October 5th – 8th, The Order of the Indian Wars will hold their annual assembly in Dodge City, Kansas, the Queen of Cowtowns. From 1875 to 1886, over 5,000,000 head of cattle were driven up from Texas to Dodge City. During those wild and wooly days, the town was home to such lawmen and gunfighters as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bill Tilghman, Ben Thompson, Luke Short, and Bat Masterson. 

 

We’ll see frontier forts such as Fort Hays, Fort Dodge, Fort Wallace and Fort Larned. Lunch will be served in the incredible Jerry Thomas Gallery and Collection. This gallery houses not only Jerry’s magnificent paintings and sculpture, but also his world class Western historical collection, featuring items from Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry, Little Big Horn Battlefield, American Civil War, and amazing items from the Northern Cheyenne, Southern Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa and Comanche tribes.

 

Our tour will include a visit to the National Santa Fe Trail Museum and Research Center,. We will stand where Francisco Coronado and his conquistadores crossed the Arkansas River in search of the seven cities of gold – now more than a mile from the meandering river. Zebulon Pike traveled this area in 1805. 

 

We’ll have a guided tour of Dodge City, visit the Boot Hill Museum, have our banquet in the Boot Hill Theater. We’ll watch a theatrical performance and even a gunfight in the streets of Dodge City! The queen of the Cowtowns reigned for ten years  -  the longest of any Cowtown. When the cattle drives ended in 1878, one New York newspaper reporter wrote: “There is more concentrated hell in Dodge City than any other place of equal size . . “. as a result  of everything that happened in 1878, it is no wonder that Dodge City became known as “the Wickedest Little City in America.” The perfect location for the Annual Assembly of the OIW!

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If you want to be in Dodge City with OIW, reserve your place now. Send a $250 deposit to OIW, P.O. Box 1650, Johnstown, CO  80534.  The final price should be in line with previous OIW assemblies.