By Ron Wilson, Poet Lariat (as shared in Grass and Grain)
Old Abilene
It was a great day for Abilene. People came from all over the country, and Abilene was their destination. That may sound like Old West times – and there were indeed longhorn cattle in the streets – but this took place in 2022.
The occasion was a media event put on by Kansas Tourism and hosted by the City of Abilene. More than 40 travel writers and bloggers from across the country came to Abilene as part of a promotion of the Kansas travel industry. The first night welcome party was in Old Abilene Town. The following day’s schedule called for visits to the newly opened exhibits at the Eisenhower Center and Museum and the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo that night. During the day, representatives of the other Kansas travel regions came and shared their attractions with the travel writers.
Abilene pulled out the stops, and it was great. Old Abilene Town was hoppin’ as local citizens and the travel writers showed up for the fun. CVB Director Julie Roller Weeks and Old Abilene Town’s Michael Hook pulled together a tremendous event.
Old Abilene Town is one of my favorite places. It is a recreation of an 1860s pioneer village, built to represent Abilene’s history as the first of the famous cattle towns. I remember visiting Old Abilene Town as a kid and having a ton of fun. Through the following decades, I also saw it become rundown. I’m so thrilled that a group of volunteers have rallied together to rebuild and reinvigorate this historic landmark.
Old Abilene Town looked great on this night in 2022. Just as the scene might have appeared more than 150 years ago, cowboys on horseback drove a herd of longhorn cattle down the main street of Old Abilene Town and loaded them onto a train car pulled by a steam engine. It was a sight to see – although in 1867, there probably wasn’t a throng of people holding up cell phones to record the moment.
Can can dancers performed at the saloon. Gunfighters had a shootout in the streets. Dave Zerfas of Manhattan crooned his cowboy ballads. A stagecoach gave rides to happy passengers. High schoolers played great music and sang onstage. The steam locomotive whistled as the excursion train took visitors down the tracks. What a fantastic night.
I performed cowboy poetry in the Bull’s Head Pavilion. I pointed out that Wild Bill Hickok, for example, wasn’t just a character in a comic book or a Hollywood movie. There really was a Wild Bill Hickok who roamed the streets of this very town.
Fellow Grass & Grain columnist Jim Gray was also there. He has written eloquently on these pages about the genuine western history of Kansas towns, including Abilene. There’s no better Old West historian than Jim.
Speaking of the Bull’s Head, that is another victory for Abilene. It is historically documented that Abilene’s Bull’s Head Saloon, owned by Shotgun Ben Thompson, was a popular spot for the drovers at the end of the trail.
In 2021, Julie Roller Weeks received an online notice that the actual wooden Bull’s Head from the saloon, complete with a certificate of authenticity, would be put up for auction. It had gotten into the hands of an out-of-state collector who was putting it up for sale. Once again the citizens of Abilene rallied together. They donated funds and outbid everyone else for the beautiful Bull’s Head, which is now proudly on display at the Trails Center in Old Abilene Town.
It was another great day for Abilene.
Coming up in a future column: The true story of another bull who made a comeback.
