Wild and Wicked Abilene

The Alamo Saloon is where life converges in Old Abilene Town. During the tourist season CanCan girls still kick up their heels on stage, while outside on the street gunfights ensue. After you've wet your whistle on a bottle of sasparillo, take a stroll up Main Street and visit the general store and museum.

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There's nothing fancy about the White House Motel, but the rooms are clean and the price is right. Rooms are basically one or two bed with an adjourning bath. The bathrooms have both shower and tub. TV with the usual cable options is available.

The White House is not a new facility and there are a few chinks in the bathroom tiles, but other than that, it is in fairly good shape.

This restaurant has a convenient location to the White House Motel and several other motels in town. The location is probably the best thing it has going for it. The food is mediocre at best and the interior of the building lacks any charm in it's atmosphere. If you really want to eat Chinese food in Abilene this is most likely where you will end up. The dining experience isn't bad, but it could certainly be better. UPDATE: 7/27/01 This restaurant has gone out of business.

The Abilene Sonic Drive-In is a superb place to get fast food. Not only do you get prompt service and hot, tasty food, but you also get a trip down memory lane as Sonic is one of the old-time drive-ins where you park your car and the food is brought to you by a waitress. The location of this restaurant in Abilene is choice, right on a major intersection, but with easy on and off access.

Kirby House Restaurant is both a dining experience and a step back into the past. The restaurant itself is an old, fully restored 1855 gingerbread mansion. Meals are served at lunch and dinner and the menu fare is varied. Lunches range from about $6.00 to $8.00, while dinner prices range between $9.95 and $18.95. I didn't manage to wander through much of the house while I was there, but what I did see was fascinating.

Bus tours frequently stop at the Kirby House and it seems to be quite the tourist attraction. Also, private dining rooms are available. You can e-mail this restaurant at grtfood@kirby-house.com

Trains were a large part of the settlement of the Old West. To experience the speed and comfort (not really much comfort compared to today's luxuries) that the Old West traveler experience, take a ride on the Abilene & Smoky Valley Excursion Train. The track runs from near Old Abilene Town to the town of Enterprise, a distance of about six miles. It can be boarded near the Greyhound Hall of Fame on Hwy 15. To call ahead, the number is 785-263-0881 This excursion train only runs a regular schedule during May, September and October. However, the dinner train and regular excurstion train can be reserved for special occasions.

Also, the price is very reasonable. It's best to call for the current ratings, but during Enterprise Kountry Klatter Days it was possible to take a step back into history on the train for only $3.00 per person. One gets a different perspective on life bouncing along the track through the open prairie and along the Smoky Hill River than what is normally experienced from your automobile.

Abilene, Kansas was once known as the "wildest and wickedest town in the west." It was the site of the largest stockyard west of Kansas City. During the five year span from 1867 to 1872 more than 3 million Texas longhorn cattle passed through these stockyards. Old Abilene Town was established to commemorate this heritage. I've been visiting Old Abilene Town for about the past 12 to 15 years and over that time, unfortunately, I've seen it decline from a thriving attraction to something more or less ho-hum. A few of the buildings that used to house historic attractions now stand empty. The Alamo Saloon is still open and the cancan dancers still perform here. The General Store across the road is still open, and gunfights are still staged during tourist season.

The museum that stands at the north end of the reconstructed main street is fascinating to tour, but don't expect fancy modern displays. The objects contained within the walls are antiques and I think that some of the dust and cobwebs have gained the status of antique at this point too.

It is sad to see that the old town has lost some of its appeal and hoopla, but I still think it is a good place to visit and take kids. History means so much more when it stands in front of your face.

Ironically, the day that I posted this travel journal, September 7, 2000, my husband came home from work and told me that a fire had destroyed the General Store in Old Abilene Town. On the 10th I finally got into town to take pictures of the damage.

Surprisingly, there was still a posting that the CanCan dances and Gunfights were still being held despite the fire. My thinking is, though, that Old Abilene Town has already seen its glory days and unless something drastic happens to change things, it will continue to decline. The old Hotel building next door to the General Store is for sale and has been vacant of any kind of an attraction for several years now. There are a few signs of renewed effort to keep the town alive, but it may be too little, too late.

So sad.

Abilene in the 2nd half of the 19th century was the end of the trail for the huge cattle drives that came up from Texas. From Abilene, the cattle were loaded onto train cars for the slaughter houses back east.

Dusty cowpokes rode into town after upwards to 90 days on the trail and they were ready to lay their money down and party over at the Alamo saloon. The trail drives and cattle companies were what made Abilene significant in those days.

Old Abilene Town has some remnants of that past in two cattle pens on the northeast side of the premises. Sadly, there are no cattle there now, just some old pens and the signs from by-gone days. Maybe if they put a few longhorns back into those pens it might liven the place up.