GREENTOWN, Ind. — From the road, the buildings Dan King and his grandson built look like any other shed.
Nothing hints that they contain anything other than the requisite grandpa garage necessities - lawn mowers, motor tools, maybe some bird seed.
To take a few steps closer, though, is to travel back in time - to the 1800s, when cowboys saddled up for the frontier and ghost riders roamed the West.
This is King Station, the replica of an old 19th century, Western town King built with his grandson, Kaiden, back in 2014.
“I guess I always liked the West, even when I was a little boy. I guess everybody wants to be a cowboy at some time,” King said.
If King dreamed of becoming a cowboy as a kid, it's something he made happen as an adult.
Becky King said the town her husband created went on to surpass the original idea he pitched to her. This town is complete with a sheriff's office, Brass King Saloon, blacksmith's shop and mine shaft.
"First it started out, we just wanted a cabin. Just a place to come out to," she said. "Then we kept talking, what about this, what about that? Then we tried to decide on other buildings we would want back here."
Each building has a complex interior as dynamic as the outside, packed to the brim with details of the past King managed to scavenge from pawn shops, antique joints, or real trips out west. Stuff like guns, knives, parlor game cards or fountain ink pens line the desks and walls.
“I like history. And I like attention to detail. This is my way to actually remember history, or commemorate history. Commemorate people,” King said.
The Sheriff’s Office was built first with 150-year-old reclaimed wood from an old barn. The resulting aroma is a fragrance not even Yankee Candle could conjure.
"If you've never walked in an old, 100-year-old barn or been around the old wood, it just has a different fragrance and it sets the tone," King said.
The blacksmith's shop came next, partly so the family would have a way to block the wind around the camp fire in center of town.
Then, came The Brass Ring Saloon, complete with swinging doors that give way to tables set up to mimic the boozy parlor games of yesteryear.
It's here where those well-studied in Western lore would find some surprises. In the chair closest to the corner of the wall are a pair of black aces and black eights - sometimes called The Dead Man's Hand.
A gun rests on the other side of the table near King's Station coins Dan made by hand. It's a tribute to an unlucky gambler named Wild Bill Hickock.
"He never sat with his back to the door. He had in his hand a pair of aces, and a pair of eights. That night, he sat with his back to the door. A 15-year-old boy shot him in the back," King said.
If only Hickock had been lucky enough to frequent King's Station, where the Sheriff's Office is right next door to quiet any riff-raff.
There's a loft up top, where the sheriff would have slept. A wood stove keeps you warm and serves up the perfect cup of coffee for morning.
"That's part of being authentic. You know, the sheriff had to pretty much live in his office. So, with the wood stove, the sheriff could cook there on his wood stove and spend the night up there in his loft. And we just got more and more authentic as we went with it," Becky said.
Much like sheriffs of the old frontier, Dan and Kaiden have spent many a night camping out in the town.
Construction on King’s Station first began when Kaiden was 11.
The duo worked day and night, after school and often on weekends, to see their shared dream of an old Western town to fruition.
“We’d come back here and work till the sun rose to when the sun went down,” Kaiden said.
That his grandson would learn some valuable vocational skills in the process was all part of the plan.
"You've got to get through life some way. You have to know how to fix a door or do something, at least. And now I think he's pretty well-versed in a lot of construction things," King said.
Now in high school, Kaiden realizes not every kid had a grandpa willing to teach them useful craftsmanship skills, all while building them a full-scale Old West replica town.
"I look back sometimes like the videos and stuff. And like, we put a lot of work in here and a lot of blood, sweat and tears in these buildings. But it was all worth it in the end," Kaiden said.
The King family used to travel far away to get their Western fix.
Nowadays, the total relaxation only a cabin in the woods can provide is just a few minutes away from their backyard.
“To get away on a little weekend vacation, you've got to get in the car. You got to drive. Go get reservations to go somewhere, whatever. But here, I can come home and get cleaned up. My wife and I will just take a walk back here and we're gone. You know, we're in a whole different place,” King said.
Though the town looks like one John Wayne could stroll through at any moment, King’s Station is a tribute to history – not Hollywood.
The details King infused the town with are based on real events.
“This is not so much about TV movies or cowboy shows as it is the actual history of the Old West. That's what it means. That's what it means to me," King said.
It also means King built something he can cherish with his grandson forever.
That, he said, has meant the world.
"I've had an absolute ball doing this," he said.
King's Station is not open to the public.