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.
Frontier Texas! opened in 2004 in downtown Abilene, a city that began as a railhead on the Chisholm Trail, where Texas cattle were driven north in the 1870s. The museum presents the region's earlier history as well, from the Comanche and their territory of Comancheria to the arrival of settlers and the buffalo hunters who followed the herds.
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.
Frontier Texas! was built around a life-size bronze sculpture of a longhorn steer, a nod to the cattle that passed through Abilene. The museum's eleven Spirit Guides are based on documented frontier residents, and their stories are drawn from letters, diaries and photographs rather than fiction.
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