Frontier Texas!, Abilene

About Frontier Texas!

Frontier Texas! is a museum in Abilene where visitors experience the history of the Texas frontier through audio-visual exhibits narrated by Buck Taylor, a former star of the television series Gunsmoke. The Welcome Theater introduces guests to Spirit Guides throughout the facility. Exhibits cover nearly 15,000 years of frontier history, beginning with the harsh climate and challenging conditions that prevented permanent settlement. The Comanche Empire exhibit explains how the Comanche achieved dominance across the region through mobility and military superiority, blocking European expansion for over 150 years. Additional exhibits explore the buffalo hide trade, which transformed the region after the Civil War when hunters decimated herds to supply eastern markets. The Military exhibit details how U.S. forts were established to control conflict between settlers and Indians. The Cowboys exhibit covers cattle drives and the logistics of moving longhorns across trails. A final exhibit describes how ramshackle settlements developed around frontier forts and trading posts as soldiers, trail drivers, and buffalo hunters arrived in the area.