The Cowboy Trail and Story in Abilene!

Are you a cowboy hat wearing admirer of the cowboy story, or just a fan of the Old West? If so, Abilene, Kansas has wild west history that came rolling into their town with the advent of the cattle drive. Today you can relive a little of that western past through the historic buildings, murals, and stops like the Big Spur and the World’s Largest Belt Buckle. Visit Abilene hosted us for a visit, and I’m excited to share our cowboy trail adventure! While in town we shopped, dined and saw it all.

The Tall Grass Prairie

The town of Abilene was first settled in 1858 when Timothy F. Hersey and family built a log cabin. Abilene began as a stagecoach stop and was first called Mud Creek. Later I read that the town name became Abilene from Mrs. Heresy who was inspired by a passage in the Bible (Luke 3:1), which means “City of the Plains.”

It wasn’t until the railroad came to town that things changed for the sparsely populated town. In 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railroad was built prompting the first cattle drive that same year. It was the tall grass prairie in the Flint Hills area that helped fatten the cattle as they were driven northward. A stop in Manhattan, Kansas at the Flint Hills Discovery Center taught us that, “The Flint Hills is a unique tallgrass prairie ecosystem found in central North America centered on Kansas and northern Oklahoma (where they are known as the Osage Hills). It is a tallgrass prairie, a type of temperate grassland, marked by few trees but abundant forbs and grasses that can grow up to 10 feet tall.”

The shallow soil encourages the Blue Stem grass to sink deep roots and anchor the grasses. At one point, 150 million acres of tallgrass prairie stretched from Texas to Canada. Today only 4% of this unique ecosystem remains in the nearby Flint Hills. Bison once roamed freely on these hills, and the settlers found the area was perfect for raising cattle.

With the advent of the railroad, the first cattle drive brought cattle from Texas to the nearest railway spur to ship cattle to Kansas City and on to Chicago and other stops.

The Cattle Drive Days

It wasn’t long after the first cattle drive that the town of Abilene changed forever. The first cattle drive from Texas to Abilene took place in 1867. Visit Abilene’s website shares, “In 1867 when Joseph McCoy came to Kansas looking for a suitable place to construct a stockyard.  Abilene was not his first choice but is where he ended up at…”

Joseph McCoy was a cattle and mule entrepreneur. Knowing that Texas had an almost unlimited amount of cattle, he learned that value of the cows once they arrived at the Chicago stockyards skyrocketed. Abilene’s population surged to around 3,000 residents and eleven saloons! For three years the drives took place along the Chisolm Trail. The trail was named for Jesse Chisholm, a trader of Cherokee descent from Tennessee. Developed along with scout Black Beaver, they were the first two men to drive cattle north along this route.

During the drives a whopping 1.5 million plus head of cattle came to town. While this might have been a great economic boom, it wasn’t long before Abilene was known as the wildest place in the west!

Besides being wild, the cattle didn’t always stay “on the trail” either. We learned the story of the Seeyle Girls using their tea towels to route cattle off their lawn during our visit to the Seeyle Mansion. The home is a beautiful mansion built in 1905 by Jacob L. Krueger for Dr. A.B. Seelye. “Dr” Seeyle created several medicines and spices selling first door to door, then with salesmen going from city to city. The lovely Seeley Mansion, was named in “8 Wonders of Kansas – Architecture.”

Time for Change!

The cowboys driving the cattle were not model citizens. The Visit Abilene website shares, “After being on the trail for three to five months the cowboys would get paid and were ready to celebrate. Saloons, dance halls and houses of ill-fame were common stopping spots for the cowboys. Drinking and gambling were the two favorite past-times, however, many try to find the companionship of a female either in the dance halls or in ‘devil’s addition’.”

The locals decided enough was enough, and in 1870, they hired two professional police officers from Saint Louis, Missouri. It wasn’t long lived, they only lasted one day before returning home. It was the first marshal, “Bear River” Smith literally using his fists that had an impact. Sadly, he was shot and killed by settlers over a dispute. After Smith’s death, the city brought in Wild Bill Hickok to bring order to the town.

Wild Bill’s end of the line.

Wild Bill brought the city under control but had a run in with the owner of the Bull’s Head Saloon. We stopped at the site where the event took place, the Alamo Saloon. There is a placard that shares, “The Alamo Saloon was the grandest drinking and gambling establishment on Texas Street. The Alamo faced west on Cedar Street and became Wild Bill Hickok’s Headquarters during his tenure as Marshal. It was at this site, in 1871, that Wild Bill Hickok exchanged deadly gunfire with Texas gambler Phil Coe. Unable to see in the darkness, Hickok fired both pistols at another figure bursting into the light, with gun drawn. Sadly, that figure was his friend and Deputy, Mike Williams.”

Devastated by his friend’s death, Wild Bill Hickok was fired, and cattle drives were banned. It was the end of an era in the Wild West town.

The trail!

Today you can follow the murals, and the cowboy boot trail. The boot trail was based on T.C. McInerney’s Drovers Boot Store from the 1870s.

Then, there are fun stops like the World’s Largest Spur that was built by Larry Houston in 2002 and was certified as the World’s Largest Spur by Guinness World Records until 2017. The World’s Largest Belt Buckle stands 9 feet 10 ½ inches wide and 13 feet 11 ¼ inches tall (not including the frame). Best of all, you can climb the stairs, and “wear” the buckle!

My personal favorite stop was the Abilene Cowboy, a one-of-a-kind piece of art. It stands more than 15 feet tall and weighs more than one ton and was created by artists: Jason Lahr and Donnie Knauss.

During the summer months, fun can be had at Old Abilene Town – Where the Chisholm Trail Ends. While it wasn’t open during our visit, I was able to walk by the buildings and fun stops! You can also check out the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo, named one of the best medium-sized PRCA rodeos in the country, it attracts thousands of spectators and contestants each year. I loved the cowboy art leading into the site.

There is also a fun bull to pose with in front of the restaurant, the Brookville Hotel. The Heritage Center of Dickinson County is a fun place to find information about both the American pioneer, and cowboy life. Another fun summer stop is the Smoky Valley Railroad where you can ride a steam train!

Western history is just part of the draw in this town where the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home is located. Have you been to Abilene? If so, what did you do and see?