Boot Hill Museum struggles with attendance, Museum has received $775,000 in local sales tax money

stuggle
"Over the past four years, the Boot Hill Museum has received $775,000 in local sales tax money to keep it afloat, according to figures from City Hall.

"But some local officials wonder what the museum, founded in 1947 as a tribute to the heritage that has made Dodge City known throughout the world as a symbol of the Old West, has done to improve its financial viability....

"The last Kansas Humanities grant Boot Hill has applied for was a 1991 mini-grant for a one-night speaker, according to a Humanities Council database dating back to 1991...."

Boot Hill Museum struggles with attendance, Dodge City Daily Globe, January 20, 2008

It is good to finally see some public figures on Boot Hill Museum's budget -- first time for most of us, including Dodge City Commission. Thanks to Mark Vierthaler, Daily Globe reporter, for getting those facts somehow.

Time for Boot Hill to actually reach out to the community, become transparent in their operation, and get going on fund raising, grant applications, advice gathering from state and national museum professionals in Dodge City -- all normal for every successful museum.

[Important note: the figures on historical attendance have grown and grown over the years -- no actual solid figures exist. Urban legend would indicate a few hundred thousand per year in the 1960s, but the 300,000 figures for later decades are not to be believed, and are not fair to the current management of Boot Hill Museum Inc.]

Signed: Uncle George