Send us a text The wind on the Kansas plains doesn’t just rattle old storefronts; it carries the names we’ve let disappear. We retrace the final patrol of City Marshal Ed Masterson, shot along Dodge City’s infamous deadline in 1878, and follow the paper-thin trail of his remains from Fort Dodge to the overgrown ruins of Prairie Grove to the tidy rows of Maple Grove. What starts as a gripping frontier shootout turns into a forensic hunt for a missing grave, a meditation on how towns expand, and a reckoning with what gets erased when progress moves faster than memory. Together we navigate saloon-lit streets, the split-second decision that may or may not have dropped Jack Wagner, and the ache of not knowing whether Ed’s last act delivered justice or if Bat Masterson’s gun wrote the final line. Along the way we listen to the whispers of other displaced souls—the card sharp shuffled like a deck of cards, the cowboy lost in the paperwork, the woman buried beneath a schoolhouse—and confront a stark civic question: what do we owe the dead when our cities grow over their bones? This story blends archival curiosity with ghostly lore to surface practical lessons. We talk about responsible reinterments, the value of meticulous records, and how tools like ground-penetrating radar, historical maps, and community memory can restore names to the map. Ed’s presence lingers not to frighten but to remind: a headstone is more than stone; it is a promise to keep faith with those who stood the line before us. If a hero can be forgotten, any of us can. Press play, share this with someone who loves Western history and city lore, and tell us: how should communities mark the graves they’ve moved? If the story moved you, subscribe, leave a review, and help keep these names on the wind. Support the show If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
