Happy Trails - Part I

(May 18 - 21, 2017) Abilene, Kansas, Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri

Professor Mydland, my close friend and former neighbor, and I hit the road for a long weekend to the Presidential Museum sites in Kansas and Missouri. A special exhibit on the Chisholm Trail provided the perfect excuse to get away to visit General and President Eisenhower’s boyhood home and Presidential Museum complex in Abilene, Kansas,

Abilene, Eisenhower’s hometown, is also the terminus of the historic Chisholm Cattle Trail. I feel a connection with the Trail, as my hometown, Fort Worth, was the Trail’s jumping off point. Both Fort Worth and Abilene currently are celebrating the Chisholm Trail’s Sesquicentennial.

We left Sioux Falls just after noon on Thursday, a bright and fairly warm South Dakota spring day. We headed south on Interstate 29, looping around Omaha and west onto Interstate 80 before heading south again and through Beatrice, Nebraska toward Kansas on the two-lane. Crossing into the Jayhawk State, the weather changed dramatically. Mother Nature greeted us to Kansas with a combination of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Twister.”

The rains came, then the winds, the skies blackened, followed by our cell phones sounding their sirens with imminent weather warnings. We arrived in Abilene in a downpour with flash flooding; two and one-half inches of rain in twenty-five minutes. Fortunately the twister did not touch down in Dickinson County.  

Uniquely with the Eisenhower Museum you get a double, covering both a distinguished military career and the Presidency. The impressive Eisenhower historical campus includes Visitor Center, Grave Site, Boyhood Home, Library, and Museum.

Ike’s World War II Chief of Staff, Walter Bedell “Beatle” Smith, organized the early creation and development work on the complex. Smith began work on the Museum prior to Eisenhower’s Presidency, organizing and raising funds from the multitude of Eisenhower associates, admirer’s and many of the soldier’s who served with Ike. Smith contributed $79,000 to the museum’s founding and his papers are housed in the Eisenhower Library.

After the War, Smith served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1946-1948) and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1950-1953) in the Truman administration. In the Eisenhower years he became an Under Secretary of State going on to serve in the Executive Office of the President.

Our first stop was a brief guided tour of Eisenhower’s boyhood home. The six-room home that housed Ida and David Eisenhower and their five sons contained a rarely used parlor, three bedrooms, a kitchen, a den, and one closet. The home was utilitarian. Young Ike liked the out of doors. His favorite pastimes were hunting, fishing, and playing football. The future President also liked reading history. His childhood heroes were Hannibal, George Washington, and Robert E Lee.

The guide emphasized the strong work ethic of the five Eisenhower sons. Ike’s four brothers while they would not become Supreme Allied Commander or U.S. President were also successful. Edgar was a corporate lawyer in the Pacific Northwest; Milton an educator who became the President of Kansas State College, Pennsylvania State (Milton was instrumental in Penn State becoming a University), and Johns Hopkins University; Earl an electrical engineer for a suburban Illinois newspaper chain and member of the Illinois State House of Representatives; Arthur a banker in Kansas City.

Dwight Eisenhower was in the spotlight on the world stage for twenty years, as long if not longer than any American President. His museum reflects his long career and dedicated service. There is almost as much exhibit space dedicated to his military career as to his Presidency.

The museum is laid out topically and well organized appropriate for a General. Early in Eisenhower’s military career his superiors identified his organizational skills and strategic military abilities. The most important U S Military leaders, Generals Fox Connor, John J Pershing, and Douglas McArthur, mentored him.

The museum told of Eisenhower’s close friendships with George Patton, Omar Bradley, and Abilene school classmate Swede Hazlett.

Television came of age during the Eisenhower presidency, including the 1952 campaign and how issues were framed. The museum covered in depth the important issues of the 1950s: the Cold War, McCarthy and the Red Scare, Civil Rights and Integration, Sputnik, and the Interstate Highway System.

I learned during the 34^th President’s eight years in office he played a lot of golf, in fact eight hundred rounds. A putting green was installed on the White House grounds nearby the Oval office, and Augusta National Golf Club built for the President a cabin on the grounds of their historic course where he frequently vacationed. Another impressive fact was Congress passed an act in 1961 restoring Five Star General Dwight David Eisenhower to active duty.

Eisenhower quotes I liked”     

On organizing the White House and Sherman Adams, White House Chief of Staff,

“I shouldn’t have to be my own Sergeant Major.”

On security,

“If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison.”

Coincidently my travel on this outing centered on trails, Eisenhower’s vision and leadership in building the Interstate Highway System may be judged by history as the most important trail built in America.  I touched on the story of Eisenhower and the Interstate System, a few years ago on my political blog.

My greatest impression, reinforced the next day with my visit to the Harry Truman Museum was the imense Character of Eisenhower and Truman. History will judge if their character was caused by their times or by where they were raised. Was it Time or Place?, I say both!

Chisholm Trail and the Cowtown that Raised a President – Abilene was a Cowtown essentially as a result of the Chisholm Trail. Life in Abilene was the personification of the Wild West. Though wild, it was at a time nearing the closing of the western frontier. The CT was simply a product of economics. Cattle in Texas were worth $4 a head and at the railhead in Abilene were worth $40.

Given the costs of a cattle drive, manpower, provisions, and loss of livestock, it was a profitable endeavor. The Texas Longhorn was the breed of choice because of its disease resistance and ability to withstand the drives.

The cowboys typically spent between two and three months herding the steers from Fort Worth to Abilene. Besides spending each day in the saddle, the cowboys crossed Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) at some person risk of attack. After their monotonous days in the saddle living in the dust from their herds, when they arrived at their destination and payday were looking for a good time and what was call hell raising. This meant baths, a bed, good food, whiskey, gambling, and girls. The cauldron of hell raising, money, and bad men who wanted the cowboy’s money produced Trouble. Abilene is also known for their famous Marshall, James Butler Hickok.

As the railroads moved further south and west the cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail ceased. However some of the cowboy culture remained. In 1870 one of the owners of the local stockyards, and a local realtor, Theodore “T. C.” Henry became Mayor of Abilene. Mayor Henry hired as Marshall Tom Smith who brought law and order to Abilene.  As the cattle drive played out, Henry began promoting the crop “winter” wheat. The Kansas soil and climate were perfect for the wheat crop. A result of his success Henry became known as “The Wheat King of Kansas.”

A bonus of our visit to the Eisenhower campus was White House correspondent, Paul Brandus, who lectured in the Visitor Center’s auditorium. Brandus also a White House historian, lecture topic was “Under This Roof: A History of the White House and Presidency.” Essentially his “lecture” was a series of anecdotes about several of the Presidents and First Ladies interaction with the physical White House. Brandus was a very polished and informed speaker but his anecdotes were simply facts lacking the analysis I hoped for. Brandus impressed me enough to add him to my Twitter feed.

The lecture included a very nice free sandwich buffet lunch compliments of the local Eisenhower historical group.