Abilene

There's more to Abilene than Ike history. Yes, the 34th president grew up in this cow town at the end of the Chisholm Trail, but there is more to the town that just touring the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. There are four more museums in Abilene's Five-Star Museum District that deserve exploration: The Heritage Center and Museum of Independent Telephony, Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad, Greyhound Hall of Fame and Old Abilene Town's Western buildings. Railroad tracks laid in the mid-1800s to transport Texas longhorn cattle east hem in Abilene's preserved downtown buildings housing some cute shops. Get a beefy burger at retro Kuntz Drive-In or spoon a sundae at Bankes Drug Store's throwback soda fountain. The professional Great Plains Theater, the only equity house between Kansas City, Missouri, and Denver, Colorado, stages productions year-round (888/222-4574; greatplainstheatre.com). Abilene's longhorn heyday and agricultural boom into the 1900s brought significant wealth, evidenced by landmark mansions, including the Lebold Mansion, Kirby House (a fine-dining restaurant) and Seelye Mansion (open for tours). A trolley tour or self-guided walking tour along Buckeye, Third and Vine streets covers 35 sites, some on the National Register of Historic Places. See the Guinness World Records' largest spur at the Abilene Fairgrounds, where the long-running Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo is held each August. Hickok was sheriff here, before Ike was born.