Dodge City to Lamar, Colorado Great American Railroad Journeys

I've crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of North America with

my reliable Appletons' guide.

Published in the late-19th century,

Appletons' General Guide to North America will direct me to all that's

novel, beautiful, memorable

and striking in the United States.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

As I journey across this vast continent,

I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.

And how the railroads tied this nation together,

helping to create the global superstate of today.

This splendid train is known as the Super Southwest Chief and it runs on

the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.

Now operated by Amtrak, it runs between Chicago and Los Angeles,

travelling in darkness and light over three days.

I've arrived in cowboy country, but that is a misnomer.

For this land once belonged to the Native American and the buffalo.

I began my journey in St Louis, Missouri,

and then crossed the border into the prairie lands of Kansas.

From there I'll push west across the Great Plains to the mountains of

Colorado, and then turn south through New Mexico,

to my journey's end in the spectacular Grand Canyon.

On this leg, I'm starting in infamous Dodge City, Kansas.

Then travelling to Lamar, Colorado,

on the western edge of the Great Plains.

Along the way, I discover what life was like in the old Wild West...

He's got a gun!

..give my verdict on a Kansas staple...

Mmm. A nice bit of crispness around the crust, very nice.

..and hear the harrowing story of the massacre at Sand Creek.

A quote comes to mind in all atrocities.

"The only thing necessary for evil to succeed

"is for good men to do nothing."

The night train from Topeka, Kansas, reaches Dodge City before dawn.

So new arrivals must wait until sunrise for their first glimpse of

America's fabled Wild West town.

Today, Dodge City has a population of around 30,000.

Many work in the meat processing industry.

150 years ago, the arrival of the railroads sparked rapid growth in Dodge,

and unleashed a tide of lawless behaviour that made it notorious.

Dodge City, nicknamed "cowboy capital of the world",

"Queen of the cow towns,

"wicked little city,

"bibulous Babylon of the frontier."

I wonder what it did to earn that reputation, and whether it deserved it.

Dodge City was no more than a mud hut, or sod house, and a saloon before

the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad built a depot and laid

rails in 1872.

Buffalo hunters, then cattlemen were magnetised by the business

opportunities, and used the railroad to transport hides,

meat and cattle on an industrial scale to the cities of the East and North.

To hear more about this western boom town,

I've come to a reconstruction of Dodge's famous Long Branch Saloon.

Brent. Put it there.

Howdy, partner. Welcome to Dodge.

Glad to finally have you here.

'Brent Harris of the Boot Hill Museum keeps the spirit of the Old West alive.'

How did Dodge City get started?

It started in 1872, the train arrived in Dodge.

Shortly after come the longhorn cattle from Texas.

Along with them comes the young Texas cowboy.

They've just spent three months driving a herd of more than 1,000

longhorns, facing more danger and working harder than ever before in their life.

These boys are weary, they're tired,

they're probably a little bit angry.

They're ready to let their hair down,

paint the town red, and we're here to help them do that.

The cowboys arrived off the trail in early spring with three-months' pay

in their pockets.

And the railroad company shipped in fine liquor,

boots and guns for them to spend it on.

They turned a blind eye to the violence and lawlessness in the town's

many bars, brothels and gambling dens.

What about law enforcement?

They hired Wyatt Earp, legendary Wyatt Earp, probably the best in the business.

And of course, the first thing he wanted to know, what are the laws?

What are the ordinances?

The mayor at the time said, "The only laws are - don't kill the customers."

Now, a year here in Dodge was early spring,

late fall. In the winter, nothing happened.

One year he was credited with 374 arrests.

Earp's part in the legendary shootout at the OK Corral earned him a place in history.

But the fearless lawman portrayed by Hollywood was more

accurately a gambler and a gunslinger.

Do you think there'll be any trouble in town today?

Well, if history is any indication, it's possible.

But first we're going to have to do something about that outfit.

You look like a city slicker.

Is that better?

Dodge City's reputation as the hell on the plains was well-deserved.

SCREAMING

Oh!

Oh!

He's got a gun!

-He's dead.

-What happened here?

-You keep that barrel pointed down.

-Show your hands!

-Hands up!

I think half the town just got wiped out in front of me.

By the mid-1880s, the railroads reached directly into Texas,

heralding the end of the cattle drives and the cowboy capital became

just another farm town on the plains.

Shortly before the first cattle drives headed for Dodge, in the mid-1870s,

buffalo hunters piled in to use the railroad to transport their kill.

The name of Dodge City will forever be associated with the demise of

that magnificent beast.

Here's a poignant passage from Appletons'.

"At every little station, heaps of buffalo bones lie along the tracks.

"The number of these gigantic animals slain by hide hunters in two or three

"years in the territory tributary to the railway must have been over 500,000.

"For many trainloads have already been hauled away,

"and the industry of bone-picking is profitable."

I feel ashamed, because surely we measure our humanity not only by how

we treat one another, but by how we behave towards animals.

Especially the buffalo,

that man used for survival and to further his progress.

Vast herds of buffalo roamed the grasslands of North America for

10,000 years, but within 50 years of the white man's arrival in the West,

they were hunted close to extinction.

Today, a small herd of rare breed buffalo, or bison, have been re-introduced

on the plains around Dodge by the Wild West Heritage Foundation.

Its president, Ryan Deutsch, is keen to show them off.

Ryan, as we approach the bison and the buffalo, you better give me the dos

and don'ts. What are the safety rules?

Well, I wouldn't recommend getting out and petting them.

That's why we're in the back of this truck going down here rather than walking.

The herd is made up of a rare golden bull buffalo, known as Buck,

and three cows, who all gave birth during the summer.

It's good to see some handsome specimens of buffalo here today.

I've been reading about the slaughter of them.

Before the slaughter, what kind of numbers were there?

You know, back in the mid-1800s,

there was nearly 60 million of these buffalo roaming the plains.

And what was their relationship with the Native American?

You know, the buffalo were such a tremendous asset.

Not just as a source of food.

Starting with their hides, which are used for bedding, clothing, tepees.

The brain of the buffalo was used to tan the hides.

The bones were used for weapons and tools.

The stomachs and the bladders were even used for containers,

and all the way down to the manure was used for fuel.

So the Native Americans hunted them, but there was no danger in those

days that they would be hunted to extinction?

That's correct.

The arrival of the railroad spelled the end of the buffalo.

The enormous herds delayed trains and destroyed track.

Rail companies responded by offering hunting specials,

from which passengers would shoot the animals for sport.

One Dodge City trader reportedly shipped 200,000 hides at a time back east,

where they were made into coats and hats,

as well as leather belting to drive the machines of America's

Industrial Revolution.

What is the attitude of the white American when he arrives in

-the territory?

-You know,

it's more of a young man coming in for adventure and trying to make a profit.

There was individuals that could kill 100 or 250 a day,

and when they could sell those for three dollars a hide, you know,

it was a very lucrative business back in the time when the average

worker was making about a dollar a day.

Now, from what you've told me, the relationship with the Native American,

this must have impacted the Native Americans, too, enormously?

Absolutely. The population of the Native Americans went down greatly,

as they depended on these animals.

MUSIC PLAYS

I'm drawn to the Dodge City Depot by the unmistakable sounds of a

big band.

The Dodge City Cowboy Band, founded in the early 1880s,

is still going strong.

THEY PLAY THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER

Wow, that was fantastic.

Very patriotic. The Stars And Stripes Forever.

I never saw it conducted with a gun before.

LAUGHTER Tell me about that. What are you doing with a gun?

It's in the tradition of Chalkley Beeson, who began the Cowboy Band

here in Dodge City. He conducted with a gun, for show, of course.

But he said that if any person

-played a false note, he'd kill them.

-Anyone you want to pick out today?

LAUGHTER

Chalkley Beeson was a buffalo hunter turned cowboy, then saloon owner.

His band began playing nightly outside the Long Branch Saloon.

Its fame quickly spread.

The band serenaded the governor and in 1889 travelled to Washington DC

to play at the inauguration of President Benjamin Harrison.

They weren't working cowboys of the day, they may have owned steers and cattle.

They wanted to give that impression of what Dodge City was.

Now, at the risk of someone getting shot this time,

can I have a few more bars? Oh, here comes the revolver.

LAUGHTER

THEY PLAY THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER

With the oppression of the Native American,

and the extermination of the buffalo,

the story of the Wild West is quite morally complicated.

But the cowboy is the enduring hero.

This booted and spurred figure, through literature, through stage shows,

through movies,

has become the greatest source of entertainment that the world has

ever known.

I'm up early to leave Dodge as I arrived, under cover of darkness.

I'm catching my old friend the Super Southwest Chief,

which will carry me to my next destination.

-Good morning.

-Morning, sir.

-Bright and early.

-Oh, yeah.

The next stage of my journey takes me through an area known as the

breadbasket of America.

As I follow the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe route,

I'm tracing the history of the West.

This land was once home to the Plains Indians,

but was granted to the railroad companies by the government,

for sale to prospective settlers.

In the 1879 edition of Appletons',

there's an intriguing advertisement placed by a railroad, luring people

to Kansas to buy wheat-growing land.

At the next stop, Garden City, a lady, Jannetta, will get

on, who's going to tell me the story with reference to her own family history.

Watch your hands.

Jannetta?

-Jannetta!

-How are you?

Good morning, welcome aboard.

It's a big step up now.

OK. There we go.

There we are, that's better. Come on in.

-All right.

-I'm using this Appletons' from 1879 and there's an

advertisement there placed by the Kansas Pacific Railroad.

"Lands, lands.

"The leading wheat state in the union in 1878.

"Kansas. A farm for everybody.

"62,500 farms.

"Five million acres for sale.

"The best land in America from 2 to 6 per acre."

Wow. It really was an interesting time, wasn't it?

Oh, definitely. Well, the government wanted to break this all open

and the early surveyors were

like, "Oh, there is nothing out there but desert.

"You don't want people to go out there."

And what they would do then is to get people interested, they would

sell plots of land very cheaply to build up towns.

Tell me about your ancestor, who was involved in this business.

My ancestor, I happened to bring a picture of him, is IR Holmes,

and he was the land agent for Santa Fe.

And he came to Garden City

and sold thousands of acres there, then moved up the train and he was

one of the founding fathers of Lamar, Colorado.

And then he would go down to Texas and run the routes down there.

And so made his millions being a land agent.

In the 1860s, the population of the state of Kansas tripled to a million,

as settlers flooded onto the Great Plains and began to farm the land.

-Further east, where I started my journey, there was an awful lot of corn.

-Right.

Corn on the cob, as we would say. What made people here farm wheat?

I do believe that where they came from in Germany, Russia,

that kind of area, they were very familiar with the grains.

In fact, my last name, Heberle, is German for "keeper of the grains".

The government and railroad companies knew that the climate on

the Great Plains would suit only settlers with experience of prairie-style

agriculture. So advertisements were placed in northern Europe,

including Russia and Scandinavia.

The early European immigrants who responded managed successfully to

grow winter wheat on a large scale in Kansas.

And it remains one of the state's most important crops.

I have a surprise. I baked this loaf of bread for you yesterday.

-You baked it?

-I did.

-Oh, it smells delicious.

So, we're going to break the bread, Michael.

This is what nice, fresh bread looks like.

Mmm! Very nice taste. Nice bit of crispness around the crust, very nice.

Well, Jannetta, thank you. You have brought me bread from the breadbasket

-of America.

-Fresh from my kitchen, even.

SHE LAUGHS

During the late-19th century,

there seemed to be no limit to the power of the railroads.

We've crossed into Colorado and the clocks go back one hour.

We've moved from Central Standard Time to Mountain Standard Time.

Before the railroads established time zones,

every town set its own time according to dawn and dusk.

By the 1880s, when the time zones were introduced,

the power of the railroads was resented.

One newspaper commented, "The sun is no longer the boss,

"55 million people must eat and sleep and work, as well as travel,

"by railroad time."

But in fact, the railroads have brought order out of chaos.

-Thank you very much, sir.

-Thank you.

-Y'all enjoy.

-Thank you.

Lamar, Colorado, a railroad town named after a 19th-century Senator,

boasts a fine Art Deco cinema.

Having had an early start, breakfast is on my mind.

-Good morning, gentlemen.

-Good morning.

-Do you come here regularly?

-Yes.

He has coffee here every morning.

And what have you had for breakfast today?

I had eggs and bacon.

That's fairly standard. What did you have?

Eggs, bacon, biscuits.

And the biscuit is a little round thing.

-It's like what I would call a scone?

-Well, we eat biscuits like this.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

-I'm in Colorado now.

Big biscuit country.

I've ordered pancakes today. Do you think that's a good choice?

Yeah, that's a real good choice.

Ah, thank... And that's for me. Thank you very much.

Some maple syrup.

You're supposed to pile them all up, one on top of the other.

Oh, really? Let me try that.

Pile them all on top of each other.

-Am I doing better now?

-Yeah,

you're doing better now, but you need more maple syrup.

-Maple syrup on there.

-Pancakes have a tendency to be dry.

-Are they good that way?

-They are.

That is the right way to eat them.

I'm heading 50 miles north of town,

to a long-since abandoned stop on the railroad line.

The first noteworthy station in Colorado, says Appletons',

is Kit Carson.

It's gone now.

"Situated on Sand Creek,

"about 20 miles above the spot where Colonel Chivington's Indian massacre

"took place."

The United States has not been particularly keen to own up

to atrocities against Native Americans,

and so it's interesting to find in an 1891 publication,

that it's already described as a massacre.

The Sand Creek massacre was one of the most shameful incidents in the

wars between the United States and the Indian tribes who found themselves in

the way of white settlement of the Great Plains.

Jeff Campbell is consultant historian for this national historic site.

A former police investigator,

he's devoted the past 16 years to examining evidence from the terrible

events which took place here in November 1864.

A melancholy sight.

What was the background to the massacre?

This was a reservation area from Sand Creak down to the Arkansas River.

It was assigned to the Cheyennes and Arapahos in 1860 by treaty.

That treaty greatly reduced Native American Indian lands.

And in response, they stepped up raids on white settlements.

The governor of Colorado territory declared war on all hostile Indians.

In August 1864, with tensions rising,

tribal chiefs resumed talks with the territorial government and the

United States Army.

It was the understanding of the chiefs and most of the people there

that negotiations would continue.

The Cheyennes returned to this area.

They set up a camp here.

They felt that they were under the protection of the military.

On 28 November,

a group of US cavalry left Fort Lyon and rode through the night,

arriving at Sand Creek at six on the morning of the 29th.

They were led by Colonel John Milton Chivington,

a former elder of the Methodist Church,

well-known for his violent hatred of the Plains Indians.

Over what area, looking from here, did the massacre occur?

The soldiers came from the south

and they came up around the bottom of this hill,

and we have pretty well located that from soldier testimony.

They came across here and they went up the valley,

and as I pointed to the village stood in there,

it was about a half mile from end to end.

Women were up maintaining the camp.

They were getting water, cooking morning meals,

and they heard, in this quiet, calm morning,

what they thought were the sounds of many, many hooves.

And they went back to the tents, or the tepees, and they were saying,

"The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming!"

What they heard were the soldiers.

And about 675 horses, plus four pieces of artillery.

Over nine hours,

between 200 and 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians

were killed, and a similar number wounded.

Eyewitness reports from two United States officers who

refused to take part describe horrific scenes,

as soldiers tortured women and children and looted and burned the camp.

And was this action maverick or officially sanctioned?

We may never know. Because there is very little

written word or orders or anything to the effect to attack these people.

In the aftermath,

there were at least five general in staff that discredited and disavowed

the attack on Sand Creek as unprofessional,

breaking of trust and honour,

ungentlemanly like, unmilitary like,

against the flag of truce.

Neither Colonel Chivington nor any of his soldiers was ever indicted or tried.

In 2007,

Sand Creek was designated a National Historic Site in recognition of its

significance, and every year,

prayer ceremonies and healing rituals are held at this spot.

You must have reflected on this event a great deal.

How do you feel about it?

A quote from the British...

philosopher Edmund Burke comes to mind...

as in all atrocities.

"The only thing necessary for evil to succeed

"is for good men to do nothing."

The Native Americans suffered because of the greed of land-grabbers,

cowboys and railroads as they pushed west.

But remember that most of the white Americans were of European descent.

When the Spanish had colonised Peru and Mexico,

they'd been equally villainous and murderous with the indigenous

population. It was the English that introduced slavery to Virginia,

bequeathing to the United States a bitter legacy not fully resolved to

this day.

If the treatment of the native is a stain on American history,

then the Europeans have no reason to be smug.

Next time, I'm transported back to the Mexican-American war.

-Are you ready?

-Yes, sir.

-That's the spirit.

I explore gun culture in the Old West.

You have to remember there was not a lot of law and order.

And discover what drove railway expansion.

Out it comes one more time.

Much longer and slimmer and giving off an extraordinary amount of heat.