Have you never watched a movie western where the action was in Abilene?
This city is located in the central part of Texas, some 300 kilometres west of Dallas, in an area called "The Big Country". Abilene saw its birth on March 1881 when the Texas & Pacific Railways was completed with the opening of a railway station where now Abilene is. The newspapers of those days used to describe Abilene as the "Future Great City of West Texas".
Before the arrival of the railway the area of Abilene was time by time inhabited by tribes of American nomadic Indians, then by buffalo hunters and soldiers. Later arrived the "rancheros" and within 1870 all original American Indians disappeared from the area (the American Government called this action "civilization", I think it should be called "genocide"). With the railway arrived some hundreds people that called the new city Abilene to remember the city, with the same name, in Kansas famous for its cattle-breeding.
Today, Abilene is a city of little more than one hundred thousand inhabitants and still keeps its glamour of "city of wild frontier".
To live again the atmosphere of that era we go to the historic downtown and walk along the Cypress Street where the milestones of Abilene are located.
At 101 there is the building where is located the ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS, the newspaper of Abilene that is also the oldest business of the city and started in 1881, just few months after the city birth. The GRACE CULTURAL CENTER is located at number 102 in a building that housed an hotel. This building was the first sight for railway passengers approaching Abilene. Today is home for three museums: "Art Museum" has collections of artists from all over the world; "Historical Museum" remembers the life in the western Texas from 1910 to 1945 with an extensive collection of photos and objects and also recounts the history of the Texas & Pacific Railways, and furthermore, very strange for a state of the south part of USA, the history of Ku Klux Klan including its wrongdoing. At 158 now there is a restaurant but in the past was the location of a laundry and a drugstore. The oldest business building of Abilene is located at 174. Built on 1890, it was the house for the "Windsor Hotel. It is a very nice building with ample bow windows on its second and third floors; on the top a terrace with wrought iron balustrade. Now this place is known as CYPRESS BUILDING. A block ahead, at Second and Cypress junction we visit the VERA MINTER MEMORIAL PARK dedicated to the person, Ver Hall Minter, who spent his life and his work to develop Abilene. Walking along Cypress we can see many other buildings, all erected during the 20th century. Each one has his own history and may be they don't interest the readers but believe me, strolling in this area send your mind to some American movies set in '20-'30 epoch. We reach now 352 where the PARAMOUNT THEATRE is located. This theatre is on three floors with colonial-renaissance Spanish style. "Première" was on May 19, 1930. Go inside, turn-up your nose and look the ceiling decorated like a sky with clouds and stars. The entrance hall has high columns, hand made glass candelabrums and two ample staircases. The auditorium has 1200 seats and the stage is surrounded by two high Moresque towers. Depending from the time you visit Abilene, you can watch musicals, shows or just new released movies.
We leave Cypress and reach 1101 North First Street where T & P DEPOT is located. This complex has been built, in 1910, as a support for the railway and the local railway station. The last train left T & P DEPOT in 1967 with only 39 passengers on board making the end of an era marked by several territorial expansion towards the wild west.
In 1930 Abilene became location of military bases and training camps. Today remains only the DYESS AIR FORCE BASE as a training centre for the B-1 bomber pilots. If you are an aviation fan as I'm, you must visit, inside the Air Force base, the "Linear Airk Park" where are parked several type of military aircrafts that have been used during the wars, from the 1st World War to the most recent Desert Storm operation. Of course this is not an educational tour, as the wars are always a bad thing, but you can learn about the improvements in air transportation as most of the military aircraft new technologies have been applied to the commercial liners.
Not to far from the Air Force Base is the 12th ARMORED DIVISION MEMORIAL MUSEUM built-up to remembers the American soldiers that lost their lives in the 2nd World War against the Nazi. This divion was part of the force that freed many Nazi concentration camps, including Dachau. The documents available here can help the visitors to learn more about the 2nd World War including the effect on American people caused by this war.
We leave these locations full of sad events and move to an area where we can have a full immersion in the life of the wild west conquerors. BUFFALO GAP HISTORIC VILLAGE includes original buildings from the very first Abilene. We enter the "Taylor County Courthouse", the oldest building of the whole County of Abilene. Our mind flies back to the early time of this city and might have a vision of a trial led by a judge more interested to private business than to a true justice and with the defendant sentenced to death by hanging after a summary trial. Then we become a buffalo hunter entering a simple log cabin constructed in 1875 by J.M. Knight. And again the railway station, two classrooms, a blacksmith shop (still working but only for visitors), a 1926 Texaco gas station with its hand powered pumps. We can see also a rich collection of native Indians objects as well as firearms used by pioneers (to kill the native Indians, I add).
In 1851, to defend the pioneers from the assaults of the native Indians (or may be to push out from this territory the native Indians, I add) the military force erected the FORT PHANTOM HILL that lost his military and strategic position just after very few years and became a post-stage for the stage coach of the "Overland Mail Route". Of the original complex of the fort remains only three building and a dozen of chimneys (of the destroyed buildings).
You might bee interested to wear a pair of boots like the Texan cowboys, may be made with snake skin. Or you might be interested to know the process to produce them. If your answer is yes you should stop at JAMES LEDDY BOOTS, a factory outlet where you can see a large number of models and buy a ready made pair or just order one according to your size and style (you pay in advance and you get them by UPS at home within 40 days).
A visit to Abilene is not complete without a stop at the 300 hectare ABILENE STATE PARK. We can hike along many trails looking for deer, squirrels, armadillos, foxes, hares as well as different species of birds. There picnic areas and some volleyball, tennis and other sport facilities. In a ranch we can see buffalos and the very famous white Texan longhorn ox.
Abilene has also a very nice zoo where we can watch buffalos, coyotes, prairie dogs, wild turkeys and the famous roadrunners (do you remember the famous cartoon? Beeeeep….Beeeeeeep…).
Tired to walk around? Just enter in a saloon replica, seat at one table and place an order for 2" thick T-Bone steak along with refried beans and a cold Lone Star beer.
Abilene wishes to keep its attitude of wild west frontier city and the local government encourages the evocative festivals. In May there is the WESTERN HERITAGE CLASSIC, it is a three weeks event with parades, country song and poetry contests. During the first 10 days of September Abilene holds the TEXAS FAIR AND RODEO. Visitor can taste the old pioneers foods, watch rodeos, parade with bands and herds of white longhorn ox escorted by true cowboys. There is also the commemoration of the Fort Phantom Hill fire. The ruins of the fort are illuminated in a way that looks on fire and can be watched at a distance of 15/20 kilometres.
Abilene is a destination that can't be visited in a single day. It is a place that requires to be enjoyed slowly, piece by piece. Don't go to Abilene if you don't like to walk. Don't go to Abilene if you don't like history. Go to Abilene if you like to think about what happened in the past and what it could happen if the "white man" didn't destroyed all the native Indians.
I have been there several times and I always I found something new to see and got new sensations.
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