His face is on billboards, brochures and You Tube videos promoting Old Abilene Town and its summer gunfights.
But this Saturday Wade Tuxhorn will not be giving his usual lesson to kids on the dangers of guns nor participating in the ensuing gunfights, portraying Marshal Wild Bill Hickok.
The gunfights in Old Abilene Town have been turned over to a new group, one that left in 2016.

Tuxhorn said he believes gunfights in Abilene started 60 years ago in 1959. He has been participating in the unscripted all volunteer event for 20 years.

Read more: Abilene R-C.

A recent change in the number of first responders available to fight fires in Geary County has spurred a need for additional volunteers.
Deputies from the Geary County Sheriff’s Department previously fought fires alongside volunteer firefighters. But a recent policy change was made — due to training, certification and liability concerns — and deputies will no longer fight fires. That change has necessitated a need for additional volunteer firefighters, Geary County Fire Chief Garry Berges said.

Read more: Junction City Union.

While some may have mourned the loss of the trade, others were celebrating all across the county.
On Feb. 29, 1872, the Abilene Weekly Chronicle reprinted an article from the Solomon Weekly Times that congratulated Abilene emphatically for finally ending the cattle trade. According to the Solomon Weekly Times: “our Abilene friends deserve credit for the effective manner in which they are clearing out the town of vagabonds, cut-throats, and prostitutes that have infested it in the past.

They have never been tolerated by the citizens of Abilene, but flocked in there on account of the great number of Texas cattle drivers that have made Abilene their headquarters. It is now an orderly, respectable city, filling up with the best of law abiding citizens. The Texas cattle trade is among the things of the past, and the Abilene of today is not the Abilene of the past.”

Read more: Abilene R-C.