Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Abilene Abilene, KS

Abilene is the county seat of Dickinson County in central Kansas, lying on the north side of the Smoky Hill River in the Flint Hills region of the Great Plains.

Abilene began in 1857 as a stagecoach stop called Mud Creek, established by Timothy Hersey; around 1860 it was renamed Abilene, from a biblical place mentioned in Luke 3:1, a name chosen by Hersey's wife Eliza.

Abilene has been the Dickinson County seat since 1861, and the city was incorporated on September 6, 1869.

From 1867 to 1871, Abilene was the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail: cattle dealer Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards that shipped 35,000 head of Texas cattle in 1867 alone and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City.

At the peak of the cattle drives in 1871, more than 5,000 cowboys herded some 600,000 to 700,000 cattle toward Abilene and other Kansas railheads, giving the town its reputation as one of the wildest in the West.

Wild Bill Hickok served as Abilene's city marshal during its cattle-town years.

As of the 2020 census, Abilene had a population of 6,460.

Abilene was the boyhood home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose family moved there from Denison, Texas, in 1892; Eisenhower attended school in Abilene and graduated from Abilene High School in 1909.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home occupy a roughly 22-acre campus in Abilene, and the President, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and their first-born son are buried in the campus's Place of Meditation.

Across from the Eisenhower Center stands the Greyhound Hall of Fame, a museum devoted to the history of the greyhound breed and greyhound racing.