page_title: Abilene, Texas
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Abilene, Texas / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Enterprise building in Abilene, Texas (United States).
context_page_description: Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in Texas, United States. The population was 117,063 at the 2010 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2017 estimated population of 170,219. It is the county seat of Taylor County. Dyess Air Force Base is located on the west side of the city.
  Abilene is located off Interstate 20, between exits 279 on its western edge and 292 on the east. Abilene is 150 miles west of Fort Worth. The city is looped by I-20 to the north, US 83/84 on the west, and Loop 322 to the east. A railroad divides the city down the center into north and south. The historic downtown area is on the north side of the railroad.
context_section_description: Established by cattlemen as a stock shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, the city was named after Abilene, Kansas, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail. The T&P had bypassed the town of Buffalo Gap, the county seat at the time. Eventually, a landowner north of Buffalo Gap, Clabe Merchant, known as the father of Abilene, chose the name for the new town. According to a Dallas newspaper, about 800 people had already begun camping at the townsite before the lots were sold. The town was laid out by Colonel J. Stoddard Johnson, and the auction of lots began early on March 15, 1881. By the end of the first day, 139 lots were sold for a total of $23,810, and another 178 lots were sold the next day for $27,550.
  Abilene was incorporated soon after being founded in 1881, and Abilenians began to set their sights on bringing the county seat to Abilene, and in a three-to-one vote, won the election. In 1888, the Progressive Committee was formed to attract businesses to the area, which later became the Board of Trade in 1890. By 1900, 3,411 people lived in Abilene, and in that decade, the Board of Trade changed its name to the 25,000 Club in the hope of reaching 25,000 people by the next census. However, this committee failed when the population only hit 9,204 in 1910. Replacing it was the Young Men's Booster Club, which became the Abilene Chamber of Commerce in 1914.
  The cornerstone was laid for the first of three future universities in Abilene, called Simmons College, in 1891, which later became Hardin–Simmons University. Childers Classical Institute followed in 1906, currently Abilene Christian University, the largest of the three. In 1923, McMurry College was founded and later became McMurry University. Much more recently, Abilene succeeded in bringing Cisco Junior College and Texas State Technical College branches to Abilene, with the Cisco Junior College headquarters being located in Abilene.
  In 1940, Abilene raised the money to purchase land for a U.S. Army base, southwest of town, named Camp Barkeley, which was at the time twice the size of Abilene with 60,000 men. When the base closed, many worried that Abilene could become a ghost town, but in the post-World War II boom, many servicemen returned to start businesses in Abilene. In the early-1950s, to advocate for an Air Force base, residents raised US$893,261 (equivalent to about $8,798,621 in 2019) to purchase 3,400 acres (14 km²) of land. For decades, Dyess Air Force Base has been the city's largest employer, with 6076 employees in 2007.
  Abilene's population nearly doubled in 10 years from 45,570 in 1950 to 90,638 in 1960. In the same year, a second high school was added, Cooper High School. In 1966, the Abilene Zoo was created near Abilene Regional Airport. The following year, one of the most important bond elections in the city's history passed for the funding of the construction of the Abilene Civic Center and the Taylor County Coliseum, as well as major improvements to Abilene Regional Airport. In 1969, the Woodson elementary and high school for black students closed as the school system was integrated.
  In 1982, Abilene became the first city in Texas to create a downtown reinvestment zone. Texas State Technical College opened an Abilene branch three years later. The 2,250-bed French Robertson Prison Unit was built in 1989. A half-cent sales tax earmarked for economic development was created after the decline in the petroleum business in the 1980s. A branch of Cisco Junior College was located in the city in 1990.
  The Grace Museum and Paramount Theatre revitalizations, along with Artwalk in 1992, sparked a decade of downtown restoration. In 2004, Frontier Texas!, a multimedia museum highlighting the history of the area from 1780 to 1880, was constructed, and a new $8 million, 38-acre (150,000 m²) Cisco Junior College campus was built at Loop 322 and Industrial Boulevard. Simultaneously, subdivisions and businesses started locating along the freeway, on the same side as the CJC campus, showing a slow but progressive trend for Abilene growth on the
caption: The 20-story Enterprise Tower is the tallest building in west-central Texas and one of the five highest in the western two-thirds of the state.
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