Abilene, Kansas: The Wild West Capital of Kansas

While in Kansas we had to stop in Abilene, home to the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidential library. But it's more than that!

Abilene was founded in 1857 as a stagecoach stop while Kansas was still a territory. It was originally called "Mud Creek". Who'd want to go there? It was renamed in 1860. Then in 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railway made it to Abilene and things started to heat up. A guy named Joseph McCoy opened the Hotel Drover along with a stockyard and encouraged cattlemen to drive their herds here to be picked up by the railroad and shipped out. The Kansas Pacific Railway even added a spur so the cattle could be loaded onto the cars.

And they did! In 1871, Abilene was the end of the Chisholm Trail. This is the old Union Pacific Railroad Depot. Built in 1929, it replaced the original built in 1867. This is where the cattle would be loaded and shipped elsewhere to be converted to hamburgers.

In 1887, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad built their line through Abilene. This is the Santa Fe depot built in 1911. Passenger service on the AT&SF lines stopped in 1971. This depot is no longer used for train service.

This is the Rock Island depot which was built in 1887. It's the oldest railroad building in Abilene. The Rock Island line offered both passenger and freight service. While the Union Pacific line hauled cattle, the Rock Island line was mostly hauling grain. Service was active until the 1950s. Originally located about 2 1/2 blocks east, it was moved to this location to make way for the Eisenhower library.

Abilene Old Town is an area that has old replica buildings from the 1800s. This Merchants Hotel building represents the Drover Hotel that was built by Joseph McCoy. There were several other buildings, such as a jail, a bank and a general store. None of the buildings were open but you could walk around the park.

Abilene is also the county seat of Dickinson County. This was the original courthouse built in 1885. It was expanded in 1904 but the town still outgrew it.

 In 1950, the brick courthouse was torn down and replaced with this. I like the charm of the earlier one.

This is the Seelye Mansion. It was built in 1905 by Dr. Andrew B. Seelye who was an early adopter of modern conveniences such as indoor plumbing and electric lighting. The house had 25 rooms and is a museum. Andrew Seelye developed a product called "Wasa Tusa" that, apparently, cured everything. He opened a factory that mass produced this elixir and employed locals and was the largest employer in Abilene at the time.

This is the Lebold Mansion built in 1880. Conrad Lebold was also an early adopter of electricity and indoor plumbing. There was a cistern on the property for water pressure. Conrad was a banker and politician. Due to economic downturn, he lost the house in 1889. This is one of the oldest buildings in Abilene. While it looks like the Addams Family mansion, it's not. The house is a museum.

As a western town, law and order were needed. Wild Bill Hickok was once the Marshal of this town in 1871. He was standing by a street fight when a guy took two shots at him. Hickok returned fire, killing the guy who shot at him but he also accidentally shot his deputy. He was fired shortly there after. Oops.

Everybody likes roadside attractions like the world's largest ball of twine. Abilene has the World's Largest Belt Buckle. 

For a long time, they also had the World's Largest Spur but I believe Lampasas, Texas now has that distinction.

The real attraction in Abilene is the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.  This is his boyhood house. His family bought it from their uncle. They lived here until Mrs. Eisenhower (Ike's mom) passed away in 1946. After her death, the home was donated to the Eisenhower foundation and opened in 1947 as a museum.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a graduate of West Point and was the Supreme Allied Commander of World War II. He lived in Abilene in that house until he left for school. I think they were building a museum to honor him after the war which would explain why the cornerstone of the museum was laid prior to his presidency.

This is the actual museum. Across the plaza is the library where his papers are stored. The library itself doesn't have anything to see except the film about the house. The house was closed for tours on Sunday. The museum, however, was pretty cool.

Ike and Mamie Eisenhower wedding clothes. In the lower right is an actual piece of their wedding cake. It reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine eats the wedding cake from her bosses fridge and it's fifty years old or something.

I remember reading that Ike was very popular after World War II and both parties were trying to recruit him to run for president. He went with the Republican party, much to Truman's dismay. He won pretty easily with his campaign slogan "I like Ike".

Also at the museum was an exhibit of paintings by Mary Whyte. She paints veterans and then tells you where and when they served. This one is called Vigil. The subject, Jodi, was a Marine Patrol Officer in the Coast Guard. The paintings are fantastic.

The pillars at the Eisenhower library.

The Chapel. It's called a place of meditation and it's very peaceful inside. The fountain wasn't running, maybe because it was so windy. Seriously. It was super gusty, so much so that we aborted a walk.

Inside is where both Ike and Mamie Eisenhower are buried along with their young son, Doud who died when he was three.

We were in Abilene on a Sunday and there were no restaurants open. We finally found a fast food place called Original Grande that had tacos and burritos. What is it with these small towns? We ended up going to the grocery store for a premade salad for dinner.

There are only about 6500 people that live here. There are a few industrial plants in the area that employ the locals like Russell Stovers Candies. I might like that. Another big employer is the county.

There were no chain restaurants in Abilene other than fast food. For grocery stores, there was a West's Country Plaza (which is where we went), an Aldi and a Dollar General.

I was surprised that Abilene was so small. I'm glad we went and I enjoyed the Eisenhower museum. We could have seen some other places if we were there on any day other than Sunday.

If you're in the area, check it out!

Junction City, Kansas: The Geographical Center of the 48 Continguous States

When we drove to Kansas for a family party, we were planning on staying at a hotel on Fort Riley. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so we stayed at a hotel in nearby Junction City.

Founded in 1858, Free Staters settled here from New York and Cincinnati. They selected this particular spot because the river was too low to take them to their destination. Junction City sits at the crossing of the Smoky Hills and Republican Rivers, hence the name. It was thought to be in the exact center of the continental United States...but it's not! So their nickname is incorrect.

In 1853, Fort Riley was established to protect travelers on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. This is the garrison at Fort Riley. This is where our nephew and his wife are stationed.

The buildings on the Army post are pretty cool. This is the pokie. There's no signage but it's the only building I saw on post with barred windows. A lot of these buildings are from the 1800's when the post was first built. That is so cool!

Junction City is the county seat of Geary County. This is the courthouse. It was built in 1900 and, in 1994, went through a thorough renovation. It was rededicated on its 100th anniversary. 

There's a Heritage Park in the center of town. They have a Civil War Memorial. I'm used to driving around southern towns in Texas so most of the Civil War monuments that I see are from the Confederate perspective. It's nice to see one from the Union perspective.

The town has tons of cool old buildings like this one. This is the Rialto Building. We all had dinner at Bella's restaurant while we were there. Their kitchen closes at 8pm...on a Friday night! The building was erected around the turn of the century but nobody seems to know what the "Rialto" on the face of the building means or refers to.

This is the George Smith Public Library. George Smith was a wealthy resident of Junction City who made his money in real estate. According to the sign, he was suffering from a terminal illness and shot himself in 1905. He left $75K and 4000 books for a public library. The building was erected and the library opened in 1908. It relocated to a more modern building in 1983 (which I personally think is a shame). It was purchased by a finance company called Central of Kansas for use as their headquarters.

This is the Opera House from the front. It opened in 1882. Then in 1898 it was ravaged by fire. It was rebuilt and functions today as a live theater.

The Opera House from the side. I would love to go in and check it out! 

This is the Geary County Historical Museum. It's open Tues- Sat, 1 -4 and it's free. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit but it looked pretty interesting.

Junction City was a cool little town. About 22K people live there and it caters to the soldiers at Ft. Riley. They have several fast food chains but no chain restaurants outside of I-HOP. For grocery stores, they have a Walmart and an Aldi. Dillons is the local grocery store and that's part of Kroger.

The civilian sector of Fort Riley is the biggest employer followed by the city and county. There's a food processing plant nearby and a Michelin manufacturing plant as well.

Another interesting factoid: Timothy McVeigh - the OKC bomber - rented the Ryder truck that he used in the bombing from an auto shop here in Junction City.

I liked this little town. I don't know that I could live here. It was very quiet and by 8 pm on Friday night everything was closed. 

Still, don't take my word for it! Check it out.

Topeka, Kansas: The Capital City

As much as I like driving around Texas and exploring the little towns, I know that there's more to see in this country besides my home state. One of my goals is to visit the capital city for all 50 states and I just checked this one off. It's Topeka, Kansas!

These murals are becoming very popular and that makes me happy. I love them! 

I'd never been to Kansas proper. Several years ago, I think we stayed the night as we passed through on our way home. Then I had job in Kansas City but I stayed on the Missouri side. So this is really the first time that I've stayed here with intention.

Topeka is called the Capital City because it's the Capital of Kansas. This is the Kansas Statehouse at night. Kansas has an interesting history. It became a territory with the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. It allowed the citizens who lived in the territory to choose whether or not it would be a Slave State or a Free State. So, anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers swarmed into the territory and began fighting leading to the nickname "Bleeding Kansas".

Topeka was established in 1854 by Cyrus Holliday along with eight other guys. They started the Topeka Town Association and Cyrus became the first mayor. In 1856, John and Mary Ritchie moved to Topeka and bought a huge plot of land. They built this house. Note the door on the second floor. Back then, you didn't have stairs inside. To get to the second floor, you'd have a ladder or a staircase on the outside of the house. This is the oldest house in Topeka.

John and Mary were abolitionists and their house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The house next door belonged to their son Hale Ritchie. I thought the houses would have hiding places to demonstrate how travelers would have been hidden until they could move to the next station but they didn't. Still, the houses were historic and cool to see.

Kansas became a state in 1861 right before the Civil War got started. South Carolina had already seceded and other southern states would follow. When Kansas became a state, Topeka was named the capital. Unfortunately, a pesky little war got in the way of building their capitol.

On land donated by Cyrus Holliday, construction on the capitol began in 1866. As you can see by the photo, it was built in sections. The east wing was started in 1866 and the west wing was started in 1879. There was a little wind tunnel that connected the two buildings until 1886 when the central part of the building was begun. It took 37 years to construct this building. It opened in 1903.

This was what was originally going to be on top of the dome. It's the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres. But of course you've got your complainers. Somebody didn't approve of the goddesses moral compass and the project was scrapped. Nothing sat on top of the dome for a long time.

Looking up at the dome from the 1st floor. There's a chandelier up there that can be lowered to the first floor for cleaning and maintenance. It takes all day to lower it and then hoist it back up. It's only done if the chandelier requires maintenance.

There are tons of murals in the capitol. Each floor has them. This is the Battle of Arickaree by David Hicks Overmyer on the first floor.

Also on the first floor is this mural called Rebel Women by Phyllis Garibay-Coon. Down in the right hand corner, the artist painted in her mother to the scene. These are all women who contributed to Women's suffrage. Girl power!

This cage elevator is the "official cage elevator of the state of Kansas" and was installed in 1923. It is kept in working order at all times. It's down for maintenance. Our tour guide usually runs the elevator. That would be so cool to take a ride.

On the third floor are murals by John Steuart Curry. This one with the oversized John Brown is called Tragic Prelude.

The State Library in the Kansas Statehouse.

The House of Representatives. The Senate was actually in session so I didn't feel right about taking pics.

You can also do a dome tour at the capital. There are three levels and a total of 296 steps starting from the fifth floor, so if you climbed stairs do the 5th floor, those don't count. The first level, you're still inside the inner dome. You can see the chandelier. It's very cool. People back in the day would carve their names into the columns and along the walls. It wasn't until the 1970s that they passed a law against that.

This is the second level. We've left the inner dome and we're now in the outer dome. There's not much to see in this section but we're going to climb that last set of stairs to get to the top. That last set of stairs that goes into the spire of the dome is the creepiest as it doesn't appear that anything is supporting it. We lost several of the tour members at this level.

At the very top, you get magnificent views of the city. It's well worth the climb. But, it is windy up here! So hang on to your hats.

From the top, you can see across the Kansas River to the Great Overland Railroad Depot. It was a Union Pacific passenger depot built in 1927. It closed in 1980 and later became a museum. It's gorgeous!

This is the Brown v. Board of Education National Park Site. This is the Monroe School where Linda Brown as forced to attend. It's one of the five black elementary schools in Topeka. Oddly, only elementary schools were segregated. If you were "non-white", then you would have to go to and ESL school for four years before you could be "mainstreamed" into the white school. Meanwhile, Linda Brown had to pass several other white schools to come here. Now this school is a civil rights museum.

This is the classroom where Linda attended. There were five cases that were bundled together under Brown v. Board of Education. The end result of the case was the desegregation of schools, at least from a legal perspective. It took longer, especially in the south, to actually integrate schools.

Topeka is the fourth largest city in Kansas with about 126K people. The largest employer is the state of Kansas. I didn't see any national restaurant chains, though they did have all your standard fast food. We were there two nights and all the places we tried were good! We had a good time in Topeka. If you're in the area, I'd say it's well worth a visit just for the history alone.

Don't take my word for it. Check it out!