Boot Hill Distillery

In a former Dodge City City Hall that once held the town jail and firehouse, a fifth-generation Kansas farming family now distills whiskey from grain they grow themselves. Boot Hill Distillery turns wheat and corn raised on Kelman Farms, about 50 miles west, into bourbon and wheat whiskey bottled on the same ground where Dodge City's frontier lawmen once kept order.

History & Heritage

Boot Hill Distillery opened in 2016, founded by fifth-generation farmer Hayes Kelman and his father, Roger Kelman. The two partnered with the City of Dodge City to convert the old City Hall building into a working distillery, preserving a structure that had previously served as the jail, judges' chambers, and firehouse. The site also sits on the original ground of the historic Boot Hill Cemetery, tying the distillery's name and location directly to Dodge City's frontier past. As of July 2026, Boot Hill Distillery remains owned and operated by Roger Kelman and Hayes Kelman.

The Whiskey

Boot Hill Distillery runs on what it calls a soil-to-sip model: grain grown on Kelman Farms is trucked to Dodge City and distilled on a custom-built pot and column still setup, then aged and bottled on-site. Boot Hill Distillery Bourbon is built on a 51% corn, 49% wheat mash bill, filled into new charred American white oak 53-gallon barrels, and bottled at 90 proof. Boot Hill Distillery Straight Wheat Whiskey is distilled from 100% hard red winter wheat grown on the family farm, aged more than two years in new American white oak barrels, and bottled at 100 proof. Boot Hill Distillery Red Eye Whiskey takes the bourbon-style new make, ages it six to twelve months across a mix of new and used barrels, and blends the results into an 80-proof frontier-style whiskey. The distillery also produces a White Whiskey from the same 51/49 corn-wheat mash with a short one-week charred-oak finish, plus limited releases such as the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo partnership bourbon.

Why It Matters

Few Kansas distilleries control the entire chain from planted grain to bottled whiskey the way Boot Hill Distillery does. Farming, harvesting, distilling, and bottling all trace back to the same family and roughly the same patch of western Kansas ground, giving the whiskey a genuine claim to terroir that's rare outside a handful of American producers. The results have been recognized industry-wide: Boot Hill Distillery Straight Wheat Whiskey has won gold at Bartender Spirits Awards, silver at the American Craft Spirits Awards, and gold and Exceptional honors from the Beverage Testing Institute, while Boot Hill Distillery Red Eye Whiskey took gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and was named Best Whiskey in Kansas by the Heartland Spirits Festival. The Sentinel Room's Reserve Whiskey Library carries 10 expressions from Boot Hill Distillery, including Boot Hill Distillery Bourbon, Boot Hill Distillery Red Eye Whiskey, and Boot Hill Distillery Straight Wheat Whiskey, giving those who appreciate good whiskey a rare chance to taste a fully farm-grown Kansas whiskey program built inside a piece of Dodge City's own frontier history.

Visiting the Distillery

Boot Hill Distillery offers hour-long guided tours on Fridays and Saturdays at 4 PM and 6 PM. The tour walks through the building's history as Dodge City's old City Hall, the soil-to-sip production process from farm to barrel, and closes with a guided tasting of the core lineup. The Tasting Room is open Wednesday through Saturday, 3 PM to 11 PM, and closed Sundays.