People love to drop by and see the bison, especially in the spring when we usually have a few baby calves born,” Dixon says.
Nearby, the Fort Hays State Historic Site offers a glimpse into the past. Established in 1865, the fort’s soldiers protected railroad workers and travelers on the Smoky Hill Trail. Among its residents at various times were William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Hickok, and General George A. Custer. Custer’s dumbbell, forged by the fort’s blacksmith, is among the exhibits at the fort. Admission is free to the visitors center and Fort Hays’ four original structures: the stone blockhouse, the guardhouse and two officers’ quarters. The site holds numerous events throughout the year.
The self-guided Historical Hays City Walking Tour takes visitors past 25 historical markers that tell the fascinating stories of the people and places that earned Hays its place in Wild West lore. “The Ellis County Historical Society just released an app to go along with it, so you can get even more information than is on the plaque. There’s so much more story to tell,” Dixon says.
In Wichita, Shala Johnson, marketing coordinator for Visit Wichita, steers visitors to the Old Cowtown Museum. “It has over 50 historic buildings, including a saloon, a blacksmith shop and a sheriff’s office,” Johnson says. From April through October, costumed interpreters are on site to discuss everyday life on the High Plains during the Wild West era. Open year-round, the museum has more than 25,000 authentic objects from 1865 to 1880.
The Mid-America All-Indian Museum is another great stop along the Gunsmoke Trail. It is dedicated to Native American and Indigenous history, culture and stories through exhibits that change quarterly and yearly, Johnson says. The museum includes the art of Blackbear Bosin, a Kiowa-Comanche artist who created the Keeper of the Plains (a 44-foot-tall steel sculpture on the point where the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers join in downtown Wichita).
Johnson also suggests visiting the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. Housed in an 1890s-era building, this museum offers four floors of exhibits that include the history of the cattle industry, early settlers and transportation.
