From there the cattle were shipped by rail to eastern markets. The railhead town of Abilene, Kansas, had a wild range of characters vital to its prosperity on the frontier from the late 1860s into the 20th century.Ībilene, 150 miles west of Kansas City, was a boomtown from 1867 until 1871, when cowboys drove more than a million Texas longhorn cattle on the Chisolm Trail to its stockyards. McCoy photo Courtesy Dickinson County Historical Society
McCoy (below), who built the original stockyards and Drover’s Cottage in 1867.ĭrover’s Cottage Courtesy Library of Congress, Old Abilene Town’s stockyards, adjacent to the train station and tracks, honors visionary cattleman Joseph G.
The once lawless cattle town is now one of the West’s most historic Old West destinations.
