Our Western Heritage

Our Western Heritage
Front Street, Dodge City, circa 1879

Monday, November 2, 2009

Dodge City Police Docket Book, 1878 - 1882, Public Viewing Dec. 7, 2009

On December 7, 2009, the City of Dodge City, Kansas will accept the return of the Dodge City Police Docket Book, 1878-1882, a book which contains the escapades of some of the most famous lawmen in the American West. Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Ed Masterson and many other historical lawmen are chronicled in this court docket.

A public viewing of the docket book will be from 3:00-6:30 pm, Monday, Dec. 7, in Boot Hill Museum's Old House Saloon. A few selected pages of the book carefully scanned by the Southwest Kansas Library System will be enlarged and displayed next to the protected book. Immediately afterward, the book will be presented to the Dodge City Commission at 7:00 pm in City Hall and signed over from the Ford County Sheriff to the City of Dodge City.

The City of Dodge City and the Ford County Historical Society are making arrangements for all the pages of this fragile and important book to be scanned into computer files so that western history researchers all over the world can access the information it contains.

Again, thanks to: Roger Myers, FCHS member, who first saw the auction information on the docket book in 2007 and brought it to my attention; Ford County Attorney and Dodge City Prosecutor Terry Malone; Ford County Sheriff Dean Bush, and investigators; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the United States Attorney’s office, District of Kansas.


Best, George Laughead
President, Ford County Historical Society
Dodge City, KS