“Gunsmoke” was one of the longest-running American TV shows, airing from 1955 to 1975. Stories of the West were, and still are, popular. There is something about the elements of adventure and the independence of frontier life that continues to captivate audiences.
Marshal Dillon, Doc, and Miss Kitty were fictional characters, but they were inspired by composites of real people. Meeker had its own version of a Gunsmoke-style frontier town in 1885. The area was…