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 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 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."]