Dodge City, The Cowboy Capital (Illustrated Edition)

In old age, with a new baby boy, Conner Wright, from his marriage to Sally (his 4th wife), Robert started a book to make some money. His title was DODGE CITY, THE COWBOY CAPITAL and THE GREAT SOUTHWEST in The Days of The Wild Indian, the Buffalo, the Cowboy, Dance Halls, Gambling Halls, and Bad Men -- no doubt one of the longest titles of any book written. He published it in 1913, and had to pay to reprint it again that same year due to a fire at the publisher in Wichita. He never made back the money he had spent to publish the book -- now selling at rare book shops for hundreds of dollars. (The first edition has a color plate as the first page -- the second edition, a black-and-white photograph.)

Wright claimed that the entire book is factual, yet in the Preface, N. B. Klaine statd that "most" of the events were based on facts. Which is it? We'll likely never know, but that doesn't stop the book from being a great read about buffalo, dance halls, Indians, and "Bad Men."

The book has 26 early photographs of most of the earliest notables and some of the original buildings. It might be said that the photographs alone are worth the price of the book.