My Thoughts on Giving a Historical Bicycle Tour of Abilene, Kansas

A couple of weeks ago, I guided a historical bicycle tour of Abilene.  This tour was put on by the Quality of Life Coalition as part of their Dickinson County Road Race event.  All in all, it was a really fun event, and I believe that everyone that took part had a blast.  For the tour, we rode about three miles with several stops along the way, making the tour last close to an hour.  The group stopped at the Lebold Mansion, Texas Street, the Kirby House, Abilene’s historic downtown district, and a couple of historic homes.  We also stopped and talked about the Drover’s Cottage, Belle Springs Creamery, and Joseph G. McCoy’s Great Western Stockyards; all places that do not exist today.  I was really happy to see that everyone had a lot of questions and was interested in the different sites.

When I help out with events like this, it’s fun for me since I get to meet new people and share my love of history with them.  It’s always great to see other people that are interested in a history-related topic, and see excitement build for them.  It is incredibly important for us at the Dickinson County Historical Society to be active in events like this.  It not only promotes our organization, but also our mission to preserve and educate about the history of Dickinson County.