Golf in Dodge City

Dodge City announces itself in American mythology before it announces itself on a map — the name alone conjures the cattle drives, the lawmen, the Boot Hill graves, and the frontier wildness of the 1870s and 1880s. The reality of today's Dodge City is a Ford County agricultural hub of roughly 27,000, its economy tied to massive cattle feeding and meatpacking operations in the Arkansas River valley of southwest Kansas. Front Street and the reconstructed Boot Hill museum keep the frontier heritage alive for visitors, while the modern city serves as the commercial center for a vast stretch of southwestern Kansas. Two golf courses — the county club and Mariah Hills municipal — provide recreational golf on the open plains landscape where the Arkansas River provides the only reliable shade.