“You learn a thing a day,

You store up smart.”

Festus Haggen

Standing here alone in the middle of nowhere

Gazing at this old wooden ghost town in Utah

I was somehow magically transported back 50 years

And wonderful childhood memories filled me with awe

As I gazed to the left at the edge of the old western town

I saw old Marshal Dillon stoically standing there in the sun

He was truly my first childhood hero and epic role model

And by the end of each TV episode law and order had won

Eventually as I my gaze wandered further down the road

I soon spotted Miss Kitty, Festus, and good old Doc Stone

They were my three other favorite characters on Gunsmoke

And suddenly standing there that morning I didn’t feel alone

Fifty years ago I had been a young Midwestern big city boy

Who had not yet ventured anywhere west of the Mississippi

But each week back then I had been glued to our television set

Fascinated by the lives of these four Western characters from 1873

This old TV serial had been my very first glimpse

Of historic pioneer life out in America’s fabled old West

And because of Marshal Dillon and his three very intriguing friends

For the past 50 years I’ve loved America’s old western history the best

Premiering on CBS in September 1955, and completing its network run 20 years later in September 1975, Gunsmoke was the longest running dramatic series in the history of television.

And it centered around the exploits of my first TV hero, Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) in the turbulent frontier town of Dodge City, Kansas in 1873. Dillon’s kindly constant companion was old Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), the town physician who spent many hours chugging beers at the old Long Branch Saloon, owned and operated by Miss Kitty Russell, Marshal Dillon’s love interest in the show.

Over the years, there were several changes in the supporting cast, most notably the replacement of Marshal Dillon’s loyal deputy, Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver), with hillbilly deputy Festus Haggen (Ken Curtis).   And I always enjoyed listening to Festus Haggen’s humorous folksy dialogue, especially when he talked to his old beloved mule named Ruth.

Gunsmoke also thankfully started a longtime trend for TV Westerns. At one point there were 30 of them on the air at the same time, and I loved them all. But Gunsmoke outlasted all the others, and at the time of its cancellation in 1975, it was the only show of its kind still on the air.

And it truly was the television show that began my lifelong passion for traveling to the great American West, for the Western movie and novel genre, and for Western history.

Although the series depicted life in Dodge City, Kansas, it was filmed here in southern Utah, in the now very deserted Johnson Canyon – a place I knew I had to visit on my recent trip out west.