Men whose business, or yearning for excitement, had taken them into many
of the West's hooray towns, said the worst of them couldn't hold a
candle to Trail City, the "Entertainment" town on the Colorado-Kansas
border. It had been established to fleece the thirsty, women-eager men
who choused cattle up from Texas and it lived up to its founders'
greediest dreams. It was said there were more ways in Trail City to
separate a man from his money than a prairie dog had ticks."
- Old Timers Wild West magazine, 1979
TRAIL CITY - It's against the law for a woman to ride naked on a horse through Coolidge.
Or, at least, that's the story Larue Lennen tells - a story passed down
from her mother, a former mayor of Coolidge, which is just a few miles
from the Kansas border. When a prostitute from the rough border town of
Trail City came riding into Coolidge, residents decided they wanted to
make sure it never happened again.
Trail City, after all, was the notorious stepchild of the area - a place
of gambling and drinking, of womanizing and, on occasion, of murder. It
was a town without a county or state, for that matter - a city located
in what they called "No Man's Land."
So disorderly was this town that for years after its death locals
wouldn't talk about it, maybe because their men sometimes sneaked over
to visit.
Larue Lennen, however, along with her daughter, Lori, is on a mission to
preserve the history - working on a document that tells the tale.
"Otherwise," Lennen said. "These stories will all be lost."
 |
| The old railroad bridge where cattle were tolled. Men
whose business, or yearning for excitement, had taken them into many of
the West's hooray towns, said the worst of them couldn't hold a candle
to Trail City, the "Entertainment" town on the Colorado-Kansas border.
It had been established to fleece the thirsty, women-eager men who
choused cattle up from Texas and it lived up to its founders' greediest
dreams. It was said there were more ways in Trail City to separate a man
from his money than a prairie dog had ticks." - Old Timers Wild West,
1979 |
Hello. I am very interested in learning more about Trail City, Colorado/Kansas. For example, does anyone know where the dead were interned if they passed along while in Trail City? Is the town location easy to access, or is there permission required from someone? Was there a Sherriff? Did they use the regional Marshall system? Please reply here and to jake@voicebyjake.com, or phone 720.209.6297. Thank you. ~ jake (Parker, CO)
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