Frontier Texas!, Museum in Abilene, Texas, US
Frontier Texas! is a museum in downtown Abilene, Texas, that also serves as the main visitor center for the area. It uses large screens, interactive displays, and full-size replicas of wagons, horses, and pioneer tools to show what life on the Texas frontier looked like.
Abilene was a key stop on the cattle drives that pushed herds north to railheads in Kansas, and it grew into a rough frontier town with few laws to keep order. The museum was later founded to tell that story, covering everything from Comanche dominance of the region to the arrival of settlers.
In the Welcome Theater, a former actor from the TV show Gunsmoke introduces the Spirit Guides, eleven actors who each play a real person from the frontier days. Each figure tells a different story and gives visitors a sense of how people actually lived and worked during that era.
The museum is in downtown Abilene, so it is easy to combine with other local spots and shops in the area. Plan to spend a good amount of time inside, as the theater and interactive sections take a while to go through properly.
The Comanche called themselves Numunah, meaning 'Our People', while Europeans called their territory Comancheria. For over 150 years, this territory covered much of the southwest and kept other nations from settling there, a story that sits at the center of the museum's exhibits.
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