Caching in Salina and Abilene 6/6/2010

Well since we last left you the weekend has stunk so it could only get better. Finally we could go caching again and not just sit around. We headed into Salina first to do 2 NRV caches, one at the huge Masonic Temple and the other in Gypsum Cemetery (see pictures). The one sad thing in the cemetery was they had a section called Babyland, which of course is self explanatory. Then we did a virtual cache on the site of the old Salina Brick & Tile plant which is now Indian Rock Park. The park is located on the site of a famous Indian battle, this 35 acre park provides a scenic view of the City and surrounding land. The high bluff and rolling hills offer excellent sledding. Indian Rock Lodge, an enclosed shelter with heat and a fireplace, is available to the public at no cost. Truly an open space park area, Indian Rock includes a picnic shelter, nature trails, a small pond, and a native prairie. With the mixture of history, geology, and natural areas, Indian Rock is Salina’s most unique park.

Then it was off to Abilene, KS and a couple of easy caches one on a fence at a DQ and the other behind a welcome to Abilene sign. Next was a cache in a local cemetery at a memorial to all veterans. Next was a cache on a local street corner in a piece of pipe and then a cache under a small bridge.

Next was another virtual cache at a large boulder marking the end of the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail. The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the late 19th century to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The trail stretched from South Texas across the Red River, and on to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway in Abilene, Kansas, where the cattle would be sold and shipped eastward.
The trail is named for Jesse Chisholm who had built several trading posts in what is now western Oklahoma before the American Civil War. He died in 1868, too soon ever to drive cattle on the trail.
By 1853, Texas cattle were being driven into Missouri, where local farmers began blocking herds and turning them back because the Texas longhorns carried ticks that caused diseases in other types of cattle. Violence, vigilante groups, and cattle rustling caused further problems for the drivers. By 1859, the driving of cattle was outlawed in many Missouri jurisdictions. By the end of the Civil War, most cattle were being moved up the western branch of trail at Red River Station in Montague County, Texas.
In 1866, cattle in Texas were worth only $4 per head, compared to over $40 per head in the North and East, because lack of market access during the American Civil War had led to increasing number of cattle in Texas.
In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards in Abilene, Kansas. He encouraged Texas cattlemen to drive their herds to his stockyards. The stockyards shipped 35,000 head that year and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, Kansas.
That same year, O. W. Wheeler answered McCoy's call, and he along with partners used the Chisholm Trail to bring a herd of 2,400 steers from Texas to Abilene. This herd was the first of an estimated 5,000,000 head of Texas cattle to reach Kansas over the Chisholm Trail.
Today, most historians consider the Chisholm Trail to have started at the Rio Grande in Texas or at San Antonio, Texas. From 1867 to 1871, the trail ended in Abilene, Kansas. Later, Newton, Kansas, and Wichita, Kansas, each served as the end of the trail. From 1883 to 1887, the end of the trail was Caldwell, Kansas. Ellsworth, Kansas is also considered a major influence of the trail.
The Chisholm Trail Crossing through modern-day Duncan, Oklahoma's US-81
In Texas, there were hundreds of feeder trails heading north to one of the main cattle trails. In the early 1840s, most cattle were driven up the Shawnee Trail. The Chisholm Trail was previously used by Indian hunting and raiding parties; it went north from Austin through Waco and Fort Worth. The trail crossed into Indian Territory (present-day west-central Oklahoma) near Red River Station (in present-day Montague County, Texas) and entered Kansas near Caldwell. Through Oklahoma, the Chisholm Trail generally followed the route of US Highway 81 through present-day towns of El Reno and Enid.
On the long trips — up to two months — the cattlemen would face many difficulties. They had to cross major rivers like the Arkansas and the Red, and innumerable smaller creeks, plus the topographic challenges of canyons, badlands, and low mountain ranges. The weather was less than ideal. In addition to these natural dangers, there were rustlers and occasional conflicts with Native Americans if a drover, a trail boss, failed to pay a toll of 10 cents a head to local tribes for the right to cross Indian lands (Oklahoma at that time was Indian Territory, governed from Fort Smith, Arkansas). Finally, there was the natural contrariness of the half-wild Texas longhorn cattle themselves, which were prone to stampede with little provocation.
As I said the large boulder marks the northern terminus of the Texas Cattle Trail. The plaque gives a little history, including the following, over three million cattle were delivered here. The trail was in operation from 1867 to 1871.
The dollars brought in by the cattle trade and those hustling the cowboys gave Abilene the foundation of prosperity that still carry it today. The wild wild west was definitely here! Gunfights in the street, fistfights in the saloons, and prostitutes working the cowboys made for many wild nights.
The upper class citizens of Abilene desired a more reputable image and laws were passed here that brought the cattle trade to an end. The cattle drives moved west to cities like Ellsworth, Hays and Dodge. Abilene continued to prosper without the cattle trade and is still a successful community.

Then it was 2 more caches one at the visitor's center and the other at the welcome to Abilene sign on the south end of the town. Then it was off to our last cache another virtual at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum site. Abilene is DDE's home as he was born and raised here.
The drive for a transcontinental railroad link across the breadth of the land brought the Kansas Pacific Railroad through Abilene in 1867. It took a businessman from Illinois, Joseph G. McCoy, to see the opportunities presented by the railroad in providing a means of transporting the vast numbers of Texas cattle to huge beef markets back East. Quite by accident he chose Abilene (his luggage was lost there, –really!) and with his brothers, bought the entire town for $2,400. He built a stockyard with a large barn, a three-story hotel and the Chisholm Trail was in business.
The code of the trail hand was strict: No drinking, gambling or cursing during the drive north. After a bath, haircut and whisker trim, a new set of clothes, the town belonged to them. The ‘wild west’ image of saloons, brothels, gambling and gunfights on a street called Texas Street was born at the terminus of the long, hot drive north. Abilene soon acquired its colorful reputation as the capital of the ‘Wild West’ type of cow towns.
In 1869, the city of Abilene incorporated, formed a formal government and selected T.C. Henry as the first mayor. With some difficulty, a stranger by the name of Tom Smith was hired as the new town Marshall. His first order of business (which most thought of as suicidal): All citizenry, local or transient will surrender their weapons within the city of Abilene.
Miraculously, within a few days, without ever having to use his guns and standing up to several protestors later, the town surrendered their weapons with full respect to Marshall Smith and the law. Ironically, five months later at age 31, he was gunned down outside of town by two Scotch homesteaders fighting over stray cattle.
His notorious successor, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, served for eight months during 1871 before being fired. One of the most colorful personalities to roam the West, he was recognized as the fastest draw anywhere on the plains. Despite his gun slinging style, he did continue to hold law and order on Texas Street during the heaviest year of cattle trading in Abilene.
The cattle trade came to an end in 1872 when the railroad moved south to Wichita. As one boom came to an end, another one quietly started. In 1871, in a field outside of town, T.C. Henry secretly, for fear of ridicule, planted five acres of Minnesota winter wheat to see if it would grow on this Great American Desert. Within four years after that first and very successful solid stand of wheat, he became Abilene's first millionaire with thousands of acres planted throughout the county. The Union Pacific lines for miles on either side of town were flanked by golden grain and became knows as the “Golden Road.” With the additional introduction of the Mennonite's Red Turkey Wheat, Kansas rapidly became the breadbasket of the world.
During the late 1870's, after scouting several western possibilities, Jacob Eisenhower and his family moved a Mennonite River Brethren colony from Pennsylvania to a 160 acre farm just south of Abilene. In 1885, Jacob's son David married Ida Stover of Virginia while they were students at nearby Lane University. David and Ida would settle in Abilene and face many challenges in raising six mischievous boys to all become men of character.
The life of Dwight Eisenhower epitomizes the American Dream.
From family bankruptcy at birth he rose to be one of the most admired men in the world. From a poor farm boy he achieved his wealth in character, integrity and world wide friendship and respect.
Dwight's parents, David and Ida Eisenhower rented a very small house in Abilene on South East Second Street. As the family grew in size and number, they were able to move into an uncle's larger, more comfortable house at 201 South East Fourth Street. Here they not only had much more room inside for six boys but plenty of room outside for vegetable gardens, farm animals and chickens to supplement the much stressed family food budget.
Unfortunately, both of the Eisenhower addresses were just south of the railroad tracks, which divided the town of Abilene into the proverbial ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ side of the tracks. The south side where the cattle industry grew was, of course, the ‘wrong’ side to be on. This north-south rivalry would always be a part of the growing up years of the six Eisenhower boys.
The legendary fight that took place between Ike and north-sider Wesley Merrifield is recounted by Eisenhower in At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends as a largely inflated story by armchair historians and barroom biographers. Ike remembers the occasion as “mob pressure” forcing two chosen opponents to duke out the rivalry between the opposing north/south factions. Neither lad had any good reason to dislike the other but were forced by their peers (“warriors who loved to watch a battle from sideline safety”) to defend their respective geographic pride and honor. Ike further recounts: “The only thing that made the fight notable was its length. We weren't skillful, but we were stubborn, so we kept pounding away, with occasional pauses for breath, for well over an hour...” In later years, both participants would recall the incident with friendly amusement.
In high school, Dwight and his older brother Edgar were both in the same grade because illness forced Edgar to drop back in schooling. Both were above average students and Ike even excelled in some subjects. Avid and competent athletes, they excelled in football and baseball. This teamwork on the field led them to use teamwork in furthering their education after Abilene High School. They decided that while one went to college, the other would work at home and send the financial support needed to continue their college careers. By alternating years, both would eventually finish with degrees.
The first year of this plan, by lot, Edgar went to school and Dwight continued to work at the Belle Springs Creamery. It was here that Swede Hazlett, a former classmate and Annapolis appointee, convinced Dwight of the advantages of getting an education at a service academy. The biggest factor was, of course, that it was free. So Ike took the challenge and studied hard for both the Annapolis and West Point exams. He scored first for Annapolis and second for West Point. As fate would have it, he had turned 21 and thus was too old for entrance in the Naval Academy, The boy who scored first on the West Point exam accepted the appointment but later failed the physical exam and the appointment fell to Dwight.
The rest, they say, is history.
When Dwight departed for the United States Military Academy in the early summer of 1911, the only truly disappointed person in Abilene was his mother. As a Mennonite, her deep religious conviction of pacifism was outweighed only by her love for her son. Yielding personal beliefs and authority to her young Dwight, she said: “It is your choice.” Brother Milton later told Ike that it was the first time in his life he heard their mother cry.
Morning. June 14, 1911. West Point, New York. Amid the noisy clamor and bewildering chaos of a strange railway station were 285 confused young men wondering what they had gotten themselves into. For many, this day was to be the beginning of a long and dedicated career. For Ike the next four years at the Academy had to be endured to achieve a free education. It was his calm and sensible approach to life along with his physical endurance that allowed him to pass off a lot of the regimented expectations of his superiors. At the Academy demerits were to dot his record as frequently as the accolades were to dot his subsequent career. At graduation he would rank 61st of 164 academically and an unconcerned 125th in conduct.
While a sophomore, his love of sports would continue to play out on the gridiron and on the diamond where he made an impressive showing. During a game against Tufts University, an ignored knee injury in one football game would jeopardize his destiny. A further injury in another game hospitalized him. Then, in cavalry exercises, a jump from his horse collapsed his leg, which not only ended his athletic career but also brought him perilously close to discharge without a commission. With professional reservation and doubt, medical officers granted him the commission of Second Lieutenant in the Infantry. Their only stipulation was that he must never serve in the mounted service.
In the early fall of 1915, Ike was assigned his first duty station at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas. Within a month he was introduced to the popular and attractive Mary Geneva Doud. Eisenhower was instantly intrigued by Mamie's “saucy look” and she thought he was “just about the handsomest male” she had ever seen. Brushing aside several fellow junior officers who were also suitors, Dwight and Mamie began a whirlwind courtship, were engaged the following Valentine's Day and married July 1, 1916.
e and Mamie's first child was born in San Antonio in 1917. Doud Dwight, known as “Icky,” was the family's center of attention for three full and delightful years. Sadly, just before Christmas of 1920, Icky caught scarlet fever and died a week later. The death affected Dwight for years to come and years later wrote: “This was the greatest disappointment and disaster of my life.” A second son, John Sheldon Doud, was born in 1922 who would grow up and attend West Point in his father's shadow. On June 6, 1944, John Eisenhower threw his white hat high into the Hudson River sky. In attendance at his West Point graduation were his mother, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Sheldon Doud, and numerous dignitaries and the press.
Notably absent on that day was his father, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. That very day he had just landed the largest allied fighting force ever known to the world on the stormy beaches of Normandy.

We walked around the grounds looking at the library, museum, the many plaques and of course his statue.

The Library....The basic function of the Library building is to provide a place for scholars to come to work in the rich historical materials housed there. Because of the necessity to provide a quiet atmosphere in which researchers and staff can work there is no general admittance to the research areas of the building.

The Museum....Built by the Eisenhower Foundation, with funds raised through public gifts, the Eisenhower Museum is constructed of Kansas limestone. Originally dedicated on Veterans Day in 1954, the Museum was built to house the materials and objects related to Dwight D. Eisenhower's life. It contains over 30,000-square feet of gallery space, with exhibits showing not only the fine art objects collected by and given to Eisenhower but also the story of his careers as military leader and President of the United States. The Museum is divided into five major galleries consisting of an introductory gallery, a changing exhibits gallery, a First Lady's gallery, a military gallery, and a presidential gallery. Of special interest and importance is the changing exhibits gallery. A different exhibit is presented periodically so that repeat visitors can always experience something new.

The Boyhood Home....A typical nineteenth century home, the Eisenhower family occupied this house from 1898 until Mrs. Eisenhower's death in 1946. Her sons gave the house, on its original site, to the Eisenhower Foundation which maintained it until it was given to the Federal Government in 1966. David and Ida Eisenhower purchased their home on South East Fourth Street from David's brother, Abraham Lincoln Eisenhower. The family moved into the six-room home in late 1898. The title changed from Abraham to Ida on April 4, 1899 for the sum of $1,000. Ida in turn sold the house to David for $1.00 on May 18, 1908. The real estate consisted of all but two lots of the block bordered on the west by Chestnut (now Kuney) Street, the east by Olive Street, north by South East Third Street and the south by South East Fourth. The Eisenhower property had between two and one-half and three acres which contained the house, a large barn, a chicken house, a smoke house, an outhouse, an orchard, a strawberry patch, and a large garden located to the east of the house. In 1900, Grandfather Jacob Eisenhower moved in with David, Ida and their six sons. At that time, two bedrooms and a walk-through closet were added to the east side of the house. The new south bedroom was used by David and Ida, with Jacob using the smaller north bedroom. Jacob lived with the family until his death in 1906. The north bedroom was converted to the indoor bathroom around 1908. The last addition to the Eisenhower home consisted of a small kitchen, pantry and an enclosed back porch added in 1915. The home is furnished as it was at the time of Ida Eisenhower's death in 1946. The furnishings are original to the home although some have been moved to accommodate visitors touring the home. The wallpapers in the two parlors, dining room and hallway are identical to the papers in the home in 1946. Ida Eisenhower was the last person to ever live in the house. It has been opened to the public since early 1947, originally as a World War II Veterans Memorial and now as the boyhood home of Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States.

The Place of Meditation....The Place of Meditation is the final resting place of Dwight David Eisenhower, October 14, 1890-March 28, 1969; Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower, November 14, 1896-November 1, 1979; and their first-born son, Doud Dwight Eisenhower, September 23, 1917-January 2, 1921. Designed by James Canole, Kansas State architect, it is built of native limestone quarried in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, and features chipped glass windows designed by Odell Prather, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The windows were constructed by Conway Glass Studio of Winona, Minnesota. The marble used in the crypt is Arabian Travertine from Germany, Italy, and France. There is a meditation portion of the building where, according to General Eisenhower's wishes, it was hoped that visitors would reflect upon the ideals that made this a great nation and pledge themselves again to continued loyalty to those ideals. The Place of Meditation was built with private funds under the auspices of the Eisenhower Presidential Library Commission.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotations
Place of Meditation

"The real fire within the builders of America was faith -- faith in a Provident God whose hand supported and guided them: faith in themselves as the children of God ... faith in their country and its principles that proclaimed man's right to freedom and justice."
Abilene Homecoming, Abilene, Kansas, June 4, 1952

"Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends."
Guildhall Address, London, England, June 12, 1945

"Every gun made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed....This is not a way of life at all...Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

The Place of Meditation was lovely. So nicely and tastefully done with no frills. The fountain in front really set the whole building off. It was nice walking around this whole complex and it gave you chills seeing all of the honor that was bestowed upon the great President and very well deserved too. After walking through the building it was across the street to take a quick look through the Greyhound Hall of Fame and walk around the grounds. Then it was on back to the coach and guess what the A/C was still working. Well that's all for today so until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick