Celebrate The Old West Along Abilene's Cowboy Art Trail
Named a Top 10 True Western Town of the Year by True West Magazine, Abilene continues to celebrate and promote its wild and woolly Cowtown days by adding new tourism attractions and art.
1. Big Spur - Rittel's Western Wear (1810 N Buckeye Ave)
At 28 feet high, the big spur stands on its ends to form an arch and weighs a ton. It was built by Larry Houston in 2002 and was certified as the World's Largest Spur by Guinness World Records until 2017.
2. The Abilene Cowboy - Abilene High School (1300 N Cedar St)
Installed in early 2020, The Abilene Cowboy is a one-of-a-kind piece of art. It stands more than 15 feet tall and weighs more than one ton.
Artists: Jason Lahr and Donnie Knauss
3. Cowboy Boots - Abilene Visitors Center (201 NW 2nd St)
Inspired by this ad for cowboy boots, decorative cowboy boots are placed throughout Abilene to celebrate the community's cowboy heritage.
4. World's Largest Belt Buckle - Eisenhower Park / Central Kansas Free Fair (400 N Pine St)
At 19 feet 10 ½ inches wide and 13 feet 11 ¼ inches tall (not including the frame), Abilene, Kansas, is now home to the World’s Largest Belt Buckle.
5. Bull's Head Saloon Longhorn - Old Abilene Town (201 SE 5th St)
According to a signed document from the late Jack Glover, an old west collector and its most recent owner, the bull head is from the saloon that belonged to “Shotgun Ben Thompson” in Abilene, Kansas. The name of the saloon was the “Bull Head” and was headquarters for the drovers that trailed cattle from Texas to Kansas in the late 1860s and 1870s.
6. Wild Bill Hickok Mural - Dave's Guns (201 N Buckeye Ave)
Paying respects to Abilene's famous former town Marshal, Wild Bill Hickok, this mural was completed in 2018 by local artist William Counter.
7. Longhorn Mural - Abilene Middle School (500 NW 14th St)
Another Whitney Kerr original is located in front of Abilene Middle School.
8. Longhorn Mural - Midwest Meats (610 S Buckeye Ave)
Completed in September 2022 by Mindy's Murals. A boutique butcher shop is coming soon!
9. Train Mural - Abilene Printing Co. Inc (207 NE 3rd St)
Celebrating Abilene's days as a Chisholm Trail cowtown, this mural by graffiti artist Whitney Kerr pays homage to the railroad, which carried hundreds of thousands of head of cattle to eastern markets.
10. Wild Bill Hickok Bronze Statue - Dickinson County Heritage Center (412 S Campbell St)
See a bronze statue of Wild Bill Hickok and the horns of a stampeding longhorn that got away from the herd and was pummeling women and children until the beast took a bullet from a gun in his steady hands. View a replica of the six-shooter he used to keep order in the town when rowdy cowboys celebrated heartily after herding thousands of cattle from Texas to this city on the plains.
11. Tom "Bear River" Smith Tombstone - Abilene Cemetery (502 NW 21st Street)
Enforcing a "no firearms ordinance" in one of the wildest and wickedest towns in the west, Marshal Tom "Bear River" Smith was known to use his fists when apprehending lawbreakers. He ultimately met his fate in the line of duty on November 2, 1870.
His unique stone reads:
Thomas J. Smith
Marshal of Abilene, 1870
Died, a Martyr to Duty, Nov. 2, 1870.
A Fearless Hero of Frontier Days Who
in Cowboy Chaos
Established the Supremacy of Law.