It's flat out there isn't it.
I used to walk down Front Street in Dodge before they tore it down to build the parking lot for the Front Street Replica. I knew men who had lived in Dodge in the 1870's. They were very old and I was very young, but my dad and his folks knew these people well when they were still spry. They made tapes that turned to mush in their garage. Too bad. These old guys recalled Ed and Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Chalk Beeson, but none of them remembered Doc Holliday or Wyatt Earp. Holliday was only in Dodge for three months and Earp was just a local cop and not well know among the nice folks of town.
You've been to the old Boot Hill Cemetery and museum? It is empty now, its contents being moved to the FS replica down the hill. The old cement cowboy statue that you see there was made by Dr. Oscar H. Simpson, who was a close friend of my grandfather, who was also a pioneer dentist. Doc Simpson was my grandfather's mentor and helped him to get started in practice. Doc Simpson's elder sister, Inez Simpson Chisum was married to Sallie Chisum's brother, Walter Pitzer Chisum. He knew Billy the Kid. Walter and his brother Willi Chisum were married in Dodge in 1887, but at different times. Inez Chisum moved to Troutdale, Oregon in 1919 after Walter died. Her daughter was close to Sallie Chisum. Before Sallie died she gave her collection to Inez's daughter, Ara. Ara showed them to her kids. They were stored away in her attic, forgotten and sold in a yard sale more than a decade after Ara died.
I came along and found the little tinypes. Pretty amazing coinsidence huh? There's more.
I've seen a new picture of Clay Allison. It has just come to light, but I don't have a copy of it. Google him and you'll likely find it. My collection of pictures are of Billy the Kid, his gang and the Chisum family. I have most of those folks.
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