Abilene was and is a small town in Kansas in the United States. It is also the home of The Dwight D. Eisenlower Presidential Library but that's another story...
In 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railway Company (Union Pacific today) pushed westwards through Abilene where a local resident built a hotel and stockyards capable of holding up to 2,000 head of cattle and stables for cattle drive horses.
At the same time, the railroad constructed a 'spur-line' that enabled cattle cars to be rapidly loaded and sent on to various destinations in the Northern States.As business the town grew quickly and became the first, great 'Cow Town' of the West.
Here you can see one of the cowboys who has just driven a large herd of cattle all the way up from Texas to the railhead here in Abilene. It's not surprising that after many long weeks on the trail and in the saddle he rests against one of the local sign posts marking the cowtown's city limits.