Breeds of Abilene, Kansas
The first great railhead of the Texas cattle drives, where herds from the south met the railway to the east from 1867.
Breeds of this place
Best time: May to October.
Abilene was a small prairie settlement until 1867, when a cattle dealer, Joseph McCoy, built stockyards beside the new railway and invited Texans to drive their cattle north. For the next few years hundreds of thousands of Longhorns a year came up the Chisholm Trail to be loaded onto trains for the markets of the east. The trade made Abilene, briefly, the most famous cow town in the West.
The cow town years
Drovers arrived after months on the trail, and saloons and hotels grew to serve them. Disorder followed, and the town hired marshals, among them Wild Bill Hickok in 1871. Farmers settling nearby worried about Texas fever, a cattle disease carried by ticks on the southern herds, and quarantine lines pushed the trade west. By 1872 the drives had moved on to other railheads.
Abilene today
Abilene is now a quiet farm town. It is also where Dwight D. Eisenhower grew up, and his presidential library and boyhood home are here. A reconstructed old town recalls the cattle trail days, and the trail's end is marked in the town.
A trail idea for Abilene, Kansas
- Old Abilene Town A reconstructed frontier street of the cattle trade years.
- Eisenhower Presidential Library The library, museum and boyhood home of the president.
- Railway depot The old depot near where cattle were loaded onto trains.
Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Background: "Abilene, Kansas" on Wikipedia. Fair dates, markets and visiting rules change; check locally before travelling, and keep a respectful distance from working animals. If something is wrong, tell us.
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