Tom Clavin's Dodge City fills in many-a-gap in the transient lifestyles of Wyatt Earp, the Earp family, and Bat Masterson. If there is any one thing you pick up from reading this book is that nobody stayed in one spot for very long in these families; and, that seemed to be a trend for people in the American West of the 1870s and 1880s.
Clavin does due diligence in keeping tabs on all branches of the Earp family tree. He does a nice job of highlighting their stay in Pella and relating some anecdotes that I wasn't that familiar with concerning the Earps and their marriage to Pella-area girls - very interesting.
You will also find Wyatt Earp's personal life a bit challenging too - was he married, wasn't he, and to whom, when? Not a part of the Earp history many know about. Clavin is also very fair with Earp, making a point that he was not the blood-thirsty killer that many seem to see him as.
Masterson is even more of a character than Earp. Both feared and respected, he held as many jobs in as many locations as Earp, but he would eventually get out of The West and spend time in the newspaper business in New York City.
Clavin does an excellent job in covering these men, there relationship with each other, and with many of the "characters" of Dodge City and the western United States. Dodge City is not just about the town itself, it covers a lot of ground with the people who passed through there as well.
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