My Kansas Kronikles: Abilene

Had Abilene, Kansas not been the hometown of Dwight D. Eisenhower, it would be mainly remembered as the terminus of the Chisolm Trail. Abilene is located, perhaps not coincidentally, just south of Interstate 70, part of the highway system that President Eisenhower felt was needed based on his participation in a nightmarish 1919 cross country army caravan, as well as his experience traveling on the German autobahns after World War II.

Abilene has its own classic small town main street, as you can see on the right. Although I didn't see one of those classic Kansas courthouses--Abilene is the seat of Dickinson County--the town is blessed with one of the finest Victorian homes in the Midwest, the Lebold Mansion, another Kansas entry in the National Register of Historical Places. Like the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, the Lebold Mansion was built with Kansas limestone.

The main attraction in Abilene of course is the Eisenhower complex on the southern end of town, and that will be the topic of my next Kansas Kronikles post.

Previous "My Kansas Kronikles" entries:

An overview
This has to stop
US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road
Little pueblo on the prairie
My return to western Kansas
Gray County Wind Farm
Wagon ruts
Chase County Courthouse
Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church
The Sunflower State
The Flint Hills
Alan Clark's filling station in Eskridge
A taste of home
Kingman
Western Holiday Motel in Wichita
The Prairie Chicken Capital of the World
The Texas panhandle
Oklahoma's strange panhandle
The Monument Rocks
Smoky Valley Scenic Byway
Bob Dole's Russell
Barbed wire and stone posts
Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway
My Kansas Kronikles: Pro-life billboards
McPherson, one of the 100 best small towns in America
Mushroom Rock

Greensburg posts:

Greensburg, the fall and rise, part one
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part two
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part three
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part four
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part five
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part six

The Beef Kingdoms:
Dodge City, Beef Kingdom
Liberal: Kansas' second Beef Kingdom
Garden City, Kansas' third Beef Kingdom

Technorati tags: Kansas travel byways photography photos history limestone Eisenhower interstate highways architecture Chisolm Trail Americana