From Cowtown to Amazon.com

From Cowtown to Amazon.com

The citizens of Coffeyville, Kan. (pop. 11,021), have a long history of looking out for the best interests of their town.

When the infamous Dalton gang rode into Coffeyville on Oct. 5, 1892, townspeople took up arms, thwarting a pair of attempted bank robberies, and when a major industry closed its doors in 1998, the community pulled together to attract Internet retailer Amazon.com and replace the lost jobs.

"The community comes together for the betterment of all," says Jeff Morris, city manager.

It’s been 113 years, but Coffeyville, still marks the day when the Dalton gang—brothers Grat, Bob and Emmett Dalton, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Power—hitched their horses in an alley and approached the C.M. Condon & Co. Bank and the First National Bank. The cashier at First National lied about the safe, saying it was on a time lock, which created several minutes’ delay.

Resident Aleck McKenna alerted the men in his dry-goods store after seeing Grat Dalton aim a Winchester at the cashier, and locals ran to two hardware stores to grab guns. When the smoke cleared, eight men lay dead: four members of the Dalton gang and four citizen heroes: Marshal C.T. Connelly, George Cubine, Charles Brown and Lucius Baldwin. Three were wounded. Of the Dalton gang, only Emmett Dalton survived.

"I admire the self-sufficiency of those people who armed themselves and didn’t let the Daltons get away," says resident Lue Diver Barndollar, author of What Really Happened on October 5, 1892?

Every October, Coffeyville re-stages the holdups during Dalton Defender Days, scheduled Oct. 7 and 8 this year. The Dalton Defenders Museum displays mementos from the raid and tells the story of the four men who died defending the town.

Coffeyville, which served as a railroad stop and cattle-shipping point in the late 1800s, still retains its Old West flavor. Brick buildings in "Death Alley" are pocked with bullet holes, and bronze markers show where the defenders fell. The jail still stands where the dead outlaws were displayed on boards and photographed. The 1870 Ishams hardware store, where residents ran for guns, still sells hardware.

And townspeople still take care of their own. When a major industry closed and vacated a 500,000-square-foot building in the Coffeyville Industrial Park in 1998, leaving hundreds of employees jobless, the city mobilized.

When community leaders heard that Amazon.com was looking in the Tulsa, Okla., area, they hustled and within two weeks had put together a proposal to lure the company to Coffeyville.

Not only did the city snag the online retailer in 1999, but Amazon.com added 300,000-square-feet and made Coffeyville the site of its largest distribution center. Year-round, 250 employees work at the warehouse, and seasonal hires in the fourth quarter boost the number to 1,500, says Patty Smith, spokesperson for Amazon.com. "We have a great employee base to draw from," Smith says.

Coffeyville has taken other steps with an eye to the future. The Coffeyville Regional Medical Center completed a $16 million addition in July. The town is sports-minded, too, and built a state-of-the-art $7 million Veterans Memorial Stadium with a synthetic turf field usually found only in university stadiums. As a result, the town now hosts the national junior college football championship, the Dalton Defenders Bowl, on Thanksgiving weekend.

"This bowl is entirely funded through local sponsors, which is very unusual," says Morris. "Last year, local people raised $50,000."

Likewise, when the town needed a new elementary school, the community approved a sales tax to help finance a $19 million school. The spacious 143,000-square-foot Coffeyville Community Elementary School with three courtyards opened in fall 2004.

"Coffeyville is a town where citizens from all walks of life do what is necessary to protect their town and to make it a better place to live," Barndollar says.

Visit www.coffeyville.com or call (800) 626-3357 to learn more.

Marti Attoun is a freelance writer in Joplin, Mo.

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