Longhorns put Abilene on the map

Former cow town, Ike's boyhood home, to celebrate opening of Chisholm Trail

Web posted July 20, 1997

By DICK LIPSEY
Associated Press

ABILENE, Kan. -- Abilene was founded in 1857 as a log-cabin hamlet and stagecoach stop, and by the end of the Civil War it was still a crude prairie village of about a dozen homes.

Then the Chisholm Trail brought Texas cattle by the tens of thousands to the Abilene railhead for shipment to Eastern markets, and the sleepy crossroads became a boomtown. By 1871 Abilene had dance halls, casinos and 32 licensed saloons, and it relied on legendary lawmen like Wild Bill Hickok to keep order.

But the railroads continued to build south and west, closer to the Texas cattle ranges. New cow towns sprang up along the tracks and the older boomtowns, Abilene among them, went bust.

This year is the 130th anniversary of the opening of the Chisholm Trail, and Abilene and several other one-time cow towns plan special events to commemorate the ``longhorn highway.'' Two major events in Abilene are the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo on Aug. 16 and the Chisholm Trail Day Festival on Oct. 4.

Abilene is the boyhood home of President Eisenhower. It doesn't have any of the state's top tourist attractions and isn't near major population centers, but it draws a lot of traffic because it is on Interstate 70, the nation's major east-west artery.

``Last year we had 250,000 people register at the visitors center,'' said Marciea Weaver, director of the city's convention and visitors bureau.

For a town of 6,500, there's a lot for visitors to see.

Exit 275 from I-70 leads directly into Buckeye Street, a 10-block stretch of stereotypical middle America, with well-kept houses set back on large lawns on a street lined with U.S. flags.

At Third Street, near where Buckeye crosses the railroad tracks, the Abilene Civic Center occupies a restored 1928 Union Pacific depot. The depot is home to the visitor information center, a good starting point to see the town.

Just across the street is the State of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, with displays and videotapes on athletes, coaches and others in the state's great sports tradition.

A few blocks south of the visitor center is Abilene's leading attraction, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Center and Museum, which draws more than 100,000 visitors a year. It includes the Eisenhower family home, the presidential library and a ``place of meditation'' where Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower are buried.

Across the street from the Eisenhower Center is the Greyhound Hall of Fame. It has videos showing how greyhounds are raised and trained, plaques honoring champion dogs, and photos and drawings showing the evolution of the breed and of the sport of racing over the years. One picture is of a late 19th-century race course at Cheyenne Bottoms, near Great Bend, the first such race site in the United States.

Also near the Eisenhower Museum are the Dickinson County Historical Museum, with exhibits on life in the plains and westward expansion, and the Museum of Independent Telephony, with antique telephones and switchboards.

Other attractions include Old Abilene Town and Museum, the Hall of Generals with wax figures of famous World War II generals, the Antique Doll Museum and the Abilene Library Doll Collection.

IF YOU GO: Abilene is about 300 miles west of Kansas City on I-70. Among its attractions: