Tips, leads, stories from travelers, plus Roadsideamerica.com Team reports on quirky museums, ironic monuments, and must-see oddities! Trip planning caution: Some tips may not be verified. Over time, attractions change, move, burn down. What's a vacation without a little risk? Submit your own tip.
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- Abilene, Kansas - Old Abilene Town Old Abilene Town is open for business. We currently have the Hitchin' Post Restaurant and General Store Open. Gun fighters will start Memorial Day weekend. Renovations are being done throughout the park. [Jennifer, 04/23/2009]Old Abilene Town:
Address: Abilene, KS [Show Map]
Directions: S. Buckeye Ave./Hwy 15 and SE 6th St.
Hours: Partly open, gun fights after Memorial Day. - Abilene, Kansas - Old Abilene Town Old Abilene Town is being restored by a historical group! On the weekends in the summer, kids old and young watch Old West gun fights in the town. Actors recreate the days of the Old West.
They are in the beginning stages of restoring this attraction, and a lot of buildings are still in rough shape. It's an open area, and free to visit on any day. Just remember, some days everything is closed up and there is nothing going on.
And for fun, take a ride in the Smoky Valley Railroad. For about $20, you get a lazy trip through the countryside. [Roberta, 07/30/2008]
Old Abilene Town:
Address: Abilene, KS [Show Map]
Directions: S. Buckeye Ave./Hwy 15 and SE 6th St.
Hours: Partly open, gun fights after Memorial Day. - Abilene, Kansas - Old Abilene Town Old Abilene Town is up for sale! I recently visited there in order to buy souvenir beaded belts and snow domes at their Fort Chisolm Gift Shop (billed "Kansas' Largest"), but the whole dang place was closed up with a big nasty "For Sale By Owner" sign out front. The stuffy people next door at the Eisenhower Center refused to give me any information, but their security guard assured me that the place would open for business on April 1st. Old Abilene Town still looks great and will make some lucky capitalist a fine retro tourist trap. It's spittin' distance from I-70 and will always be able to leech bored tourists away from the exciting chronicle of Ike's recession-free presidency. [Dr. Todd Wyatt, 02/25/1997][RA: Update 2004 from tipster George West: " We met two men who were were working in and around the train station. I was told they are in the very early stages of restoring it to make a museum. All other buildings were abandoned."]Old Abilene Town:
Address: Abilene, KS [Show Map]
Directions: S. Buckeye Ave./Hwy 15 and SE 6th St.
Hours: Partly open, gun fights after Memorial Day. - Abilene, Kansas - Museum of Independent Telephony When Alexander Graham Bell (and not some Italian guy) invented the telephone, his patents held back a horde of telephony wannabes for 17 years. When the rights expired, a profusion of entrepreneurs poured into the lucrative business, forming nearly 6,000 independent telephone companies. While millions toiled for the Bell System as it maintained a century of pre-Consent Decree market dominance, the "independents" continued to thrive, scraping profit from around the edges.
The Museum of Independent Telephony pays tribute to the world of the non-Bell System phone companies that connected communities in the Midwest and West. Abilene was the home of an independent, the Brown Telephone Company, which became United Telephone Company, and eventually morphed into Sprint.
The museum includes a recreation of an old telephone exchange, displays of glass insulators and a variety of vintage phones. Visitors are encouraged to touch the exhibits. [Roadsideamerica.com Team, 11/29/2003]
Museum of Independent Telephony:
Address: 412 S. Campbell, Abilene, KS [Show Map]
Directions: Off I-70, 412 South Campbell, Abilene.
Hours: M-F 8:30-4:30 (Call to verify)
Phone: 785-263-2681 
Abilene, Kansas - World's Largest Spur I discovered the World's Largest Spur at the Eisenhower Park, Central Kansas Free Fair, Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo Arena grounds in Abilene, Kansas. The 27 foot high, 2,000 lb spur frames the entry into the arena of the Fairgrounds and has recently been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records for the final stamp of approval. The spur is large enough for a semi-truck and trailer to pass through to enter the arena. [Phil Pasquini, 07/09/2007]World's Largest Spur:
Address: NW 8th St, Abilene, KS [Show Map]
Directions: S. of I-70. Pine St and NW 8th St/7th St. The spur is on the north side of the arena adjacent to a dirt road.
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