Don Steele

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Dodge City Trail of Fame

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Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 19, 2022

1. Don Steele Marker

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(Fairmount Cemetery, Jetmore, Hodgeman County, Kansas, USA)  Excerpt:  A native of Jetmore, Don graduated Jetmore High School 1966 and attended Wichita State University where he majored in music theater and graduated in 1971. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia, where he worked extensively with the theater department, editing music for productions, conducting

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 19, 2022

2. Don Steele Marker

The marker is embedded in the walkway in front of the theater entrance on the south/track side of the historic Santa Fe Depot.

musicals, and composing original music. He joined the Philadelphia Company, a not-for-profit theater dedicated to fostering emerging playwrights and musical creators. Don's first professional jobs were as a pit musician for productions of "No, No, Nanette," and "A Little Night Music" in Sydney, Australia. He toured the U.S. and Canada on the Community Concert circuit as an accompanist for Songs By Six, a Robert De Cormier vocal group. Don taught music at Green Valley High School and Barrenjoey High Schools in Sydney, and Keith Valley Middle School in Philadelphia.

In 1982, Don became director of The Long Branch Variety Show at Boot Hill Museum and subsequently founded the Boot Hill Repertory Company (later The Depot Theater Company). During Don's tenure, the Company completed the $14 million campaign to restore the Santa Fe Depot and create a new performance space for the Company. Don penned numerous original songs and revues including "When You're In Dodge City," and his own arrangement of "Home on the Range." Don retired after 25 years as the theater company founder, administrator, and director.

(Submitted on August 9, 2026, by

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 19, 2022

3. Santa Fe Depot Theater

The Depot Theater occupies the south end of the historic Santa Fe Depot building.

Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

Excerpt:  The Depot Theater is located in the original Harvey House and Depot, a red brick building that was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1898 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Occupying almost two blocks, the Depot originally included a train passenger depot and railroad offices, as well as a hotel and eating house (the El Vaquero) run by Fred Harvey. As railroad traffic declined with the rise of airlines and automobiles in the 20th century, many Harvey Houses were shuttered — including the El Vaquero eating house, which closed in 1948.

In 1996, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad donated the Depot building to Dodge City government. Years of grant writing and research culminated in an eight-year plan to restore the Depot as the home of a new state-of-the-art dinner theater for the Boot Hill Museum Repertory Company. In July of 2004, after eight years of restoration and construction, the company moved into its new permanent home — the Depot Theater main stage, a fully-equipped dinner theater

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that could seat up to 160 guests. The first production in the new space was Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle. The Depot Theater building is the largest train depot still in operation in the state of Kansas.

Excerpt:  The Dodge City Trail of Fame, Inc. is part of the Historic Dodge City Walking Tour. This portion of the trail is marked with sidewalk medallions and statuaries to commemorate the many famous and infamous denizens of historic Dodge City. Additionally, many medallions are dedicated to notable movie and television stars that have portrayed famous Dodge Citians.