Abilene ? Terry Tietjens is part prophet, part booster, part promoter. And he’s summoning all three skills in his quest to realize his vision for Old Abilene Town.

He’s surrounded by buildings worn down by weather and neglect. Two generations ago, this was one of the hottest tourist attractions in Kansas, drawing more than 100,000 people every summer.

Now, the occasional curious soul shows up to peer through dusty windows and wander between buildings with peeling paint.

But Tietjens believes that soon the grounds will be bustling, music and food will freely flow and artisans will delight the throngs with their Old World skills.

“We don’t have to build the Yellow Brick Road — it’s already here and it’s called the Chisholm Trail,” he says. “I want this to be regarded as Kansas’ No. 1 tourist attraction.”

It will be a remarkable feat if he achieves it. According to a draft version of a market analysis Tietjens requested in anticipation of seeking financing, Old Abilene Town will generate $250,000 a month in admissions during its first year, more than Dodge City’s Boot Hill generated last year.

In fact, the admissions revenue from four major attractions in Kansas — Boot Hill, the Kansas Cosmosphere and Discovery Center, Wichita’s Old Cowtown, and Rolling Hills Zoo — totals $1.7 million, a little more than half the amount Old Abilene Town is projected to collect. The analysis shows visitors spending an additional $3.35 million on food and entertainment.

And that’s just in its first year. By year three, visitors are projected to spend nearly $9 million a year.

It’s all about history, Tietjens says, and Abilene has it, in spades.

Terry Tietjens plans to redevelop the defunct Old Abilene Town in Abilene into a major historic attraction that will draw 300,000 people a year. Tietjens was pictured Sept. 22 in Old Abilene Town.

“This is where cowboy history originated,” he says. “You can’t take history away from a community.”

In many ways, the Old Abilene Town resurrection puts Tietjens squarely into his element. His track record in Abilene is impressive. He saved the historic Seelye Mansion. He created the Kirby House Restaurant. And he helped establish the Great Plains Theater Festival, which performs in the Tietjens Performing Arts Center, which once was a Presbyterian church. Tietjens grew up in Douglas County from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, with his parents Bill and Estella Tietjens who owned the Black Hat Ranch near Lone Star.

Financial plans

But for this project, Tietjens plans to invest almost none of his own money, he says. The project will be the work of Historic Abilene, a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation he established recently. He plans to have investors, donors and the city of Abilene pay for the project. And it’s not clear how much that will be.

The redevelopment plan presented to the Abilene City Council last month put the total cost at $7.8 million. But Tietjens said it would cost $10 million. Or more.

“I’m sure we are looking at a $10 (million) to $12 million project before it is through,” he said.

Terry Tietjens plans to preserve the mercantile store, left, in Old Abilene Town. But many of the other aging store fronts will be razed to make way for new replicas of historic buildings. The buildings that will be removed were built in the 1950s and are not historically significant.

Nor is it clear how large an area it will encompass. The plan says Historic Abilene has outright acquired or has options on about 15 acres for the project. Tietjens said this past week the venue will cover 25 to 30 acres.

Financing hasn’t been fully established, either. The study, which anticipates a project that costs $7 million to $8 million, says that $5 million will come from so-called STAR bonds — revenue bonds that are repaid by sales tax generated by the redevelopment area.

“Basically, it’s six city blocks,” said James Holland, community development director.

Asked where the rest of the money will come from — $2 million to $7 million, depending on the estimate — Tietjens said he is trying to raise money privately but might also ask the city for industrial revenue bonds.

“We have lots of things in the plans,” he said.

If a redevelopment district is approved by the Abilene City Council, the city will make a formal request to the Kansas Department of Commerce for permission to issue STAR bonds. The department will review a feasibility study before making a decision.

Tietjens said he was confident the bonds will be sold before the end of 2004.

High hopes

The Rock Island Depot, built in 1887, is already being used as a museum and for booking by the Abilene and Smoky Valley Rail Road. The depot, pictured Sept. 22, will remain in use by the excursion line in Old Abilene Town.

Tietjens acknowledges that other Kansas attractions conceptually similar to Old Abilene Town — Boot Hill in Dodge City and Old Cowtown in Wichita — don’t get nearly as many visitors as he hopes to. He dismisses Boot Hill as being mostly facade work and “not fully authentic.”

Finding the tipping point that transforms a Boot Hill attraction into Silver Dollar City is a good deal more complex than is suggested by the movie “Field of Dreams.”

“I don’t think it is easy,” says Scott Allegrucci, director of the Division of Travel and Tourism Development in the Kansas Department of Commerce. “It can’t be done one community at a time.”

Preston Gilson, senior policy fellow with the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University, is doing the feasibility study for Historic Abilene.

“I think the formula for success is you have to make it a destination. In that sense, I’d argue that Abilene as a community has a fair amount to start working with. They have a great deal more than many places.”

Tietjens couldn’t agree more.

“I don’t know why people ever stop in Salina,” he said. “People stop there and come back to Abilene.”