Newton, Kansas
For a year and a half it was the end of the trail for the Santa Fe Railroad headed West, and the Texas cattle drives coming North. It was born overnight, and became home for gamblers, saloon keepers, prostitutes, Texas gunslingers and honest citizens hoping to create a peaceful new community. It was Newton, Kansas, and quickly earned the reputation as “the wickedest town in the West.”
Ted Baker, owner of Ted’s Bakery and one of the town’s leading citizens, is embroiled in these calamitous events, culminating in the Hyde Park Massacre in which five men are killed and three wounded. Ted, and his friend, Buck McNurty, a cowboy from one of the early cattle drives, try to turn the violent town into a safe and peaceful place to live.
But the town suffers from more than just the gun play of the Texans. It also has a corrupt county government, experiences a major fire that destroys a significant part of the town, lives through tornados and blizzards, and is hit by a grasshopper invasion that consumes everything in sight.
Relive these tumultuous early years in McArthur’s latest book based on actual events in the history of Newton, Kansas.
