2013 Fall

side trip

Come for the presidential library, stay to explore the town Abilene, Kansas T he boyhood home of America’s

All About Abilene There’s something special about small town museums; they often hold sur- prising gems. The three museums of the Dickinson County Heritage Center certainly do. At the Heritage Center Museum, visitors experience the pioneer days of westward expansion when Abilene was the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail. The museum’s fascinating and well-done exhibits highlight the big and small moments of the region’s past. The Museum of Independent Tele- phony displays an impressive collection of antique phones, featuring the contri- butions of Kansas and Abilene. In the late 1800s there were 6,000 indepen- dent telephone companies across Amer- ica. One of these was created by C.L. Brown in Abilene as the Brown Tele- phone Company, now known as Sprint. An exhibit recreates an old telephone office, complete with a bed, and there’s a separate hands-on switchboard. Located on the grounds, the Out- door Museum showcases the 1901 C.W. Parker merry-go-round. Manufactured in Abilene, it’s one of 12 National Land- mark carousels across the country and still takes riders for a spin. The grounds are also home to more than a dozen rescued and restored local buildings, from an outhouse to a schoolhouse to a grocery store, as well as the 1858 Volkmann cabin. Walk a couple of blocks and you’re in

Old Abilene Town. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, this living-history attraction recreates an Old West main street with gunfights and can-can girls. Next door is the old train depot that now hosts the Abilene and Smoke Valley Railroad, running all summer long. Although Old Abilene Town is charming, more’s in store for this nonprofit venture. The 1873 carriage house of the first mayor of Abilene has recently been cleaned up, a one-room church is waiting to have its walls fixed, and several other buildings are on the list for restoration. Down on North Buckeye Avenue, one of Abilene’s grand old residences opens its doors for tours. The Seelye Mansion is 25 rooms of original furni- ture, Edison light fixtures and even an old bowling alley. The Georgian-style home’s first owner made his money with the A.B. Seelye Medical Company, which sold old time cure-alls such as the Wasa-Tusa healing elixir and Ner- Vena headache remedy. — Neala Schwartzberg McCarten For More Information City of Abilene abilenekansas.org Abilene is located just south of the junction of Interstates 15 and 70. Kansas has one Coast Deluxe Resort, one Coast Classic Resort, three Good Neighbor Parks and 14 Good Sam Parks.

34th president, Abilene, Kansas, of- fers visitors more than its justly popu- lar Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library. The seat of Dickinson County has its own rich history and interesting places to explore. Everything Ike One of 13 presidential libraries overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Dwight D. Eisen- hower complex is enough of a reason to visit Abilene. It includes the furnished six-bedroom house where Eisenhower grew up (pictured above). The house is where it stood when young “Ike” lived there, although the rest of the landscape has changed. Today there’s the presi- dential library with a historian’s dream collection of his papers, as well as changing exhibits and the place where he, his wife, Mamie, and their first-born son are buried. For most visitors the main attraction is the Eisenhower Museum, filled with artifacts, exhibits and memorabilia cov- ering Eisenhower’s remarkable life and that of the first lady, as well as diverse aspects of World War II when Eisen- hower served as supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe. Visitors can read personal stories of soldiers, learn the history of the Enigma machine the Germans used to encrypt messages and explore Eisenhower’s transition from five-star general to president.

20 COAST TO COAST fall 2013

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