Why Abilene Kansas Was Voted The Best Small Town To Visit

We trace Abilene, Kansas from a Chisholm Trail boomtown to Eisenhower’s hometown, stopping for a mansion wired by Edison, a Greyhound Hall of Fame greeting, a 1901 carousel ride, and a back-room chocolate secret. History, food, trains, murals, and small-town charm deliver a trip worth planning.

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Transcript

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Welcome to Abilene, Kansas

Bob Bales 0:00

Hi, and welcome to The Traveling Fool, the show where we talk about travel destinations and the history and culture around those destinations. I'm your host, Bob Bales, and today I'm taking you to a place that has a Hall of Fame, a history of a president, and the old West. That's right, I'm talking about Abilene, Kansas. So stay tuned, and we'll be right back.

Bob Bales 0:27

Cattle Drives and Wild West Roots

Bob Bales 1:15

It is one of the best small town destinations in America. And that's not just me telling you that. They actually won the award. But Abilene, Kansas has a little bit of everything from Old West history to presidential history to a Hall of Fame museum, which I did not know about until I arrived there and was pleasantly surprised. But Abilene was where the Chisholm Trail ended. In fact, Abilene started because of the cattle drives. And it brought many a traveler, made Abilene one of the wildest towns in the West. The stockyards in Abilene shipped 35,000 head of cattle in 1867 and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, Kansas. And one of the marshals at Abilene, in fact, the second marshal after the first one got killed, was Wild Bill Hickock. He became the marshal there in eighteen seventy one. He only lasted about six months, but he made a mark on the place, and then he moved on. But there is a lot to see and do in this small town. Let me tell you about a few places I visited, and I hope you have the opportunity to go see them yourself.

The Seely Mansion Story

Bob Bales 2:33

Abilene has a couple of mansions in town. You know, towards the end of the eighteen hundreds after the Wild West era, there was a fellow by the name of doctor AB Seeley. He founded the company called the AB Seeley Medical Company. And you gotta remember this late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds. These were little more than snake oil. He got very rich doing it, but I mean they had everything from cleaning products to uh insect killers to stuff to make your hair grow. He came out with just tons of stuff, but he built a beautiful, beautiful mansion that hosted everything from presidents to political figures to you name it over the years. Well, his daughters inherited the mansions. Um they were both unmarried, and when they were getting up in age, there was a a fellow that fell in love with the place. He just passed by, took a look at it, befriended the old ladies, and wound up buying the place and living there with them until both of them passed. He still lives there today. His name's Terry. I met him, great guy, but he's opened up the mansion. The mansion is fabulous. I mean, you gotta go visit this place. There's just stuff in there that you're not gonna see anywhere else. I mean, they've got Tiffany tile work and the lights were put in by Thomas Edison. I mean, he wired the house, so I mean it is fabulous. You gotta visit this place.

Bob Bales 4:08

But in addition to the Seely Mansion, like I said, it has presidential influence.

Eisenhower’s Library and Legacy

Bob Bales 4:14

President Dwight David Eisenhower, and I'm from Texas, so we do claim that he was born here, and he was born here. We're very proud of that. Unfortunately, he left and went to Kansas about six months later with his family. So he he doesn't remember ever being in Texas. He claimed Abilene as his home, and that's fine, but we know where he was born. But anyway, the Eisenhower Presidential Museum and Library is located in Abilene because that's where he grew up. That's where he spent his youth, that's where he called home. And that's the place he loved. This is a fabulous museum and library. I've been to a couple presidential libraries, and this one is very large. I mean, it takes up a large space because of what's there. You've got the independent library, which is a research library, and you can't just walk into it. You actually have to make an appointment to get in there and tell them what you're looking for. And there's thousands and thousands of archives of when he was president, when he was uh in the military, when he was the Supreme Allied commander during World War II, and there's always people in there doing research. And then there is the museum, and then there's a huge area. I mean, a massive like parade ground almost, where there's a bronze statue of him, along with his boyhood home as located on the grounds. But the museum itself, it's fabulous. It goes through his early childhood, his parents and his family and everything, and he goes through his time at West Point and his early military career and a lot about World War II and being the Supreme Allied Commander and all kinds of artifacts and documents, his time as president and what he did and what was accomplished during that time period. And it is a really interesting look at a kind of a historic time capsule. Now the other thing is there is that's also where the president, his wife, and one of his infant children are buried. There's a chapel on the grounds, and they are buried there. So it's kind of a reflecting area. But it's definitely a must see. If you're in Abilene or if you're in the presidential libraries, there's a lot of people that travel around the country and visit presidential libraries. This is one of the best ones I've ever been to. And I've been to three or four of them.

Bob Bales 6:51

Now, right across the street from the presidential library is a hall of fame. And I did not know it was there until I got to Abilene.

Greyhound Hall of Fame Surprise

Bob Bales 7:00

And they're telling me, well, if you have time, you ought to go check out this uh Greyhound Hall of Fame. I'm thinking, Greyhound Hall of Fame, I didn't know Greyhound buses had a Hall of Fame. They were like, no, no, Greyhound dogs. Like, oh, well, that makes more sense. So what are Greyhound Dogs Hall of Fame doing in Abilene, Kansas? That that didn't make sense to me. I did not know Kansas was a big dog racing place. And in fact, as of this date that I'm doing this podcast, there's only two Greyhound racetracks in the United States left. They're both in Virginia. We used to have one here in Houston. I went to it many years ago. And it was fun. It was a blast seeing these dogs race. But they told me that Peter got involved and said the poor little puppies were being mistreated, which was a lie. They weren't. I mean, the greyhound racing people and the breeders and everything, these dogs are are treated like kings, trust me. But Kansas has a lot of farms that raise greyhounds. I would not have thought that. Not what I mean, it's it didn't dawn on me that they would be raised in Kansas. But that is the premier place that greyhound racing dogs come from. And there's still a whole lot of farms out there that raise greyhounds. But since there's only two racetracks in the United States, most of these dogs are shipped overseas, where greyhound racing is still very popular. And these breeders take extremely good care of these dogs. I mean, they are treated to the best of everything because I mean it's a it's a purebred dog race specifically for racing. Just like horses or some of these thoroughbreds are treated magnificently well because they're used for racing, and the people that buy them have a huge investment. So no, they're not mistreated.

Bob Bales 9:04

But they have the Hall of Fame there. And what is really cool is when you walk in the door, these two big old greyhounds come running out, well, kind of trotting out from the back office where they lay down to sleep all the time, and they just come trotting out to greet you. They don't bark, they don't jump on you, they just come trotting out and stand right next to you and look at you like, well, are you gonna pet me or not? So you I mean, they're just friendly as all get out. They're beautiful dogs. So after about two or three minutes of petting them and just gushing all over 'em, they look at you and go, okay, that's enough. And they turn around, walk out, and go back into the office and lay down and go to sleep. And the lady that was there goes, Yep, that's what they do. They greet everybody, then they turn around and go right back to sleep. But the Hall of Fame is fantastic. It gives you all kinds of perspective on some of the famous dogs, the history of Greyhound racing, the history of it in America, some of the important people in the industry. But while I was there, they also I was asking her, I said, Well, these are ex-racing dogs. She goes, Yeah, they only race for a couple of years and they will retire them and they get adopted out. And so people adopt them. She goes, I've got a couple of them. I said, Really? She goes, Well,

Dickinson Heritage and 1901 Carousel

Bob Bales 10:20

if you want to learn more, there's actually one of the organizations in the back room that's having a meeting today, and um they handle adoption. So I went back there and talked to them. And there was a couple of more greyhounds back there. Did the same thing, just come walking up to me, wanted to be petted, turned around, went back and laid down. And I said, So tell me about this.

Bob Bales 10:40

They said, Well, we're associated with the premier licensed and sanctioned body that handles a lot of the adoptions, and they're some of the best pets you could ever have if you just want a pet. She goes, They're not good guard dogs. They're great pets, but they're not good guard dogs because everybody's a big a friend of them, and they don't do anything but just lay around. She goes, She was telling me about once or twice a day, you gotta let them out in the backyard which needs to be fenced, or you need to have a big area where they can run around because they love to run. It's what they're bred for. Said you let them out, they run around like crazy for 10, 15 minutes at full blast. And then they're they're tired. They're like, okay, that's it. They come back in the house, they go down and lay down. And they just want to lay there and be petted and eat and sleep. Twice a day they want to get out and run. She goes, they're great pets, they follow you all through the house, you know, and just they just want to be with you and want to be petted on. That's it. But the Hall of Fame, if you get a chance, you gotta go visit it. And it's right across the street from the Presidential Library Museum, so you can't miss it.

Bob Bales 11:52

Now, one of the other things to see while you were there is the Dickinson County Heritage Center, which is kind of like a little museum. It tells you all about Dickinson County. It goes into a lot of Eisenhower stuff from his family and things, but it also goes into the history of Dickinson County and things like that. It's real interesting. And once you get through the inside parts, you walk out the back door, and there is a huge area with a bunch of buildings that have been relocated there. So you can see some of the old buildings and walk through them and see what they have to offer.

Bob Bales 12:30

But one of the big things there and the big draw is a 1901 C.W. Parker carousel. These are the old carousels with the hand-carved horses and stuff like this. And the music that's the original music machine that's mechanical.

Old Abilene Town and Steam Train

Bob Bales 12:50

And there's a guy sitting out there who's just waiting for you to come up, bring your kids, or if you want to do it, that's fine too, and ride that thing. And he turns it on, the music plays, and it goes around three or four times. And how often do you get a chance to ride a carousel that was built in nineteen oh one? But it's fabulous. I mean, it's it's amazing that this thing used to be taken down and put together almost weekly when it traveled around the country. But it's it's a great place in the County Heritage Center. It's really cool, a lot of interesting stuff in there.

Bob Bales 13:23

Also in that general vicinity is old Abilene Town. Now, unfortunately, a lot of the old buildings from the Wild West days are gone, but you can go to old Abilene Town. There are some old buildings that have been moved there and a lot reconstructed to resemble what Abilene looked like back in the day. In fact, one of the buildings when you walk in there, it has a diorama of miniature setting of Abilene, where you can punch a button, it'll tell you what happened there and what was going on at this location. And the place was full of saloons, as you can imagine, but it had all kinds of interesting stuff happen there. And they do recreations and gunfights every now and then and things like that. The kids have a blast, but it's a lot of history there, and it's just really cool. And it's located right next to the railroad.

Bob Bales 14:11

The old railroad, I mean the steam engine type railroad, where you can buy a ticket and they'll take you on a steam engine railroad locomotive ride. And they do themed rides and stuff every now and then too, I understand. But I wanted to go, didn't get a chance to. And it goes, I don't know, twenty, thirty miles up the track, turns around and comes back. But there's always people riding that thing, and it looked like a blast. I would have loved to have gone on it had I had the opportunity. But there's all kinds of things to see and do around Abilene.

Bob Bales 14:42

I mean, because Eisenhower grew up there, they have things like the world's largest I like Ike button. Now, when Eisenhower was running for president, had a campaign button that said I like Ike. That's what everybody wore. Well, they got the world's largest there in downtown,

Photo Ops, Murals, and Boots Tour

Bob Bales 15:00

along with the world's largest belt buckle. So you gotta get your picture taken with the world's largest belt buckle, get you a selfie, put it on your Instagram, show everybody you're enabling. And there's just all kinds of other stuff there. They have the Eisenhower Park and Rose Garden, which is a beautiful rose garden and cool park, and there's a lot of playgrounds and stuff nearby and uh other area along with the public swimming pool and everything. So it's really cool. I drove by there and took some photos of it. Then they have the Little Ike Park, which is just a little bitty park in downtown. Um it's got a little statue of uh Eisenhower when he was a youth and a couple other things.

Bob Bales 15:41

But you know, the tourism people do a great job of promoting Abilene. And one of the things people like to do when they travel is take photos of stuff, so they've they've got a couple of little photo challenges or tours you can take. One is the cowboy art tour. The cowboy boot art tour, I should say. They've got these boots, I think they're made out of concrete, I don't know, but they're intricately hand painted at various themes. And they stand three and a half foot tall, something like that. And they're all over town. There's probably fifteen of them. And so you can either ask the tourism place, you know, where's all these booths located so I can go get photos of them? Or you can kind of have a mystery of just trying to find them on your own. But one of them's right next to the tourism place, which is right downtown near the railroad tracks. It's got a big boot sitting out front along with a phone booth. Like one of these old English phone booths. Why is there? I don't know. At least for some reason I I remember seeing one there. I'm hoping there's one there. Otherwise I'm gonna sound silly telling you about it. But I could swear there's like an old English phone booth sitting out front of this tourism place. But they got them like painted up like the C.W. Parker carousel boot, the wild Bill Hick boot, and a patriotism boot, and one that talks about the history of farming and the cattle industry and stuff.

Bob Bales 17:04

And another thing you can do is the mural tour. I like to take photos of murals when in these towns because every town has well not everyone, but a lot of them have murals painted. And these are different than just graffiti. These a lot of these towns, the small towns especially, will have a mural that depicts something about the history of the town or something. And they are all over Abilene. There's probably another fifteen or twenty murals, things about Eisenhower, the cattle drives

Gunfighters, Saloons, and Cemetery Stops

Bob Bales 17:35

or the trains or wild bill hiccock. And you can drive around town and get photos of these murals everywhere. Now if you're into photography, there's a place downtown called Jeff coat Photography Museum. He was a photographer in town that for years chronicled everything newsworthy and every important person that ever came through Abilene and other areas in Kansas, but he built a museum that's got all kinds of old cameras and just photographs and stuff, and it's it's pretty cool. So stop by and check out the Jeff coat Photography Museum.

Bob Bales 18:11

There's also a place downtown where the original Alamo Saloon was located. It's not there anymore. The building's not there. There's another building that's there, but there's a plaque on the wall. And the Alamo Saloon was considered one of the grandest saloons of the Old West. I mean it was huge, had the big mirrors behind the bar and the nude paintings up on the walls and gaming tables all over the place and a huge long bar that was like forty foot long, and that was the premier bar and one of the most famous in the Old West. It was also the place that While Bill Hiccock wound up in a gunfight. Now, I'll step back a little bit. There was a fellow named Tom Bear River Smith. He was the first marshal of Abilene. He never carried a gun, but he arrested a lot of people and he did it using his hands. I mean he would just beat the heck out of them if they gave up if they started to fight him. Well Tom Bear River Smith wound up dying when he tried to arrest a couple of fellows. A gunfight broke out. Of course, Tom didn't have a gun. But he did take care of one of them before the other one shot him and killed him. And the very next marshal of that town was Wild Bill Hickok. And Wild Bill got in a gunfight with a Texas drover, I think his last name was Coy, and uh gunfire was involved, and he accidentally, while Bill accidentally shot his friend who was coming to help him in the fight, devastated Wild Bill, and there was a big uproar about it. He wound up moving on from Abilene, did things in Hayes and other places and wound up in Deadwood, South Dakota, where somebody shot him.

Bob Bales 19:56

The Abilene Cemetery, you can go see the graves of President Dwight Eisenhower's parents. Um you can also see the grave of Tom Bear River Smith. So it's a cool little thing on the side uh side trip, just run down to the cemetery. I like checking all those cemeteries. I've checked out cemeteries in El Paso, Texas, where you got gunfighters and lawmen and buffalo soldiers buried, and other places in Kansas actually, and

Chocolate Factory Hacks and Eats

Bob Bales 20:24

places in Texas, just all over. Cemeteries are cool. Now while you're there, go check out the giant spur. There's a big old giant spur. Another one of them photo ops, but something they have there that it's not the main corporate headquarters, but they do have a facility there, and you gotta stop by. They manufacture Russell Stover chocolates there. You got a sweet tooth? You gotta go buy this place because they have a store where you can buy tons of Russell Stover chocolates. I mean everything from malted milk balls to fudge to you name it, and there's boxes and things on sale and discounts and just tons and tons and tons of stuff. Now I'm gonna tell you a secret.

Bob Bales 21:05

Don't tell nobody. When you go in, they have a big area where you can buy fudge and all this stuff, and then they have all the boxes lined up and candies and everything, and you're shopping all these boxes. Look at the very back of the place, and there's a door, and if you go in that door, the sale items are back there. And when you look around, there's one that says bloopers. This is the stuff that they make that doesn't come out, doesn't look quite right. It's the same chocolate. It just didn't look right. It was shaped funny or something. Well, they'll say a box of this stuff. It's like two or three pounds for fifteen dollars. I mean you can't buy it. I mean it's uh a box of just mismatched chocolate. Everything's in there. And if you like Russell Stover chocolates, instead of buying you you can buy a box of your favorites, but go back there and buy a box of those bloopers for like fifteen bucks. I bought a box, brought it home for the wife, and well, most of it made home. Well, some of it a lot of it made it home. Well, not a lot, but some of it made it home, and she she got some of it. But it it was good, I'm telling you, it was really good. And there's a lot of good places to eat there while you're in town. I mean, I went to a place called Joe Snuffy's old-fashioned grill. I like going to these local places, and Joe Snuffy's been around forever, and it's just a cafe, just a local cafe for breakfast and lunch and stuff, and they got good food, and you can't go wrong. But one place you gotta go is called Legacy, Kansas.

Bob Bales 22:38

Now, let me tell you about this place. Legacy, Kansas is located at the Brookville Hotel, which is the old hotel, like a hundred years old. And I think it's still a hotel. You can actually get a couple of rooms here, but downstairs is the Legacy Kansas restaurant. They don't tell you this, so you look silly because for some reason that the lady at the front, I I believe, thinks everybody should know how they operate when you walk in. So I'm gonna

Nightlife Picks and Local Favorites

Bob Bales 23:05

tell you how they operate. When you walk into that place, there's a little slip of paper which is the menu, and it's either chicken or steak. At least that was it's always chicken, and I think most of the time it's steak. That's it. That's what's on the menu. And you tell her what you want, and then you go sit down. Now, I ordered my meals. If you order steak, they bring you a steak. But if you order the chicken, which ninety-nine percent of the people do, it comes out on a platter. They serve it family style. And we're talking 15 pieces of chicken on a platter, and you can get more. And uh they bring all the fixings out. I mean, they just cover the table with fixings, they bring you your salad, and they bring you all kinds of stuff out there. And then at the end they bring you the ice cream and everything. But that's the thing to know. When you walk up there, you're gonna order before you ever go sit down. Then when you at the end, you can pay. But get the chicken, try it out. It's a really good, famous place in town. Everybody will tell you, go to Legacy, Kansas, have the chicken.

Bob Bales 24:08

Another good place to check out is Munson Prime Tap House. It's a cool place to check out, along with MR Grill. They've got some pretty good food there. I checked them out. It was a good downtown, they've got Racket's Tap House, R-A-C-K-E-T-S, Racket. I know my Texas accent, along with the raspy voice from my many cigars, does not always come off right. But Racket's Tap House is a cool place. Beer, whiskey, good place. That was a huge crowd the night I stopped by. Um lively place, and it's it's just a real cool place to check out. It's right next to that little Ike Spark. Across the street from there, or it may be one street over, but I think it's across the street from Rackets. There's a bar called or it may I I think it's a street away, actually. It's called Hickox. Named after Wild Bill. But it's a bar. They also serve food. They're open for you know, you can go in there for lunch. There's burgers and barbecue and stuff, and big old long bar and just a

Final Pitch and Listener CTA

Bob Bales 25:12

cool place to check out.

Bob Bales 25:13

But Abilene, as like I said, there's a reason it was voted one of the best small towns in America to visit. Best small town destination. Definitely worth your time checking out. And don't just fly over these states anymore. Start checking out some of these smaller locations. The people are friendly. You'll find interesting places to visit. They're not just tourist traps. These are cool places to go and check out. I love Kansas. I've been there a couple of times now visiting. I still need to get back and visit Dodge City. I haven't had a chance to go there, and there's a couple of other little towns I want to check out, so I don't know. Maybe next year I can get back up to Kansas and check those places out. So that's it for this week. That's my little trip to Abilene and why you should go to Abilene, Kansas. And I hope you get the opportunity to do so. And like I said, please hit that like or subscribe button. And if you know somebody that might be interested in these little podcasts, then shoot them a link to it. When I do the show notes, I'm going to put a couple of links in there to articles I wrote about Abilene. I wrote one on the A.B. Seelye Mansion and I wrote one on the Eisenhower Library. And they'll be in the show notes or the transcript of this thing.

Bob Bales 26:26

But that's it for this week. I appreciate the time. Thank you for joining me. And until next time, safe travels.