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Tag: Abilene

Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Black steam engine, Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad
Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad

How big is your museum? Today let’s visit a museum that is five miles long and 100 feet wide.

What in the world is that kind of museum? The answer is, it’s like a moving museum – a historic excursion train operating on railroad track in rural Kansas.

Ross Boelling is president and general manager of this remarkable train known as the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad. Thanks to railroad volunteer and retired K-State department head Steve Smethers for the following information.

The Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad operates on railroad track that had once belonged to the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad, which began service in 1886. The Rock Island operated successfully for many years. It was the lifeline of a burgeoning regional agribusiness industry, but after nearly a century, the company was in financial trouble.

The Rock Island took bankruptcy in 1980 and the MKT took title. In 1988, the Union Pacific acquired the lines, but company executives decided not to use the portion through Abilene.

Two local men decided to try to save the Rock Island legacy in Dickinson County. Joe Minnick and the late Fred Schmidt approached the Union Pacific and proposed to acquire the Rock Island rail between Abilene and Woodbine, Kansas.

Continue reading “Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad” →

Collen and Mike McGee, Rowantree Farm

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Would you like to hear a yarn? Today we’ll meet a Kansas family that has established a farm of specialty animals producing fiber which can be woven into yarn and other products.

Collen and Mike McGee (and Iona the goat)
From left, Collen and Mike McGee (and Iona the goat)

Collen and Mike McGee are the owners of Rowantree Farm near Abilene. Collen grew up in Washington state, served in the military, and joined the civil service after military retirement. Then she met and married Mike, who also served in the Army.

“In 2014, Fort Riley called,” Collen said. She had the opportunity to join the public affairs office, and Mike had the opportunity to be a counselor at Fort Riley, so they drove to Kansas. “Our first stop was at Milford Lake,” Collen recalled. “We said, ‘Yes, we could live here.’”

Collen and Mike decided they wanted a more rural lifestyle, so they found a place to live outside of Abilene. It had a building and livestock pens where they began their farm. The McGees named their farm Rowantree Farm, which is a play on Collen’s maiden name of Roundtree. Continue reading “Collen and Mike McGee, Rowantree Farm” →

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Michael Hook and Jim Gray – Chisholm Trail 150

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“The Chisholm Trail.” The name evokes cattle and cowboys, independence and daring, the frontier and the wild, wild West. All those things are part of the history of the Chisholm Trail, which will honor its 150th anniversary beginning with a celebration in the town where it really all began: Abilene. This is today’s Kansas Profile.

The 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail will be celebrated from Kansas to Texas in 2017.
The 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail will be celebrated from Kansas to Texas in 2017.

Michael Hook is an events coordinator for the City of Abilene. He is from Kansas City but grew up in Texas where he became a western history buff. “Davy Crockett was my hero,” Michael said. A business career took him around the Midwest but he became interested in possibly teaching history.

“I stumbled upon Abilene, and it’s everything you would ever want,” Michael said. He moved to Abilene, met his wife, studied local history and became the coordinator for a landmark series of events marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Chisholm Trail.

Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Michael Hook and Jim Gray – Chisholm Trail 150” →

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Geff Dawson – Poetry Rodeo

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

The rodeo is coming to town! But this isn’t a competition of riding bulls or roping calves. This competition takes the form of rhyming words. For the first time ever, the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo is coming to Kansas.

Geff Dawson is the new organizer of this event, which he is bringing to Kansas for the first time. Geff grew up at Abilene, where he was always around horses and rodeos. After studying at K-State, he and his wife Dawn bought a place in rural Wabaunsee County north of Alma, population 785 people. Now, that’s rural. Geff worked at the Aye Ranch for a time and now manages the Illinois Creek Ranch.

Geff Dawson, cowboy poet.
Geff Dawson, cowboy poet.

Like me, Geff is a cowboy poet. Like me, it was not something he planned to do.

“I’d come home from work at the ranch and tell my wife about something funny that happened that day,” Geff said. “She’d say, `You ought to write that down.’”

He wasn’t very quick to take the time to write those things down, but one day when he did sit down to record the day’s events, he tried to write in rhyme. He found it was a fun way to tell a story. Geff became a cowboy poet.

Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Geff Dawson – Poetry Rodeo” →