Dodge City is a city in and the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, USA. It was named after Colonel Richard Irving Dodge. The population was 25,176 at the 2000 census. The city's name is well known to generations of Americans, as the long-running old-time radio and television Western drama program Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City.
The first settlement in the area that became Dodge City was Fort Mann. Built by civilians in 1847, Fort Mann was intend...
more
Dodge City is a city in and the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, USA. It was named after Colonel Richard Irving Dodge. The population was 25,176 at the 2000 census. The city's name is well known to generations of Americans, as the long-running old-time radio and television Western drama program Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City.
The first settlement in the area that became Dodge City was Fort Mann. Built by civilians in 1847, Fort Mann was intended to provide protection for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Fort Mann collapsed in 1848 after an Indian attack. In 1850, the U.S. Army arrived to provide protection in the region and constructed Fort Atkinson on the old Fort Mann site. The army abandoned Fort Atkinson in 1853. Military forces on the Santa Fe Trail were reestablished further north and east at Fort Larned in 1859, but the area around what would become Dodge City remained vacant until after the Civil War. In 1865, as the Indian Wars in the West began heating up, the army...
less