Wild town

Congratulations to Bruce Burkholder for finishing his mural project. I enjoyed reading the article, but would like to add some additional information about the mural I painted for Pete Felten 23 years ago.

The mural is titled: "Sheridan, Kansas: End of the Track, 1868" and represents an historical view of what the town may have looked like at that time. There were no photographs of the city, so I had to do extensive research to accurately portray it.

Sheridan was a famous, lawless town at the end of the Kansas Pacific Railroad tracks in what is now western Logan County. For two or three years, this town of 2,000 inhabitants was one of the wildest towns on the western frontier. Vigilante justice was often the norm: gambling and murder also contributed to its reputation. A tent city, located on the south side of the tracks, was where the railroad section workers and a small contingent of soldiers from Fort Wallace camped. The north side of the tracks, where most of the gambling and vice took place, mainly consisted of dugouts and a few frame buildings.

The mural of Sheridan is only one of many murals I have completed over these past years. In 1976, the Ellis County Historical Museum commissioned two murals aided by a grant from the Kansas Arts Council. In the past few years, I have painted murals for various other museums in western Kansas including the communities of Scott City, Leoti and Johnson, as well as a fossil mural depicting the Niobrara Seaway for the Keystone Gallery fossil museum.

Congratulations again to Bruce, and thanks for allowing me the opportunity to add a little extra information to your article.

Chuck Bonner, Keystone Gallery

Scott City