By Shanna Smith-Snyder
Frontier Texas! is an educational and entertaining 14,000 square-foot multimedia museum on 6.4 acres in downtown
Abilene that showcases the history of the region from 1780-1880 — not to mention it comes in at No. 1 on the Top 10 Things Ya Gotta Do in Abilene list. It is the perfect first stop in Abilene, Texas!
There’s no better way to relive those early days on the Texas frontier than to visit Frontier Texas! and thanks to modern technology, it’s easy to do so. At Frontier Texas! visitors meet (at least figuratively) some of the real men, women and children who lived and died on the Texas Frontier.
Holographic “spirit guides” tell their tales first-hand in an interactive audio-visual
Century of Adventure theater. Frontier Texas! delivers history lessons in the form of movie-like clippings projected onto screens. As you stand in front of the screens and listen to the characters narrate their life stories, you will swear that you are listening to real people. The life-like quality will leave you in awe , and some of the characters are so real that you’ll find yourself completely immersed in their stories!
The grand finale to any visit to Frontier Texas! is to feel the thrills and hardships of frontier life in the multimedia Frontier Experience Theatre. This theater-in-the-round puts visitors smack dab in the middle of Indian raids, wolf attacks, buffalo stampedes, saloon shootouts, prairie thunderstorms and even a lovely spring evening filled with fireflies. Something to note before you begin your adventure: All scripts and exhibits were created with a commitment to historical accuracy, making Frontier Texas! a truly enriching, educational experience with the past.
This complex also houses the
Texas Forts Trail Visitors Center, full of additional information about Abilene and the region. Furthermore, there is a great gift shop that sells lots of Texas-themed gifts, t-shirts and books published by Texas writers. From the young to the young-at-heart — everyone will learn a lot and have a lot of fun while doing so.
Frontier Texas! is located at 625 N. 1st St. in downtown Abilene. Open daily from Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun., 1-5 p.m. Admission: $8 for adults, $6 for 60 and older and military, $5 for students and teachers with ID, $4 for ages 3 through 12, and free for children younger than age 3. For more information, call 325-437-2800 or visit
www.frontiertexas.com.