Dalton Gang Hideout, Meade, Kansas

On our way back from Colorado and New Mexico, we stopped in Meade, Kansas to see the Dalton Gang Hideout. It was very interesting to us.

The entrance is in the barn to the south and a little downhill from this house. It seems that this house was built by one of the sisters of the Dalton brothers and her husband and there is a tunnel that goes from the barn to the house and comes out in the pantry in the kitchen of the house and the tack room of the barn. Both entrances very well concealed. All the time the sister lived in the home the law tried to catch the brothers there and never were successful.

There was a lot of local stress regarding the relationship to the brothers, so one day the sister and her husband just up and left! After a time the house was sold at a sheriff's sale for back taxes.

Some number of years later, the new owners (totally unaware of the tunnel) were sitting in the kitchen eating when a cowboy came out of the pantry and asked for the Dalton's sister. Learning that she was not there, he went back into the pantry and disapeared. The owners then followed the tunnel from the kitchen to the barn and were amazed.
There is no real evidence that the Daltons ever used it, but then!

The house is interesting as it is so small which is indicative of an original home of that era.

When you enter the barn you are then allowed to go through the tunnel to the house. Now it has lights and is bricked up. Originally it was just a dirt tunnel.