Frontier Texas!

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Frontier Texas! is a 14,000-square foot state-of-the-art museum of the American West located in downtown Abilene, the seat of Taylor County in West Texas. The facility opened in 2004. It is located at 625 North First Street on 6.4 acres near the Texas and Pacific Railway tracks. The museum focuses on typical settlers and lifestyles in the Old West. According to the museum website, its “cutting-edge technology puts a visitor in the middle of attacks by Indians and wolves, stampeding buffalo, a card game shootout, and a prairie thunderstorm, even a spring evening filled with fireflies." ^[1]Visitors see depictions of buffalo hunters, Comanche warriors, explorers, and pioneers in the theatre called the "Century of Adventure", 1780-1880. ^[2] The narrator in the theater is actor-artist Buck Taylor from Fort Worth. Taylor is also involved in the annual membership drive.^[3]

[edit] Recent exhibits

"Women’s Art: Women’s Vision in West Texas”, April-May 2008

"Toy Stories”, November 30, 2007-February 25, 2008

"Spirit of the Frontier Festival”, October 5-October 6, 2007

"Chow Time: The Heritage of Cowboy Cooking” (partly on loan from the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth), May 5 – September 11, 2007

"Abolitionism From Slavery to Freedom: Africans in the Americas”, February 15-April 22, 2007

"Faith on the Frontier: Christmas and Other Early Traditions”, November 22, 2006 – January 22, 2007

"Homeland Security: The Texas Forts Trail, Past & Present”, May – September 11, 2006

"Christmas on the Frontier", November – December 2005. This exhibit looks at the Hispanic and German cultures of Christmas, the holiday at a frontier fort, and history and photographs of a “Cowboy Christmas ball” dating to 1885.^[4]

[edit] Museum services

The museum also accommodates educators by offering lesson plans for Texas and United States history at elementary and secondary levels.^[5]The museum publishes a quarterly newsletter called Frontier Times.^[6]There is a gift shop called the General Store which offers books, toys, housewares, and clothing. Museum hours are Monday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 1 -5 p.m. There is an admission fee, with discounts available for military personnel, educators, and senior citizens.^[7]

The website "You Tube" voted Frontier Texas! as "Best Old West Experience in Texas for 2008" and indicated that the holograms at the museum are "amazing".^[8]