Nebraska Life Magazine January-February 2022 by Flagship Publishing

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Your backyard safari

One of the greatest North American wildlife experiences lands here in Grand Island. Watch thousands of sandhill cranes parachute onto the river in the evening, hear them trumpet as they wake to a crisp March sunrise. Moments like these make life grand. Visit SeeTheCranes.com.

Grand Island, Nebraska

Photo by Rick Rasmussen

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

FEATURES

20 South Omaha Mural Project

Artists and community members work together to depict the rich history and culture of this thriving neighborhood. Large-scale works unite the diverse community as one big family.

Story by Megan Feeney

24 Ice Photo Essay

Photographers from across Nebraska contribute their coolest shots to this photo essay that reflects on our state’s natural wonders and the lessons we can learn.

32 Har tington Veterinarians

Erin and Ben Schroeder treat injured and sick animals, renovate historic buildings and star in a National Geographic Wild reality show that broadcasts the town of Hartington into homes around the world. And what a town it is.

Story by Megan Feeney Photographs by Brooke Steffen-Kleinschmit

50 Charles Henry Morrill

Morrill Hall: University of Nebraska State Museum has many natural history wonders thanks to the man whose love for archaeology and commitment to fund digs in Nebraska kept them here.

Story by Tim Trudell

58 13 Architectural Curiosities

Nebraskans have built structures to protect and provide for their people, honor their history and elevate beauty in their communities – and they’ve used creative methods to get it done.

Story by Megan Feeney

76 Winter Reading

Cozy up with new books featuring Nebraska connections, including a thriller set in the Sandhills, a collection of medical nonfiction mysteries by an Omaha doctor and new poetry from Ted Kooser and Marjorie Saiser.

Story by Megan Feeney

da Vinci® Xi™ Robotic System

at Columbus Community Hospital

Columbus Community Hospital’s surgical services unit is proud to announce the arrival of a new da Vinci® Xi™ robotic system to provide a wide variety of minimally invasive surgeries, including the following:

• Inguinal hernia repair.

• Umbilical hernia repair.

• Ventral/incisional hernia repair.

• Cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal).

• Appendectomy.

• Colon resection.

• Nissan fundoplication (stomach surgery for reflux).

• Hysterectomy.

This special piece of technology gives surgeons greater capabilities in the operating room and provides a minimally invasive surgery option for patients.

The da Vinci® Xi™ robotic system features 3D imaging of the surgical area with enhanced dexterity for greater precision by surgeons.

For more information on the new da Vinci® Xi™ robotic system, visit www.columbushosp.org.

• Oophorectomy (ovaries).

• Tubal ligation.

• Bladder repair/suspension.

• Prostatectomy.

• Nephrectomy (kidneys).

• Bladder surgery.

Cody pg. 58

Valentine pg. 70

Crawford pg. 50

Harrison pg. 50

Minatare pg. 58

Morrill pg. 50

Morrill County pg. 50

Arthur pg. 58

Madrid pg. 15

McCook pg. 58

DEPARTMENTS

9 Editor’s Letter

Gothenburg pg. 58

Kearney pg. 58

Eustis pg. 24

Hartington pg. 32

Norfolk pg. 18

Central City pg. 64

Grand Island pg. 58

Aurora pg. 24

Johnson Lake pg. 58

South Sioux City pg. 58

Meadow Grove pg. 24

Marquette pg. 24

Osceola pg. 50

Seward pg. 58

Lincoln pg. 58, 70

Stromsburg pg. 50

York pg. 16

Blair pg. 24

Omaha pg. 13, 20, 24, 70

Linoma Beach pg. 58

Louisville pg. 24

Nebraska City pg. 12

Observations on the ‘Good Life’ by new editor Megan Feeney.

10 Mailbox

Letters, emails, posts and notes from our readers.

12 Flat Water News & Trivia

Nebraska City dog trainer coaches people and pups in dog agility, family-owned store serves fresh roasted coffee and melt-in-your-mouth pie in Madrid, Joslyn exhibit highlights Nebraska’s Indigenous communities and a vending machine in York sells dry-aged beef 24-7. Test your knowledge about Norfolk’s festivals, famous folks and food. Answers on page 75.

42 Kitchens

Whether you’re on team cinnamon roll or team cornbread, chili combined with an oven-baked treat warms up winter days. We’ll take one of each, please.

46 Poetry

Poets revel in the beauty of a frozen Nebraska landscape.

70 Traveler

A recovered population of Nebraska river otters await wildlife watchers, an annual Reuben competition in Omaha’s Blackstone District promises diners beefy bites and a Lincoln cidery invites imbibers to quaff a flight of appley alcoholic nectars.

80 Naturally Nebraska

A new column from former Nebraska Life editor Alan J. Bartels.

82 Last Look

Fourth-generation Seward farmer reaps rewards of early rising with shot of fuchsia sky.

Above: Danelle McCollum, Ken Smith, Gordon Warrick

5: Brooke Steffen-Kleinschmit, Brad Mellema

ON OUR COVER A January sunset illuminates cirrus clouds and jet contrails on Standing Bear Lake in West Omaha.

See “Still Life,” pg. 24. PHOTOGRAPH BY JAYSON ALDER

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Volume 26, Number 1

Publisher & Executive Editor

Chris Amundson

Associate Publisher Angela Amundson

Editor Megan Feeney

Photo Editor Joshua Hardin

Design

Traci Laurie, Open Look Creative Team

Advertising Marilyn Koponen, Lauren Warring

Subscriptions

Lindsey Schaecher, Janice Sudbeck, Azelan Amundson, Teresa Eichenbrenner

Trivia Master

Alex Fernando

Nebraska Life Magazine

c/o Subscriptions Dept. • PO Box 430 Timnath, CO 80547 1-800-777-6159 NebraskaLife.com

Subscriptions are 1-yr (6 issues) for $25 or 2-yrs (12 issues) for $44. Please call, visit NebraskaLife.com or return a subscription card from this issue. For fundraising and corporate rates, call or email subscriptions@ nebraskalife.com.

ADVERTISE

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CONTRIBUTE

Send us your letters, stories, photos and story tips by writing to us, visiting NebraskaLife.com/contribute or emailing editor@nebraskalife.com.

MEMBER OF

International Regional Magazine Association

Nebraska Stewardship

AS A NEW member of the Nebraska Life team, I recently enjoyed lunch in the charming town of Hartington with Nebraska Life colleague Janice Sudbeck, who’s worked in subscriptions for 18 years.

Janice regaled me with tales of Nebraska Life’s history as we enjoyed steak sandwiches and split a piece of banana caramel cake at The Globe Chophouse.

The Globe building is a touchstone for the community, Janice said. For many years it was Globe Clothing. Nearly everyone she knew had shopped there – and their parents and grandparents had too.

Globe Chophouse owner Kate Lammers knows the building is part of a bigger story. It’s one of the reasons she feels an obligation to make her business work. Kate isn’t from Hartington – her dad was Air Force, so she grew up in a lot of places, including Omaha – but she recognized the opportunity in that Nebraska town. It was a good place to raise her young children and start a business.

I grew up in Omaha but, like Kate, I’ve lived many places, among them China and New York City, where I worked as a journalist and editor. In 2015, my husband Adam and I traded our one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment for an acreage in Cass County, not far from my folks’ vegetable operation, Paradise in Progress Farm. Farming is Mom and Dad’s second act after raising my four brothers and me. During our years in New York, Adam and I loved visiting and working in the dirt. We saw how happy our firstborn son was walking the beans. We wanted that life.

Today our eldest son and his younger Nebraska-born brother roam our eight acres climbing trees, playing with their goats, dogs, cats, ducks and chickens and finding all kinds of bugs, snakeskins and leaves to put into their pockets. Our garden is bigger than our Brooklyn apartment was. My parents have taught us how to care for the land – how to enrich the soil and prevent erosion.

As Kate is a steward of her historical building in Hartington, I consider myself a steward of this piece of earth in Union and recognize that it’s also part of a bigger story.

I feel the same way about the responsibility publishers Chris and Angela Amundson have entrusted to me. Nebraska Life turns 25 years old this year. With the support of talented long-time employees like Janice, it’s been a source of fun, joy and inspiration for readers near and far who love our great state.

I’m delighted to play my part in Nebraska Life’s ongoing story. As Kate does with her restaurant building and as my family does with their land, I will honor the magazine’s past as we all move forward together.

Megan Feeney Editor editor@nebraskalife.com

MAILBOX

Where’s the greenhouse?

Your story about the greenhouse was interesting (“Citrus in the Snow,” November/December 2021). I think we will have to get more innovative with how we grow our food. How cool is it that someone in Nebraska figured out this solution? Many pollinators are struggling to survive. Good to know we can pollinate our own crops if we have to. It would be good to have a list of the other facilities’ locations. Do any of them offer tours? I would want to visit the one near my home in Nebraska City.

Ann O’Fallon Nebraska City

Editor’s note: You can see a virtual tour of the original greenhouse at greenhouseinthesnow.com. Contact Russ Finch in Alliance at (308) 760-9718 for more information about onsite visits.

Alan’s wild ride

reignited in the organic movement.

My parents talked often about the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression in reminders to be grateful for what we had.

Jeanette Hopkins Sioux City, Iowa

Bess is best

Thanks for the mention of Mom and Dad in your editor letter, (“New beginnings,” November/December 2021).

Mom immediately called me when she read it to tell me about it – it was a great memory of you bouncing to a stop with a crazy pilot. Dad always fancied himself a wannabe pilot (I think the covered wagon to flying machine transition was the appeal). He never did learn how but they both were very excited when you arrived.

Kevin Howard Sidney

The Dirty Thirties

Your mention of the 1930s in “The Decade that could have been” (Flat Water News, November/December 2021) made me think of my grandparents.

The ’30s were difficult, but my grandad utilized conservation practices to survive. He graduated from the University of Nebraska and taught conservation at Columbia University before returning to the family farm in Nebraska in the ’20s.

He used terracing, wind breaks, buffalo tilling and waterways to save the topsoil and the farm. Those conservation practices continue to this day and are being

I was born in 1930. I remember the Dirty Thirties, because I made many mud pies, and I never was reprimanded for digging holes in the yard because there was no grass to destroy. We worked in the state of Nebraska during our years of employment. I will always remember the walking trail on Scotts Bluff Monument as a great stress reliever

Norman Frerichs Genoa

Wynot write in?

We currently have a house guest named Loralye (Jensen) Sorum who grew up in Obert. I shared your article about Wynot with her (“Why Not get creative when naming your town?” Flat Water News, November/December 2021), which gave her a big chuckle. She told us that as kids growing up, they would say “Wynot go Obert to Maskel to see our Newcastle.”

Someone once said that kids say the darnedest things.

Lyle Tuttle Surprise, Arizona

When I saw there was an article about Bess Streeter Aldrich (“Best-selling Bess”) in the November/December 2021 issue, I stopped what I was doing and read it all. She is my all-time favorite author. I highly recommend all her books. There’s a sweetness to them that is just so special, and really reminds me so much of our beautiful state back when it was being settled. (Not that I was there then!)

I hope this magazine article inspires many people to read her books.

Julie Joyce Fremont

Sweet imagery

I am very pleased that you included my poem, “In Nebraska” in the September/ October 2021 magazine. It was particularly pleasing to be among poets Lukas, Heath, Vesely and Franzen, whose images create a warm nostalgia for things Nebraska.

Having worked in the Capitol (when I was young) first in the Office of the Attorney General and later for the chief justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court, I especially related to Franzen’s scenes of Lincoln viewed from the tower of the Capitol. Every time I entered that remarkable edifice, it seemed as if all the marble and mosaics epitomized the strong and ever-loyal characteristics of Nebraskans.

Beth Franz Lincoln

Root for DeGroot

Thank you for your wonderful story about DeGroot’s Orchard (“Detour to DeGroot’s,” September/October 2021). As a former Nebraskan from Madison, I remember driving from the Barr’s home to Norfolk.

My mom and dad both worked for Cindy’s mom and dad. I never got to know Cindy, as I was gone from home when she was born. Both my sons know Cindy from Madison High School. I wonder if Cindy remembers my mom and dad and how much she meant to them. Bless her and all her family for always.

Marian Little Port Angeles, Washington

Sharing Nebraska Life

I love Nebraska and have given away three gift subscriptions so far. Friends report several trips within the state have started with the reading of an article or sight of an advertisement. My own subscription continues until 2023.

Nicolle French Bailey Broken Bow

Thank you for another wonderful year of Nebraska Life. For a number of years, Nebraska Life has been a Christmas gift for my wife, Jeanie. We just celebrated 44 years together. She never fails to let me know that Nebraska Life is the gift she cherishes most.

Tom Hughes Tilden

Editor’s note: Thanks for your support of Nebraska Life. We agree – subscriptions make great gifts for friends and family. Visit nebraskalife.com or call us at 1-800-777-6159.

Howling good story

Perusing Nebraska Life , there it was, a story about wolves (“Wolves rejoin Nebraska’s wild kingdom,” Flat Water News, September/October 2021). Immediately, I had a three-year flashback of the photo of our granddaughter in a wire enclosure with a wolf.

In college, Alyssa’s major was ecology, and she had a summer job at a Wolf Reserve in northern Indiana. The pictured wolf had always been domesticated and regularly cared for by staff members. Alyssa’s job description included a gentle approach and letting the wolf approach her.

The wolf did just that and she responded with kind attention. However, strict rules were in place, like making slow, cautious and deliberate movements, avoiding noise and using consistent and calm actions. Though the wolf appears tame, they still have a wild and vicious trait of nature which could be alarmed and become active.

As the article said, the Nebraska ranchers are starting to see a few wolves after an absence exceeding 100 years. By DNA, one carcass was traced back to the Great Lakes region.

Therefore, my unexpected and memorable flashback was verified by connecting two stories.

Lowell Broberg Puyallup, Washington

SEND US YOUR LETTERS

Please send us your letters and emails by Feb. 1, 2022, for possible publication in the March/April 2022 issue. One lucky winner selected at random will receive a free 1-year subscription renewal. This issue’s winner is Tom Hughes of Tilden. Email editor@nebraskalife.com or write by mail to the address at the front of this magazine. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

FUTURE OF TRADITION

Noteworthy

Having a doggone good time in Nebraska City with agility

BY MEGAN FEENEY

Snickers had a bad case of the zoomies.

Churning four little legs, the young corgi circled dog agility instructor Tammie Gigstad’s Nebraska City barn. Snickers jumped random obstacles. She wiggled her fluffy butt and barked. She somersaulted and, once right side again, kept running. Snicker’s owner, 10-year-old Cosette Wagner, pursued her pup, but the dog added speed. The duo’s panting

streaked the air. Radiant diesel heaters blasted, but the cold January evening winds seeped through the barn’s cracks.

“You’ve got to be more interesting, Cosette,” shouted Gigstad, cupping her gloved hands to her face. Gigstad believed the novice young handler showed promise in dog agility, but even more advanced students needed coaching. The girl had to do something to recapture her young dog’s attention. Cosette ran in the opposite direction with a tug toy and made

gleeful 10-year-old kid sounds. It worked. Dog returned to handler.

After putting an end to Snicker’s shenanigans, one of Gigstad’s weekly dog agility classes was once again underway. Agility requires a handler to direct a dog through a series of obstacles in the correct order within a set time. There are jumps

Tammie Gigstad and her poodle Maui take a break from agility training at their home in Nebraska City.

Rebecca Kurtzer

and tunnels, weaves and teeter-totters, dog walks and a-frames. Gigstad is an accomplished handler. She has placed at national events and competed internationally. Most recently last fall, she and her silver miniature poodle Maui beat a slew of border collies in a national weave pole contest at the Purina ProPlan Incredible Dog Challenge in St. Louis.

Gigstad’s students – humans and their canine companions – come from nearby Nebraska counties, as well as Iowa and Missouri. Cosette Wagner is one of the youngest students; the oldest are in their 70s. Dog agility has become popular in Nebraska in recent years, with an increasing number of people participating in the sport and local clubs hosting more agility trials. Nebraskans used to have to travel to other states to compete, but now enthusiasts can find as many as three in-state trials in three weeks.

Gigstad witnessed the growing Nebraska interest in the sport and wanted to provide a local year-round space for people to learn and enjoy it. She convinced her husband Jimm, a veterinarian in Nebraska City, that if she had a place to teach throughout the year, she’d make it a success. The couple built the barn to hold her classes a little more than a decade ago. She advertised on social media, and classes grew

Gigstad said her greatest hope for her students is to know the joy and connection with a dog that she’s felt with her dogs over the course of her two decades with the sport.

It’s been a year since that January night when the corgi Snickers lost her little doggy mind. She’s come a long way since then. Cosette Wagner competed in her first AKC agility show last fall - and Snickers stayed with her the entire time. Cosette’s mom, Leslie Wagner, who also takes classes with Gigstad and competes with the family’s other dog, a blue heeler named Emily, appreciates being able to share the experience with her daughter. They’ve both found community and friendship through classes and competition. Leslie said Cosette has learned a good life lesson, too. School has always been easy for her daughter.

“But with a dog you have to put the work in,” Leslie said.

1833 and 1834.*

Indigenous communities shine in Joslyn exhibit

BY MEGAN FEENEY

A young Native American boy stared into the distance with soft brown eyes. His body was round and well-nourished. He wore a metal bracelet on his wrist. The eagle feather in his hair, his earrings and paint reflected his family’s status.

“Omaha Boy,” is one of more than 60 recently restored watercolors in Joslyn’s Faces from the Interior: The North American Portraits of Karl Bodmer.

Wynema Morris, an Omaha Tribe Member and adjunct professor at Nebraska Indian Community College, provided text to accompany the painting of the Omaha youth.

Artist Karl Bodmer was a Swiss draftsman employed on an expedition to document the people and nature along the Missouri River. He and his benefactor Prince Maximilian of Wied traveled 2,500

miles by steam and keelboat between 1833 and 1834.

Bodmer’s work provides rare pictorial documentation of people from Omaha, Ponca, Yankton, Lakota, Mandan, Hidatsa, Assiniboine, and Blackfeet tribes in the early 19th century.

The Joslyn exhibition relied on Indigenous artists, knowledge bearers and scholars, like Morris, to contribute text.

Four short films also premiere at the exhibit providing insight into the traditions of beadwork and dancing and illuminating the rich heritage of tribal histories, ecological knowledge and language.

In one of the films, Morris explains that Bodmer’s work becomes a jumping off point to talk about the culture at a certain period in history.

The exhibition is on display until May. A catalogue of paintings is available on the website Joslyn.org.

* Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809–1893), Interior of a Mandan Earth Lodge, 1833–34, watercolor and graphite on paper, 11 7/16 in. × 17 in., Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.261.A.

There are few representations of early Native American people of the Great Plains. Artist Karl Bodmer documented people living along the Missouri River between

Bruce M. White, 2019

A Colorful Variety of Tours

June 2

13 Day WWII Tour, Visiting France, Belgium and Germany

Always a sell out... call today! (Includes airfare from Minneapolis $3,795 or Chicago $3,695)

July 23

Exclusive Norway!

From Oslo to Bergen on land then a six day cruise along the coast of Norway. Call for pricing. Deadline for cruise is March 1, 2022.

August 20

England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland

Includes the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh. Land package $3,895 and air from Chicago $866 or Sioux Falls $1,313. Already 55% sold!

September 24

Unbelievable Europe – A Two Part Tour

Part One: Includes Oktoberfest in Munich, world-famous Passion Play in Oberammergau (deadline for tickets is May 1st), then visits Switzerland, French Alps and Monaco.

Part Two: Tour continues into Spain and Portugal Already 40% sold! Do part one, two or both!

Madrid store serves pie with a side of love

BY SAVANNAH REDL

Four hungry college boys ambled into Sharon Zimmerman’s Madrid General Store in Perkins County looking for pie. The guys, who were traveling across Nebraska on a pie-tasting quest, had reserved it a week in advance and driven hours to get there.

Zimmerman had forgotten all about the special order. Her in-demand pies often sold out. But within an hour, she served the young men a hot juicy blueberry pie – and made sure they had plenty of coffee and ice cream to go with it.

Zimmerman’s Mennonite family has offered this kind of hospitality to customers and curated the store’s offerings to meet the needs of the community.

Madrid, pronounced MAD-drid, is in southwest Nebraska, not far from the Colorado border, just off highway 23. The Zimmermans moved to Nebraska from

Wisconsin in 1996 and established their Madrid store in 2011.

Sharon Zimmerman’s scratch-made breads, pies and pastries from family recipes weren’t originally on the menu. She realized early on that she needed something extra to get folks in the door. Now, on baking days, there’s sometimes a line out the door.

Baking spices fragrance the air, mingling with the smell of coffee roasted on-site. Neatly lined shelves with brown parceled goods create a feeling of tranquility and order. The store offers everything from produce grown by Zimmerman’s son to educational toys, from home goods to local beef. The wooden framed store features hanging baskets and flower boxes in front

Zimmerman built her business with community support, and she has extended her support to other local entrepreneurs and makers. She sells tea towels made by Marcia Spratt from Grant. The honey she

carries comes from Doug Long’s Family Honey Farm in Lexington. The coffee beans are roasted by local coffee entrepreneur Jason Regier. Zimmerman gave up her own office at the store for him.

Sometime after that emergency blueberry pie bake for the college boys, one of them called to thank her again and ask her for the recipe.

The young man said that on their pie tour of Nebraska, it was one of the best.

Vistiors to Madrid General Store delight in its many local offerings, including fresh cut flowers, local honey and handmade tortillas. Shoppers can order a coffee made with beans roasted on-site and a scratch-made pastry while they browse for gifts and groceries.

Joshua Hardin (both)

Where’s the beef? It’s in York-area vending machines 24-7

BY MEGAN FEENEY

In the dead of night, Brian Kurth’s cell phone pinged. A camera sensor at McLean Beef set it off.

Someone had entered the York-area fresh meat market and processing facility at 3:30 a.m.

Kurth, McLean Beef’s general manager, wasn’t worried. He knew cravings for dryaged beef struck at all hours.

Two carousel-style vending machines sell steaks 24-7 in the vestibule.

Glass doors lead into the main market area, open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Handmade prints decorate the black brick walls. Marbled cuts of corn-fed USDA-inspected Nebraska beef gleam behind the

butcher case. A self-serve display below offers grab-and-go items, as does a nearby freezer section. Sitting around round tables, customers tuck into lunch offered on Wednesdays or breakfast served on Tuesdays and Thursdays mornings cooked in the onsite commercial kitchen.

The McLean family has been in the Nebraska cattle business for four generations and maintains 9,000 head near Benedict in York County. Patriarch Max McLean wanted a store where people could walk in, see fresh meat and hand it over to be cut the way they liked it. He brought on Kurth to help realize his vision. Kurth found a building in foreclosure that once housed a firetruck and ambulance builder three quarters of a mile from the 80 Interchange

Customers at McLean Beef near York can choose between shopping the main market or giving the vending machines in the vestibule a whirl.

Katie Bresnahan

off Highway 81. They bought and renovated it for their needs and opened last fall.

Customers can pay to process their own animals or buy one of the McLean’s quarter, half or full beef to stock the freezer. They can order online, too.

Customers who’ve come to shop after hours use the vending machines in the vestibule. They rotate the carousel, swipe a credit card and flick the drawer of the product they want. After the card goes through, the drawer unlocks the goodies. There are fresh sides, too. Smoked macaroni and cheese, green beans, and garlic mashed potatoes taste mighty fine with that New York strip.

The York community has welcomed the business and especially delighted in the novelty of the vending machines. The only problem is keeping them full, especially on the weekends. In 24 hours, as many as 40 sales go through.

That’s not a problem that keeps Kurth up at night.

Magazine profile lands among the stars

BY MEGAN FEENEY

Terri Hirt, a reader from Lincoln, Nebraska, wrote in to praise Alan J. Bartels’ March/April 2021 Nebraska Life profile of Ashland astronaut Clayton Anderson.

“What an inspirational story... While reading, I bit my fingers nervously, felt my heart stop and skip, jumped for joy, and at other times had tears in my eyes.”

That’s the kind of emotional resonance Nebraska Life hopes to create.

A judge for the 41st annual International Regional Magazine Association (IRMA) awards agreed with our reader’s assessment: “A really well done profile, you feel you really know the subject of the feature.” IRMA awarded Bartels the Bronze for the piece in the 2021 Profile category.

“Ewenique” SKI N C AR E

all natural sheep’s milk products. Select scents from kids options, unscented Native Nebraska fragrances and more. Try the “Hope” fragrance and Shepherd’s Dairy 4 Ewe will donate 10% of each sale to the American Cancer Society. See our complete line including our gift sets at shepherdsdairy4ewe.com or request a brochure.

“Clayton Anderson’s story is one of those quintessential American stories, of achieving one’s dreams. And working hard, and not letting anything stand in their way,” said Bartels. “Nebraskans from all walks of life achieve their dreams every day. Anderson took his into orbit. I hope my story about Anderson inspired readers to work even harder to achieve their Nebraska-born dreams.”

Bartels formerly served as the Editor of Nebraska Life. He will continue to contribute to the magazine.

“To be recognized by IRMA is a great honor. But the greatest recognition to me is when our readers are entertained by our stories, and they share the magazine with friends and family,” he said.

After years of service to the magazine, Bartels knows the power of stories.

See riveting photos of the West before it was tamed at the Solomon D. Butcher Gallery. Trace your roots through genealogy at the Mary Landkamer Genealogy Library.

ALL ABOUT NORFOLK

Challenge your brain with our Nebraska quiz. Questions by MEGAN FEENEY and ALEX FERNANDO

Call 308-872-2203 or visit CusterCountyMuseum.org 445 S 9th Ave • Broken Bow

Explore Fremont’s

Georgian Architecture

The May Museum takes you back to turn-of-the-century Fremont life. Tour the landscaped grounds, a Nebraska Arboretum Site.

Open late April-late Dec. Wed-Sat, 1:30-4:30 pm | Final tour available at 3:30 pm

Admission: $5 for Adults, $1 for Students Free for ages 5 and under

Louis E. May Museum Dodge County Historical Society

MayMuseum.com 402-721-4515 | 1643 North Nye Ave | Fremont

GENERAL

Unscramble these words to spell one of Norfolk’s biggest celebrations but be careful not to blow anything up! Nog, gab, om, bib

Unscramble these three words to three different words to find out what’s going on in town: loans, wrinkled, foy

Corn and soy fields surround Norfolk, but a new kind of farm is under construction on Highway West 275. What kind of farm is it?

The Norfolk ‘Fork Fest is a celebration of live music, art and food. The event doesn’t bill a battle of the bands, but there is a competition among another group present. What is it called?

No peeking, answers on page 75.

5 Brave young things try out their gnarliest moves at this Norfolk attraction in the southeast part of Veterans Memorial Park.

Elkhorn Valley Museum

Norfolk’s Nucor Steel produces steel primarily for shipping containers.

Ta-Ha-Zouka Park’s name means “horn of the elk.” It received this name because it’s the eastern-most range of Nebraska’s elk population.

8 Norfolk’s Sculpture Walk Tours take small groups around downtown to admire public art and architecture and to enjoy food and drink at local establishments. Tickets are $30. For those with more money to burn, sculptures are for sale from $2,700 to $20,000.

9 The Cowboy Trail, which runs from Norfolk to Chadron, is the longest rail-to-trail conversion in the United States.

10 Norfolk’s beloved eatery Tastee Treet has been “serving meals and memories since 1949.” Its Tastee Dog is an all-beef hot dog topped with sauerkraut.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

Native Norfolk son Thurl Ravenscroft voiced Tony the Tiger. His sang all but one of these:

a. “Grinning Ghosts come out to socialize”

b. “S o out come you clowns, all you wolves, all you martyrs”

c. “ Two legs long as willows and paws as big as pillows. Ugh! Such an ugly dachshund.”

What was Johnny Carson’s first magician stage name that he used as a teenager in Norfolk?

a. Carnac the Magnificent

b. El Mouldo

c. The Great Carsoni

Skyview Park was created out of a flood control project. What activity isn’t allowed?

a. Cross country running

b. Ice fishing

c. Ice skating

Before it became Hallmark, what company did three Nebraskan brothers establish in Norfolk in 1908?

a. Norfolk Greetings

b. Norfolk Post Card Company

c. Joyce Hall Cards

Verges Cave is named for a doctor that once owned the land. What do urban rumors say?

a. It ’s haunted

b. The doctor performed medical experiments there

c. All of the above

living memorial to renowned writer, Willa Cather! Explore the exhibit, American Bittersweet: e Life & Writing of Willa Cather and tour the nation’s largest collection of nationally designated historic sites dedicated to an American author.

BIG PICTURE

Seeing the MURALS UNITE ONE SOUTH OMAHA

by MEGAN FEENEY

APACK of neighborhood kids skip down the narrow sidewalks of a South Omaha block to the Lithuanian Bakery on South 33rd Street. Father and daughter artists Richard and Rebecca Harrison pause from their work on a mural there to offer the children paintbrushes and simple assignments. Ellie and Robbie Lizdas, trailed by their pug mix Šiauliai, are among the eager young volunteers who have come to help. The children feel proud that the mural, “Sieninis Paveikslas,” tells the story of their Lithuanian heritage. It inspires Ellie and Robbie to share their culture with their tight knit group of neighborhood friends who hail from the diverse backgrounds typical of South Omaha – Polish, Czech, Black, Irish, and Mexican.

Creating new connections and strengthening neighborhoods through collaborative art making is the goal of the South Omaha Mural Project. Started

by the Harrisons eight years ago, the community-funded project employs an arsenal of artists who have completed a dozen murals around “Magic City.” The Lithuanian American Mural, by lead artist Mike Girón, another founding member of the group, was one of the first. Other works include an Irish American Mural on the side of Donohue’s Pub, where regulars flock on the 17th of each month for corned beef and cabbage; a Polish American American Mural on Dinker’s Bar, which serves one of Omaha’s most beloved burgers; and a trio of murals depicting Latino and Indigenous people in Plaza De La Raza, the site of some of Omaha’s biggest annual cultural celebrations.

South Omaha has historically been home to working-class immigrants and their descendants as well as Black Americans who came during the Great Migration (1910-1950) seeking work at the beef packing plants and railroads.

Rebecca Harrison

Historian Gary Kastrick is a consultant for the South Omaha Mural Project. He grew up in a Polish family in South Omaha during the 1950s and ’60s. Back then, people in South Omaha were proud of their family heritage, but another identity unified their different origins, he said. At the stockyards and packing houses, people shared the bond of doing difficult and dangerous work in order to make better lives for their families. Since there wasn’t enough room in the neighborhood to spread out and create separate communities, they lived next to one another and learned from each other.

“My mom made the best gołąbki (Polish cabbage rolls) in Omaha,” said Kastrick. “But when she became friends with our Mexican neighbors and started using Mexican spices, she made the best gołąbki in the world.”

South Omaha used to be a hub for all of Nebraska. Today one South Omaha

Mural Project work located on the side of a grocery store depicts how hard-working Nebraskans from the west to the east have played a role in feeding the nation.

From left to right across the 260’ wall, the scene unfolds. In the background, there is a village of teepees and a train cutting through virgin prairie. In the foreground, a father pulls his baby girl from a covered wagon. Next, a family rejoices in a bumper crop. A Black family raises a “Freeman Family Farm” sign. Men work together to raise a barn as women serve drinks. Fields of cattle loll. The picture gives way to fields resplendent in green, gold and rust. There are corrals for cattle. A woman and her child feed a bottle calf. In the distance, trucks carrying cattle disappear into the horizon. Next, on the other side of those vast fields, trucks arrive in South Omaha, to the stockyards. The slaughterhouses are depicted in silhouette. There are the packing houses of the day – Armour, Swift, Cudahy. And there is a scene of men and women cutting, weighing and sorting meat. Then the picture showcases South 24th Street with its recreation and bustling shops for out-oftowners. Kastrick says the work captures the spirit of those industrious days.

Today 17-year-old Benter Mock is hard at work. As a homeschooled student, she is free to spend her mornings painting a mural devoted to the history and aspirations of Black Americans in South Omaha. Mock was born and raised in South Omaha. Her family is from Sudan. Before she climbs the extension ladder with her can of paint and brush in hand, Mock pauses for a moment to explain her view that it’s a privilege to give back to the place that nurtured her.

“I feel like in South Omaha we’re one big community. You see the same familiar faces every day,” Mock said. “Since I’ve been working on this mural, so many people have stopped by to ask questions and talk to us. People are impressed by the creativity and the history. I hope it brings people even closer together to feel the friendship.”

Soon after Mock begins painting, a local business owner pulls his truck into the parking lot to offer encouragement.

“It’s beautiful,” he says in Spanish.

“Keep going!”

Mock smiles. Her paintbrush doesn’t stop.

On one of the last days of the Lithuanian mural painting, a hot day, Ellie Lizdas brings something to the site that’s even more sustaining than the stories she’s been sharing about her culture. The

9-year-old girl cradles a pitcher of cold beet soup, or šaltibarščiai, that she made with her grandmother to cool and sustain the artists and children. It’s a mixture of seemingly impossible ingredients. And it’s delicious.

Artists and community members paint murals depicting the culture and history of South Omaha. At left, celebrating immigrant stories through the years. Above, representing the Mexican-American community. Bottom, Jair Rodriguez with his Mayan American work.

Megan Feeney

Rebecca Harrison

SOUTH OMAHA

Art, food and festivities delight in

South Omaha

Visitors to South Omaha’s murals can take a break at beloved pubs, bakeries, supermarkets and public squares.

Dinker’s Bar & Grill

2368 S. 29th St.

Dinker’s offers one of Omaha’s most raved-about burgers made the old-fashioned way – with an ice cream scoop and a hand press. Homemade onion rings come out sizzling. Creighton fans quaff the Bluejay, a Dinker’s original cocktail made with blue liqueur. On the wall outside, satiated customers take in the Polish Community Mural. Cash only.

Lithuanian Bakery

5217 S. 33rd Ave.

The Lithuanian community mural by lead artist Mike Girón is a deliciously layered masterpiece decorating an exterior wall of the Lithuanian Bakery. Inside the bakery is another deliciously layered masterpiece. The Napoleon Torte is a traditional dessert that takes three days to make – and less than one day to eat. Bakers stack eight paper-thin pastry layers with buttercream and apricot filling. The bakery has a second location in Midtown.

Plaza De La Raza

24th and N Street

Plaza De La Raza, which translates to “the square of the races,” showcases the Mexican, Native American and Mayan community murals. Food venders, live music and artisan booths fill the plaza for Cinco de Mayo in May and Fiestas Patrias in September. Vaqueros mounted on dancing horses eventually cede the floor to salsa enthusiasts.

Donohue’s Pub

3232 L St.

Regulars pack in on the 17th of each month – called St. Practice Day – for corned beef and cabbage. Waitstaff greet people by name, and the owner, Mike Donohue, visits tables to chat with regulars and newcomers. Reuben sandwiches drip and Guinness flows. The Irish community mural, “Sláinte,” graces the outside of the pub facing L Street. On Monday nights, the pub serves tacos. How South O is that?

Supermercado Nuestra Familia

3548 Q St.

After taking in the panoramic “Sesquicentennial Mural,” art lovers can spread out at picnic tables inside and tuck into an enchilada, tamale or fried chicken dinner from the deli, which also serves ice cold horchata – a beverage made with rice, vanilla and cinnamon. Aspiring chefs of Hispanic cuisine thrill at the assortment of fresh and dried chilies, dried hominy and beans, and generous cheese, meat and fish selections.

Rebecca Harrison

A mural on a law office building on South 13th Street was the prelude to the South Omaha Mural Project. It celebrates Omaha’s Bohemian heritage.

Still Life

Photographers capture frozen Nebraska

OnNebraska’s rural highways and city streets, ice forces us to slow down. Ice stills what is frail and what is forged – it freezes the wildflower and the tractor. Ice quiets the drumbeat of waterfalls and the lapping of lakes. It softens the barbs of fences and the prick of pine needles. Sun streaming through ice invites us to celebrate the magnification of light. We know it won’t last long. In winter, the night is always close by. We choose each step on the ice. We comfort ourselves that someone might catch us if we fall. We take time to look for the light. We take time to wonder.

Jayson Alder

Chris Helzer

Bob Rooney

Above, the Platte River by Gjerloff Prairie near Marquette. Ice suspends shore-lapping ripples. Top right, the first sunny morning after a two-day ice storm in Aurora. Wet seeds will drop to the earth. Middle right, ice bejewels pine needles in Eustis. Bottom right, usually associated with spring, robins don’t often winter in Nebraska, but some, like these beauties enjoying a bath in an Omaha backyard, adapt to eat berries and flock together to survive.

Chris Helzer

Don Brockmeier

Chris Helzer

Karen Kader

Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston

Spinning steel wool on the Elkhorn River, light spiders its radiance across the frozen surface. The effect is created from high speed oxidation. The Desoto Wildlife Refuge near Blair (far left) and photo of a gravel pit in Madison County near Meadow Grove (left) offer icy reflections of big Nebraska skies.

Aaron Beckman

Roy Swoboda

Hartington Heartsong

Cedar County veterinarians mend animals and historic buildings

story by MEGAN FEENEY

photographs by BROOKE STEFFEN-KLEINSCHMIT

AFTER A LONG day working cattle in Cedar County, veterinarian Ben Schroeder came home one evening to discover his pregnant wife Erin wielding a sledgehammer.

The two had fallen hard for each other a few years earlier during veterinary studies at Kansas State. Erin was a freshman; Ben was a junior. For their first date they played basketball and grabbed a sandwich. Within two weeks, they were engaged. Within six months, they married. The newlyweds studied side by side until Ben graduated and went to work for a local animal hospital. They had their first son, Charlie, and, after Erin graduated, the family moved back to the rolling hills of Northeast Nebraska where Ben had grown up. Erin and Ben went into practice with Ben’s veterinarian father, Dr. John Schroeder, and bought a charming old farmhouse, where they anticipated the birth of their second child.

The farmhouse had a kitchen wall that Erin couldn’t abide a moment longer. It needed to come out that night.

Ben knew that once Erin made up her mind, nothing could stop her –just like when Erin was a 12-year-old girl and asked her parents for a horse.

years,

Married 20

Erin and Ben work, parent and co-star in a reality show. They also restore old buildings like this barn.

Her father told her that if she filled two buckets with water and dragged them to the garden every morning at dawn to water and weed for a month without fail, he’d think about it. Erin not only got her horse, but she also earned the money to pay for its hay.

Ben loved his wife’s determination –even if it meant he had to knock out a wall after work.

Making their home a better place became a motif in the Schroeder’s lives in Cedar County. “Home” extended beyond the four walls in which their growing family resided. The Schroeders sought to improve quality of life for their community’s livestock and domestic animals, volunteered their time with their children Charlie and Chase’s schools, and bought and renovated historic real estate in downtown Hartington. More recently, as stars of a reality tv show, Erin and Ben have become de facto ambassadors for Nebraska and rural veterinary medicine.

OVER THE YEARS, emergency calls sometimes interrupted dinner. One evening Erin and Ben, along their now teenage sons, Charlie and Chase, rushed to the Schroeder’s Hartington clinic, Cedar County Veterinary Services, to attend to a newborn deer. It had been hit by a lawn mower and couldn’t move its back legs or stand. Erin and Ben cradled the spotted fawn gently as they examined it. An x-ray revealed no fractures. They couldn’t rule out neurological damage. The fawn quivered its black nose and blinked its soft eyes.

For the next few days, the Schroeders shuttled the fawn between their home, where they could observe it overnight, and back to their clinic. They enlisted Chase to cuddle the deer at night. Ben bottle-fed it and gave it anti-inflammatories. Erin rejoiced one day when the fawn seemed to respond to the water therapy that she’d devised using a stock tank with a pool noodle assist.

Three days on, the fawn’s temperature dropped. Its legs felt cold to the touch, and it had no pain response. It was time to say goodbye. The fawn squeaked as Erin administered a shot to relax it. Ben took over the next part. When it was done, the couple cried and held each other.

These vulnerable moments played out in front of an eight-person film crew that tags along with the Schroeders for about six months of the year taping Heartland Docs. The show just wrapped filming its fourth season for National Geographic Wild, a network owned by The Walt Disney Company and National Geographic Society. Heartland Docs follows the Schroeders working at farms in Cedar County and at their Hartington clinic. It brings the small farming community of Hartington, population 1,500, into tens of millions of households worldwide and showcases the town’s thriving downtown, well-kept homes and natural beauty with poetic sweeping shots.

Heartland Docs doesn’t flinch from the hard choices people make or the copious poop animals make. It also reflects the truth that farmers – even those that raise livestock for meat – care deeply about their animals and suffer when their animals do. Erin and Ben’s tenderheartedness also radiates.

John Schroeder was certain his son would make a good vet because even as a boy Ben demonstrated that sensitivity. One day on a veterinary call with his dad, 10-year-old Ben spotted the family’s border collie Katie dead on the side of the road. Ben leapt from the truck and hurried back to the spot they’d seen her. Cradling her body in his arms, he ran the quarter-mile home sobbing.

Shortly after the deer’s death, Ben bought a fawn statue to memorialize it. “John Deer” stands on a coffee table in the clinic foyer.

Knowing love, knowing loss – it helped Ben support clients navigating difficult times.

Ben takes some air after doing “preg checks” at a dairy farm in Hartington. Ben felt called to the profession from a young age when he went on veterinary calls with his dad.

FOUR FAT GREY geese patrolled a Hartington farmyard on a recent morning. Single file, they paced in front of a red barn and honked alarm. Sixty mileper-hour winds rattled the chains on livestock gates and bent cedar trees sideways. A loose bucket rolled like a tumbleweed. Grey skies spit snow.

Inside the barn, cows lowed as Ben worked with farmer John Steffen on “preg checks.”

They worked in batches, coaxing about a dozen mostly Holstein and some Jersey cows at a time along a walkway into a smaller area, where they closed the gate with Ben inside. He shouldered for space among the 1,500-pound behemoths.

Holding an ultrasound probe, Ben inserted his glove-covered arm into each cow. A visor on his head displayed the images.

The cows muscled for position in the tight space. Pressed by the weight of the animals, Ben held his ground, using the full force of his 6’4” frame. But one cow whipped her backside hard against him, and for an instant, he rocked on his heels. His hands scrambled for the back of another cow to regain his footing.

“You alright there, Ben?” Steffen yelled from the door ledge above the gated area.

Ben grimaced and asserted yes.

Ben had his first dangerous encounter with a cow when he was 8 years old doing rounds with his dad. A cow put her nose down and chased him around the family truck. Ben’s dad scooped him up and tossed him on the battery box out of harm’s way.

Steffen and Ben didn’t talk about what could have happened if the vet’s manure and snow-slicked boots had gone out from underneath him.

Instead, they got back to work.

On a clipboard, Steffen noted the animals’ ear tag numbers and the gestation results Schroeder called out, cow by cow.

“This one’s five, six…whoa girl, easy… This one’s six, close to seven….This one’s open.”

Five or six meant the cows were that many months bred. Open meant not pregnant. It wasn’t what Steffen wanted to hear. Especially on that day.

After 32 years as a dairy farmer, Steffen was getting out. This was Ben’s last time coming to his farm for a preg check.

Above, Erin removes the cast of a dog hit by an ATV. She marvels at animals’ resilience. Later in the afternoon, she does stage makeup for Wynot High School’s performance of “The Jungle Book.” Her oldest son Charlie (pictured) played Baloo.

It was a bittersweet day for the farmer.

“And there’s going to be a lot more days like this one,” Steffen said.

In the distance, a truck rumbled. Tires crunched on the gravel driveway.

“There’s the trailer,” said Ben, without looking up from his work.

A man from another Nebraska dairy operation had come to load Steffen’s cows.

Steffen loaded the ones scheduled to go that day. Hooves thumped and bodies shuffled and clanged against the aluminum sides of the trailer. The truck engine fired, and, just like that, his cows were gone.

The fat grey geese marched and marched and screamed at the wind.

BACK AT THE

clinic, dressed in scrubs, Erin performed what she jokingly called “brain surgery.” In fact, she was neutering and spaying feral kittens a farmer had brought in that snowy morning. She also removed a tiny tip from each kitten’s ear –a recognized indicator that an animal has been altered. This kind of routine daily work doesn’t make the show. Producers create a 52-minute episode from 150 hours of taping. Having an eight-person filming crew around hasn’t affected how the Schroeders do business. If there was an emergency, the crew had to hustle, too. One benefit of wrapping the season and saying farewell to the film crew was that staff could listen to music in the clinic again. Music messed with editing tape.

Finished with the kittens, Erin tucked them into a warm towel and placed them into a carrier. She paused a moment to stroke their little heads and coo, but she didn’t have time to linger. The white board in the hallway still had unfinished tasks, and she had to leave early to apply stage makeup for her high school kids’ one act rehearsal in Wynot.

Next up, Erin removed a cast from a dog who’d been hit by an ATV. The little white dog shivered on the stainless-steel table as Erin worked. When Erin was done, she put the dog on the floor. It gingerly became a four-legger again.

“Animals amaze me with how adaptable they are,” Erin said. “I stub my toe and complain about it for a week. Three legs, or a leg in a cast – animals are so dang resilient.”

As if on cue, Spaghetti Bob loped into the room. A Department of Transportation worker had brought the kitten in a few weeks back. Its tail was degloved – the fur and skin stripped away – and Erin had to amputate it. Spaghetti Bob – named because he goes limp as a noodle when petted and Bob, because, well, his new tail – had become a clinic kitty and will make his debut television appearance on the fourth season.

Erin has navigated plenty of her own life twists and turns. Like Spaghetti Bob, she landed on her feet. About nine years back, Erin felt weak and cold at the clinic. She lay down on the floor. A client gathered her and rushed her to the doctor. Erin had contracted an infection from the bacteria that causes the respiratory disease strangles in horses. She spent two weeks in the ICU. Her Nebraska community rallied around her. She wasn’t a native daughter, but she was their daughter. With their help and love, she made a full recovery.

Erin grew up on a farm in Upstate New York. When she went to vet school in Kansas, she wasn’t sure where she’d end up.

She credits her Nebraskan father-in-law for her introduction to the community she would serve and call home.

In the early days of her relationship with Ben, Erin bonded with his dad John on calls down gravel roads deep in the country hills.

“I’d joke with him that he couldn’t die because I’d never find my way out,” said Erin. “And he knew everybody. He’d say, this is so-and-so, who is so-and-so’s nephew, who married so-and-so’s daughter, who works at so-and-so…”

John Schroeder retired, but he still liked to ask Erin and Ben about people’s farms and animals. Many times, Erin and Ben had to break the news – like Steffen, those farmers got out. They worked in town now.

IN DOWNTOWN HARTINGTON,

lunchtime diners dug into steak sandwiches and turkey cobb salads at The Globe Chophouse. Owner Kate Lammers walked among the tables greeting guests, helping waitstaff and assisting an ad salesperson from Cedar County News, which operates across the street.

The corner-facing Globe Chophouse sits at East Main Street and North Broadway

Avenue. Natural light pours in from oversized windows. Wood floors, black walls, and a silver-painted tin ceiling with enormous metal ceiling fans create a dramatic effect. Upstairs is a second dining area with exposed brick walls and a “Globe Clothing” sign. Rebuilt in 1901 after a fire devastated much of downtown Hartington in 1888, Globe Clothing was once a shopping destination for people in the tri-state area until it closed at the end of 2016.

“Everyone in Hartington has a memory of renting a tux or buying a dress from Globe Clothing,” Lammers said. “Every-

one has a story connecting them to this place.”

Erin and Ben Schroeder do too. After Globe Clothing closed, they took over the building and began renovating it. They created a loft apartment for their family in the space above the first two floors and refinished the building’s hardwood floors and tin ceiling. Each morning, they rose early to carry out the plaster they’d chipped off the brick interior.

People noticed. Other new downtown businesses opened, like Uptown Charm, a clothing and décor store, and Leise Tax

Ben grew up in Coleridge and has loved every part of Cedar County he’s lived in. “I know every road like the back of my hand.” The Schroeders went to great personal effort and expense to restore the Hotel Hartington, a 1917 gem. Original tile, wood floors and wallpaper remained.

Erin didn’t grow up in Nebraska, but people in Cedar County have claimed her as their own. She and Ben have not only restored local historic buildings, like Hotel Hartington (featured in the background), they’ve also coached and mentored young people in their community.

& Bookkeeping, which later underwent its own ambitious historic renovation. Owners spiffed up established businesses, too. Broadway Lanes refreshed its façade. The gym REPS replaced its windows and door.

Downtown Hartington doesn’t have empty buildings. It has a family-owned pharmacy, a local grocery store and a bank. It has shops and eateries and pedestrian sidewalk traffic. Lammers said the Schroeders helped ignite downtown Hartington’s revival.

“Their tremendous passion showed every entrepreneur the possibilities,” Lammers said.

Lammers bought the Globe building from the Schroeders at the beginning of 2021, put in an extra restroom, a wooden bar and a special occasion booth and opened her restaurant in late spring. She moved into the upstairs apartment with her three children. It’s perfect for their needs, except for those hard-to-reach custom-built kitchen cabinets and counters.

“The previous owners were both at least a foot taller than me,” Lammers laughed.

She hopes that like Globe Clothing before it, her restaurant can not only serve

the local community but draw tourists. For that reason, she’s grateful for another business that launched across the street around the same time hers did.

Big Hair Brewhaus resides in the building that once housed Surge Sales & Equipment, a dairy and machinery equipment company. Cousins Brett Wiedenfeld and Reed Trenhaile bought the building from Erin and Ben who’d redone the floors and put in new windows during the year they owned it. Wiedenfeld and Trenhaile knocked out an office and constructed a bar in its place. They installed a brewing room, built a beer garden out back and decorated the interior with historic Hartington items, like the original Surge sign and a scoreboard from Hartington City Auditorium. Trenhaile brews beers with ingredients like a domesticated version of a wild Nebraska hop and local honey.

After the business opened, the widow of the man who ran the Surge business visited. She ordered a gin and tonic and marveled at what the young men had done with the space. The stainless steel, the décor, the drinks and the way they’d kept that “garage” feeling – it would have made her husband so proud.

When other visitors said, “This could have been out of Omaha or Lincoln,” Wiedenfeld’s response was always the same. “Why couldn’t it have been out of Hartington?”

SOME PLACES COULDN’T have been from anywhere else. That’s why Erin and Ben took on the three-story historic Hotel Hartington just before the beginning of 2018. They’d hoped to restore the 1915 beauty to her former glory. But now, in the freezing dark, staring at a sinkhole the size of a tractor, Ben was having some serious second doubts. He’d been jackhammering to install a new septic line in the basement when he hit a spot so soft that he nearly lost his power tool. Concrete crumbled into an abyss.

Early estimates to fix the sinkhole ran $100,000. In the same month, the Schroeders were told they needed to put in an elevator to make the building ADA compliant. That would run them another $300,000.

“We were just like, ‘what have we done?’ We had so much hope,” Erin said.

She made some calls. If they couldn’t find more affordable options, the hotel would become another grassy lot. The city

provided a grant. The Schroeders secured an economic development loan. They got a substantially better bid for the sinkhole repair. They committed more personal funds. They pushed through their despair to find solutions. It was a skill they’d honed as vets, as parents and as athletes. (Erin played Division 1 basketball at Syracuse University; Ben was a competitive intramural player. Both coached the sport.)

Today, the hotel shines. Original wallpaper in the lobby received a cleaning and mending. Look closely enough, and it’s possible to see the tiny fissures where bits were glued back together. These are the grand dame’s smile lines. The cracks in her original tile recall the people she’s welcomed. Glowing wood floors and a regal staircase creak their greetings. Erin designed each of the rooms and gathering areas in the hotel’s four wings and furnished them with a mixture of thrifted and new items.

The National Geographic film crew stays here when they are shooting. On a recent weekend, a bridal party booked one of the wings. The pandemic forced some changes. The Schroeders closed their onsite restaurant – now it’s the site of Chasin’ Charlie’s General Store – and the lobby coffee shop. Erin and Ben offered Elsie Driver, the coffee-loving teenager who’d worked as their barista, their Italian espresso machine in exchange for help cleaning rooms. The home-schooled girl accepted the offer. With the machine, she rented a spot at a boutique a couple doors down and opened Elsie’s Sassy Brew. She was 16 years old. A year into her venture, customers line up at 7 a.m. for Elsie’s lattes, cappuccinos and Italian sodas to-go.

RECENTLY, THE NEWEST

Hartington business launched across the street from the hotel by another photogenic couple. Racheal and Travis Folkers bought their building from Erin and Ben in 2021. Travis needed space for his painting business. The building had a basement and a garage that fit the bill, but there was more space to work with. The Folkers created a community gathering place. There is a spacious wifi lounge for people to hang out, play board games or get some work done. Admission is a rotating

free-will donation that goes toward local organizations, like a women’s shelter or a food bank. The Folkers constructed forrent office spaces and study cubbies and are putting the final touches on an Airbnb rental upstairs. Like Erin, Racheal is the one in her relationship with the artistic vision.

“I just say what I want, and Travis makes it happen,” she said.

Together, the Folkers took the plaster off the wall brick-by-brick.

It seems it’s just the way Hartington’s young entrepreneurs operate.

ERIN CROSSED HER last task off the clinic whiteboard. Ben would be leaving shortly to work on one of the couple’s latest renovation projects, a big red barn. Erin was heading to Wynot Public School to help with stage makeup for the high school’s one-act rehearsal of “The Jungle Book.”

Before Erin and Ben split ways to conquer their own undertakings, they took time for a proper kiss goodbye. After renovating 10 buildings in Cedar County, serving farmers and pet owners for near-

ly two decades, championing other local entrepreneurs, taping a beloved show, and raising two well-adjusted kids, their marriage was still a top priority.

Erin grabbed her makeup bag and jumped in her truck. Being on television hadn’t changed how people in their community interacted with her. She was just another mom running slightly behind schedule.

Inside the gym, teenagers shouted, laughed and ran around. Wynot has one building for all its grades. The elementary scent of crayons mixed with the tang of teenage sweat. Forty-five of the 60 high schoolers at Wynot were involved in the production. And it sounded like it.

“I don’t have my leggings!”

“I forgot my t-shirt!”

“Who’s going to do my makeup?”

Erin started with her oldest son, 18-year-old Charlie, who was playing the bear Baloo. She put a hairnet on his head and traced black lipstick around his nose. What was the role’s biggest challenge for him?

“Mom has always told me to stand up straight, but Baloo slumps,” Charlie said.

Early into restoring the hotel, the Schroeders encountered setbacks that could’ve sunk the project, but they pushed through fear and failure to find solutions. Today, it shines.

After the bear was finished, Erin worked on her first of 10 monkeys, her 16-yearold son Chase. His favorite part about taping the show was meeting crew members from across the country. As the baby born into that first farmhouse renovation project, Chase joked that it’s totally normal for him to have a sink in his bedroom or a stove sitting outside his door. He’s not surprised if his parents ask him and his brother to help move furniture at 10 p.m. This is what they do to relax. He said he’ll probably be the same way someday.

Erin used the steadiness of her surgeon’s hands to whip through her barrel of monkeys just in the nick of time. The drama coach called the kids to the stage. Erin sat in the front row to watch.

When the house lights went down and the stage lights went up, her sons helped their classmates tell a beautiful story. It was a story about belonging to a community and contributing your unique gifts to it.

Spaghetti Bob lost a tail but gained a home at the clinic. Petting makes him limp as a noodle.

Double Your Birds in Yankton

Chili, Cornbread & Cinnamon Rolls

recipes and photographs by DANELLE

McCOLLUM

MANY NEBRASKANS CHERISH fond memories of school lunches featuring chili with a cinnamon roll. When Nebraska Life reader Carol McDonough Carpenter’s kids were in elementary school in Peru, she’d join them on Wednesdays when the cafeteria served the combo. Other readers, like Crystal Powers from Ceresco, prefer cornbread with their chili. After all, we’re “Cornhuskers, right?” No matter what your preference, everyone will find something to delight them in these recipes from food blogger Danelle McCollum.

Dr Pepper Chili

The sweet, caramelized flavor of Dr Pepper dances with the heat of the jalapeño and the zing of fresh garlic in this chili. Chuck roast lends a rich beefy body to the piquant stew.

Cut roast into bite-size pieces. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear meat on all sides, being careful not to crowd the pan. Transfer meat to a lightly greased slow cooker. In same pan, sauté onions, peppers and garlic, adding more oil if necessary, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add to slow cooker along with meat.

Stir one can of Dr Pepper, along with tomatoes, spices and beans into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, stir in cornmeal. If desired, stir in another half can of Dr Pepper before serving. Add toppings like cheese, fresh veggies and corn chips, according to taste.

1-2 Tbsp cooking oil

1.5-2 lbs beef chuck roast

1 medium onion, diced

1 red pepper, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 cans Dr Pepper

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 15-oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup cornmeal

Ser ves 10-12

Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread

This easy-to-make recipe combines the earthy flavor of cornbread with the robust taste of cheddar and the grassy sweetness of green onions. A hint of jalapeño provides balance but doesn’t overwhelm.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 9 x 9-inch square baking pan.

In large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In separate bowl, whisk together milk, egg and egg yolk and melted butter. With a wooden spoon, stir wet ingredients into dry until most lumps are dissolved. Don’t overmix. Stir in 1 cup of the cheese along with green onions and jalapeños. Allow mixture to sit at room temperature for 1015 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place on wire rack to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 green onions, chopped

1 small jalapeño, seeded and finely diced

Ser ves 8-10

Best-Ever Cinnamon Rolls

A bold claim and a time-intensive project for a weekend or a day off, but food blogger McCollum says patient bakers will find this recipe’s result worthy: frosted pillowy soft cinnamon rolls that stay delectable for days. Think they’ll last that long?

Rolls

Heat milk in medium saucepan until just simmering and bubbles form around edge of pan. Pour milk into bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Add butter, sugar and salt. Mix on low speed until butter is melted. Let mixture cool until warm but not hot. Add yeast and eggs and mix until combined. Gradually add flour until dough clears sides of bowl. Dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Knead two to three minutes.

Transfer dough to a large, lightly greased bowl. Cover with clean kitchen towel or lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about one hour. Roll dough into a large rectangle, about 18 x 12 inches. Spread 1/2 cup softened butter over the dough. Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over dough. Pat it in slightly with palms of your hands. Starting with a long end, roll up the dough as tightly as possible, pinching seam lightly to seal. Using a serrated knife, cut roll in half. Then cut each half in half again (forming four equal portions). Cut each of the four portions into three rolls – 12 cinnamon rolls total.

Place rolls evenly spaced on a large, parchment-lined, rimmed baking sheet. If ends have come free, carefully tuck them under the cinnamon roll. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 18-22 minutes until light golden brown. Let rolls cool about 10 minutes before frosting.

Frosting

In large bowl, whip together cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla, maple syrup and salt and mix until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar and mix until thick and creamy. Add cream or milk a tablespoon at a time until the frosting is smooth and spreadable. Spread cinnamon rolls with frosting.

Rolls 2 cups whole milk 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup white sugar 1 tsp salt 1 Tbsp instant yeast 2 eggs 5 ½-6 cups flour 1/2 cup butter, very soft 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

What’s in Your Recipe Box?

Frosting

4 oz cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup butter, softened 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Pinch of salt

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp milk, or as needed for consistency

Makes 12 rolls

Send your family recipes, and the family stories behind them, for possible publication in Nebraska Life. Submit by emailing kitchens@nebraskalife.com or by mail to the address at the front of this magazine.

GOOD LIFE Poetry

Ken Smith

Surrendering to the slower pace of colder days and longer nights, Nebraska’s poets discover moments of grace and beauty in the natural world and its many gifts. Wrapped in the coziness of these images, winter doesn’t seem so bad.

A Winter Day

Earl Sampson, Newcastle

Turkeys came this morning to sample corn put out for the deer. Nearing noon now, the squirrels are here. They sit with fluffed tails up on their backs, Scratching for kernels in old turkey tracks.

Juncos, jays and a tufted titmouse, Eating sunflower seeds up by the house. Now we’re approaching the best time of day, With the sun in its blankets and deer on the way.

Breezes have died and everything’s still. They come from the cedars west on the hill. They stop at a puddle as still as a mirror, Filled with reflections of snows, trees and deer.

They pause, heads raised to sample the wind, Seeking messages that it might send. They lower them now, sipping what’s there. Drinking themselves and the cooling night air.

The Parable of Snow

Gene Fendt,

Kearney

It has been falling for hours in the night –straight down, great, soft flakes: the mercy of God.

It clings to rest on everything, this cope of grace, an inch of thick, bright heaven on each brief twig.

We will make a mess of it with our engines, the mess will freeze tonight: curse it.

Nebraska Tree in Winter

Kim Zach, Omaha

gnarled charcoal fingers stretch towards the sheet-metal sky snatching pearl gray clouds

Winter View

Faye Tanner Cool, Broken Bow

From my second story apartment window I view snow-covered rooftops… White smoke rising from chimneys… Bare branches of trees stirring…and A whirl of birds, one making A brief rest stop While the sky blankets all of this With its grey eiderdown.

Just outside of Omaha, hoarfrost covers weeping willow trees to create an otherworldly landscape of blue and white. Winter days like this one inspire restful contemplation.

Snow comes to the farm

Jerry Gronewold, Kearney

The early morning comes as the sun creeps to the east cottonwood trees

There is a certain calm around the farm as if it’s waiting.

To the north it sounds like a cat purring on grandpa’s lap

The purring turns into a wind that turns the old windmill.

Stormy the palomino horse seems to sense something is coming

Her ears are perked to the north as if she’s watching.

Her colt Cocoa stands beside her listening to the wind coming

The door on the white barn slaps against the side scaring the cats.

A white curtain filled with diamonds of color swirl up the east driveway

The old white propane tank is full waiting for the cold days.

The wind seems to say, “I’m here,” and visits you all day

The white snow accumulates in the barnyard and farmstead.

The old milk cow meanders toward the barn to get inside.

All is quiet in the chicken house, where they are in their roost.

The snowy wind touches all the buildings with a gentle caress.

There is light in the kitchen farmhouse.

Mitsy the German shepherd has taken shelter in her bale house.

All is quiet, as the wind and snow seem to dance like a New Year’s Eve ball.

The snow makes white sculptures around the buildings and on the fence

The day creeps on like a day in the fourth grade at the country school.

The wind seems to die and the white snowdrops drop like a curtain

The farm is now a beautiful white covered with the first snow.

Tomorrow will be a busy day with the tractor and the scoop

There will be snowbanks for the kids to play on.

Why I Stay

Ian Nauslar, Omaha

The winds cut like a razor. Temperatures leave little to savor. Shivers knock knees, so why do we choose to freeze when in the land of the free we could move as we please?

There’s a magical warmth in that first snow blanket covering a land turned barren and naked by a fall that fell too fast. We Nebraskans are resilient, built to last.

Like the snowballs we make, it’s a blast.

Those wooded walks in the middle of winter, when life leads me astray it’s where I find my center. With a silence so sweet me and the creator meet face to face.

We hold each other in the warmest embrace.

So ask me again why I chose to stay when some would rather stray away.

I’ll tell you how I decided this was it a bountiful land that’s surely a gift.

It’s a beautiful song nature boldly screams, A place to play, a place for dreams.

NEBRASKA LIFE IS seeking poems about picnics, family or class reunions, neighborhood block parties and other communal activities enjoyed during late spring/early summer in Nebraska. Feel free to send along photos, too! Poems set in specific Nebraska places are preferred. Send to poetry@nebraskalife.com or by mail to the address at the front of this magazine.

Jayson Alder

Natural History Hero

Charles Henry Morrill safeguarded Nebraska’s archaeological relics

by TIM TRUDELL

ON THE WESTERN-BOUND train, Charles Henry Morrill watched the besieged Nebraska land whiz past. Where corn once grew tall, there were bare scarred fields. A second year of Rocky Mountain locust swarm had devastated the land and the hopes of many homesteading farmers. It had also dimmed prospects for the farm implement store Morrill established after he moved his young family to a homestead south of Stromsburg. Farmers without crops had no use for Morrill’s plows, sickles, hoes and pitchforks.

Morrill was on his way to South Dakota to pan for gold. It was a last-ditch effort to save his family farm. His wife, Harriet, and their young children would await his return in their 16 x 16-foot wooden house he’d had built for them. Many homesteading families lived in sod homes, but Morrill had greater ambitions.

From the train window, Morrill couldn’t see where his journey would lead. Ultimately, he wouldn’t make it to South Dakota to search for gold. Instead, he would encounter a different kind of treasure in Nebraska’s Badlands. Fossils of ancient creatures fascinated him and compelled him to devote the fortune he would one day make to preserve natural history wonders for all Nebraskans.

BY THE TIME, he reached Fort Robinson in Western Nebraska, Morrill realized odds of striking gold in South Dakota weren’t good. He accepted the offer of a reliable wage as the trading post clerk there and stocked shelves, kept books and sold goods.

One day he noticed a long row of white tents nearby. He learned that men were digging for fossils under the guidance of O.C. Marsh, a world-renowned archaeologist from Yale University. Marsh was one of the first bone diggers to explore Western Nebraska. Considered America’s version of Darwin, Marsh had discovered the first pterosaur fossils in America, as well as the remains of dinosaurs, including Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Allosaurus.

Morrill joined the team for the Hat Creek excavation in Nebraska’s Little Badlands – an area featuring buttes, deeply cut crevices and narrow rocks stretching skyward. As Morrill investigated the area, bones crunched under his feet. These were the bodies of animals that traveled across Nebraska before the Ice Age.

There were large mammals resembling ancient rhinoceros. These titanothere fossils dated back 35-38 million years. On the North American continent, they have only been found in the Chadron Formation, a region that stretches from western North Dakota to Northwest Nebraska.

There were tiny horses and enormous turtles that thrived in the vast rolling plains with long grass for food and shel-

Members of the 1897 Morrill expedition. Morrill’s financial support helped unearth and keep Nebraska’s natural history in the state.

University of Nebraska State Museum

ter and watering holes to quench thirst. They’d likely died during a drought. Their remains baked in the soil, forever linking them to Nebraska.

O.C. Marsh instructed his men to pack up their finds. The fossils were leaving the state for museums in the East.

That troubled Morill.

“It seemed desirable that the remains of these remarkable creatures be preserved for the state,” he later wrote in his autobiography, The Morrills and Reminiscences.

He came away from his first bone-digging experience determined to find a way

to do that. He would get the chance 16 years later when he teamed up with an energetic young fossil-hunter named Erwin Barbour.

MORRILL REJOINED HIS family in Stromsburg to give farming another try. This time, they succeeded. They added 400 more acres to their 160-acre homestead and made improvements to the house. As the children grew, Morrill turned over more farming responsibilities to them and focused on other business ventures. He befriended Gov. Albinus Nance, a

fellow Polk County resident, who hailed from nearby Osceola. Morrill accepted a position as personal secretary to the governor, splitting time between the Lincoln State Capitol and the family farm. His work with Nance connected him to some of the state’s most powerful men.

Morrill left Nance’s administration and became president of the Bank of Stromsburg. It marked a successful turn in his career, which would lead to additional ventures with land banks and corporations. These political and social connections led to his appointment to the Board of Regents at the University of Nebraska, where he would serve for more than a decade, starting in 1890. Erwin Barbour, a university hire who’d come on board the following year, would reignite Morrill’s passion for Nebraska’s natural history.

ERWIN BARBOUR BELIEVED the Nebraska State Museum at the University of Nebraska could become a world-renowned institution. It just needed a bigdeal artifact that could rival the stuff in history museums back East.

Right before he assumed his post as the museum’s new director in 1891, he traveled to the Agate area in Western Nebraska on his own dime. He discovered an artifact that would be the envy of any institution’s – the Daimonelix, or Devil’s Corkscrew, a tall, spiraled helix rising from the depths of the earth.

“Their forms are magnificent; their symmetry perfect; their organization beyond my comprehension,” he wrote.

The mysterious formations left scientists puzzled for many years until it was ultimately determined enormous extinct rodents had made them.

Barbour shipped the fossils to the university and traveled to Lincoln to begin his new job. There were so many fossils –and they were so heavy – that they made the museum floor sag.

Morrill summoned Barbour to his office after learning of Barbour’s adventure in Western Nebraska. Barbour feared he was in trouble for bringing “only” 70 fossils from his dig. He was surprised to learn that Morrill had called him there to tell him that he’d finance Barbour’s future expeditions. Morrill also arranged free

University of Nebraska State Museum

Morrill championed the work of Erwin Barbour (middle). The men became good friends.

rail transportation through his contacts with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

In the early 1900s on a trip to Agate, near Harrison, Barbour found a bevy of fossils in one of two conical hills. There were prehistoric horses, rhinos and beavers the size of large dogs.

With more than 3,000 acres to explore, visitors to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument today can view exhibits featuring animals, such as the Dinohyus, which resembles a cross between a bison and a pig, and the Daphoenodon, a “bear dog.”

At the time that Barbour joined the university, the museum’s fossil assortment was more for teaching than for public viewing. That would change due to his and Morrill’s advocacy for a new state museum, which would one day hold incredible finds like the remains of a wooly mammoth discovered by chickens.

CHARLES MORRILL

Boston Public Library

Alan J. Bartels

Above, UNL students demonstrate the scale of a Columbian mammoth and its 13-foot tusks. Remains of mammoths have been discovered in 90 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Today Morrill Hall attracts 100,000 visitors annually to see ancient elephants, camels, rhinos and horses.

Bearing the moniker Morrill

By MEGAN FEENEY

Charles Henry Morrill shaped many Nebraska communities and preserved the state’s natural history. A few places were lucky enough to keep his name, too.

AFTER HIS FLOCK of chickens unearthed a wooly mammoth on a Lincoln County Ranch in 1921, Henry Kariger wrote a letter to alert Barbour of the find. Barbour asked him to leave the remains for spring, when he could send a crew. Kariger ignored him and dug up the bones and brought them to the 1922 State Fair. Barbour visited the exhibit and bought the fossils for $250 (about $4,100 today). Most of the parts sat in storage for several years, but two legs and some ribs were used to create an arch at the old state museum.

Barbour sent an excavation team to the ranch in 1923 but couldn’t find any more fossils of the mammoth.

No matter. Barbour and Morrill had another elephantine project underway. They wanted to transform the State Museum of Natural History from its two room-collection in Nebraska Hall into a public attraction, like the Field Museum, a popular natural history museum in Chicago.

Morrill believed the state needed to finance the building because it would then truly belong to the public. Initial plans called for the new Morrill Hall – Barbour insisted the building be named after his biggest fan and financial supporter

1Morrill County

Chimney Rock pierces the cornflower Nebraska sky. For hundreds of years, it’s symbolized hopesomething Charles Morrill never relinquished, despite setbacks in Iowa as a farmer and in Nebraska as a farm implement entrepreneur.

When Cheyenne County voters decided in 1908 to split their county and name the new northern part Morrill County after the prominent businessman, farmer and philanthropist, they weren’t necessarily making that connection between the person and the landmark. But it’s hard to imagine a pairing of two better icons that represent Nebraska striving and opportunity and the steadfast belief in it.

Tim Trudell

– to cover about 100,000 square feet and feature four hallways of exhibits.

Morrill offered to donate $10,000 for aesthetic improvements, such as floor tiles and murals.

Nebraska legislators agreed to finance the new building, but at about 40 percent of the original size. The cornerstone was placed in 1926 and about a year later, the new natural history museum opened at Morrill Hall. It included halls for exhibits and classrooms.

Morrill’s health was failing, but he made it to the dedication ceremony in May 1927. Unable to travel by automobile, his family worked with the railroad to create customized hospital car. Outside the train window, the view was remarkably different from all those years ago when Morrill witnessed ruined lands. This time corn grew on fertile fields. Farmhouses dotted the landscape. Small towns thrived along the rail line.

As dignitaries and academics gathered to celebrate the culmination of what began more than 50 years earlier with the discovery of fossils in Nebraska’s panhandle, Morrill was too frail to stand and deliver the speech of his life. Stepping in for his father who was physically unable

2The Village of Morrill

Residents in the small community of Collins in Nebraska’s western panhandle knew that without irrigation their crops would fail. Since settlers of this Nebraska town had come from Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1886 they’d suffered summers of drought.

Working together, community members dredged an irrigation canal eight miles long. The access to water was part of a new beginning. When the Burlington Railroad decided to build a depot and set up an agent less than one mile south of Collins, Morrill, president of the Lincoln Land Company, laid out a tract of land for a town.

With the railyard and the access

to water, the new town of Morrill thrived as it welcomed the beginning of the 20th century. People erected residences and set up businesses, schools and churches. Today visitors to the village, located in Scotts Bluff County, explore artifacts from its earliest days at a museum located in the Morrill Public Library.

These everyday objects – post cards, feed sacks, match boxes – evoke visions of all the people who owed part of their newfound prosperity to Morrill’s foresight.

Morrill Hall, University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln Laughing groups of school children pour into Morrill Hall, the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln,

where they ogle exhibits and enjoy hands-on learning areas.

Morrill, a member of the Board of Regents, funded expeditions that led to the discovery and cataloguing of much of the museum’s collection. The museum houses fossil elephants, more than a million specimens of vertebrate fossils and other natural history artifacts.

Nebraskans may consider some of the earliest life that existed in the area when a sea covered the land and ancient sea creatures throttled through the deep. Or they can silently thank Morrill for funding the discovery of things like the titanothere skeleton on exhibit. Morrill’s financing allowed these treasures to remain close to home.

Left, Cindy and John Schofield live at the Stromsburg homestead today. They pose next to the last remaining ox Morrill commissioned to honor the pioneers. Above, the summer home Morrill had built for the family. The homestead house was to the north of this.

Tim Trudell

to give the speech, Arthur Morrill told the story of how his father had gone west to save his family. He’d returned with an additional self-imposed mandate to keep Nebraska’s natural history treasures safe.

STANDING IN FRONT of the world’s largest mammoth on display, it’s easy for visitors to the University of Nebraska Museum to feel small. “Archie,” named because the mammoth was Archidiskodon species, first debuted as an exhibit in 1933. The 14-foot tall and 25-foot long Columbian mammoth anchors Morrill Hall’s four floors of historical displays of mostly Nebraska artifacts. Joining Archie in Elephant Hall are Tuskers – prehistoric elephants – and smaller fossils of contemporary elephants, for scale. Like bison before them, elephants once roamed Nebraska. Mammoth remains have been found in 90 of 93 counties. Today, more than 100,000 people annually visit the exhibitions. In Lincoln, Archie is a mascot as beloved as Herbie Husker.

Exploring Morrill Hall is a walk through Nebraska’s natural history. Flanking Elephant Hall, a gallery features a 9-foot tall camel. The Rhino Gallery includes several species of the animal once common to Nebraska. There are murals of Morrill, his wife, Harriet Morrill, Barbour, and Samuel Avery, who was the university chancellor at the time of Morrill Hall’s opening.

Displays feature ferocious sabertoothed tigers and a giant Bison latifrons, which lived on the Plains 20,000 years ago and had a horn span of about seven feet. The museum celebrates Nebraska’s Native American tribes and their cultures with photos and tribal flags.

Insect life features in another exhibit. Missing from the collection is the Rocky Mountain locust.

It became extinct 30 years after Morrill took the journey west, where he fell in love with natural history.

The bronze form of “Archie” trumpets his welcome to visitors as they arrive at University of Nebraska State Museum.

Andre Jenny/Alamy

The Nebraska State Capitol is a work of art integrating the state’s history, its guiding principles and its aspirations for the future.

Alan Bartels

ARCHITECTURAL CURIOSITIES

Nebraska structures that inspire & intrigue

by MEGAN FEENEY

ARCHITECTURE INSPIRES, and it comes from a place of inspiration. Throughout history, Nebraska’s wide-open spaces have provided opportunities for innovative builders to erect structures that address their family and community’s needs and aspirations. Nebraskans have built grocery stores and churches from straw bales, experimented with unusual shapes to ensure safety for their people, and sometimes just delighted in being a little whimsical. Because what’s the good life without having a little fun?

Nebraska State Capitol

Lincoln

A design for the facade of Nebraska’s new capitol building landed on Dr. Hartley Burr Alexander’s desk in Lincoln. It depicted bison with wings. Clearly, he had a letter to write.

Alexander reminded New York architect Bertram Goodhue of the architect’s original intent: to create a building that reflected Nebraska’s history and culture. Nothing superfluous. That vision was what had landed Goodhue the job. Wings might be fine on a Middle Eastern lion or bull, but bison were a sacred symbol to Nebraska’s Indigenous people that required no embellishment.

Alexander was a University of Nebraska professor of philosophy and a polymath. At a time when Indigenous stories were rarely included in public imagery, Alexander advocated for it to be a major part of the capitol building. He’d been brought onto Goodhue’s team after the Capitol

Commission, which oversaw construction, said the New York-based Goodhue needed a local guy. Specifically, Goodhue needed Alexander.

The knowledgeable Nebraskan helped organize 3,000 years of history into a streamlined storyline.

“Alexander provided power steering to something that was like wrestling a bear to direct,” said Bob Ripley, capitol administrator for Nebraska Capitol Commission.

The professor determined that the exterior of the building would feature the evolution of democratic values, beginning with ancient Hebrew and Greek elements. The interior would explore the natural and human history of Nebraska from the time of Indigenous habitation to introduction and integration of Europeans, Africans and Asians. The result?

“The capitol is like a three-dimensional history book about Nebraska,” Ripley said.

Alexander kept the Nebraska storylines faithful. He wanted people to feel pride in a building that represented all Nebraskans.

And today in Lincoln, the only buffalo wings are the ones served at bars.

Pony Express Station

Gothenburg

The skinny rider with no facial hair yet to speak of urged his horse onward. The mochila – Spanish for backpack – attached to the saddle held fast. Inside it was mail from the East. The horse had only traveled five miles, but it perspired with effort. The beast would have to go hard for another 10 to the station. There, it would rest. But not the boy. Not yet. He’d have two minutes to put the backpack on a fresh horse and mount up. Then he’d continue his ride through the land that would someday become known as the state of Nebraska. He’d ride to the next station and switch horses. Then he’d do it again. After 100 miles of this effort, another courier would take his place.

Not many businesses that last less than two years make their mark on history. The Pony Express continues to capture imaginations 160 years later. The experiment to quickly deliver mail in the rugged West played out against the drama of a nation edging toward the brink of civil

war. These stories are told in Gothenburg, at one of the few remaining Pony Express Stations in the United States.

After being donated to the city of Gothenburg by a local landowner, workers disassembled, moved and reassembled the Sam Machette station in 1931. There is another station in Gothenburg, but it remains on private land.

Today the museum welcomes more than 20,000 visitors a year and another 15,000 come during off hours to view the outside of the building. Gothenburg shows its pony pride with horse emblems throughout the city, including on police uniforms.

The rectangular cabin features rough wooden planks that have weathered more than a century and a half of Nebraska’s often brutal weather. Peering out small windows, it’s easy to imagine looking for an incoming rider. Handsome wooden beams grace the ceiling.

The Pony Express may have lost its business to the newly developed transcontinental telegraph, but the station in Gothenburg keeps the spirit of commerce alive by selling local Nebraska goods.

Lighthouses

Johnson Lake

Johnson Lake, located 10 miles south of Lexington, boasts two lighthouses.

Members of the community erected a 14-foot replica of the Montauk, New York Lighthouse in 2018 as a tribute to deceased loved ones. The Johnson Lake Chamber of Commerce and the community held a fundraiser and a garage sale to fund that first candy cane-striped structure, which they put on a jetty. It stands 14 feet tall on a 2-foot base. It was made by Amish in Pennsylvania.

In 2020, community members pitched in again for the second black and whitbeauty. Late-evening boaters enjoy illumination on their way home. It just goes to show that when people work together, they shine brighter.

Linoma Beach

A lighthouse looms just off highway 6 between Omaha and Lincoln. Once, this 100-foot structure lured automobile tour-

After labeling the pieces for easier reassembly, locals moved the Pony Express Station board by board to place it in its current location in 1931. The museum opened in 1954. Today, there is also a gift store that sells Nebraska goods and collector’s items.

Alamy

ists to the Linoma Beach resort. Families pulled over to wade in the man-made lake and picnic in the shade of maple trees.

Developers completed the Linoma Beach Lighthouse in 1939 to appeal to this new traffic. Constructed of wood and metal, the octagonal building had a filling station on the main floor, observation decks, and a lighthouse beacon. A central staircase spiraled up the interior leading to rooms on different floors.

When World War II ended, the lighthouse beacon flashed dot-dot-dot-dash. V for victory in Morse Code.

The area is now a privately owned RV camp.

Lake Minatare and Kearney

Mothers searched pantries. Unemployed men stood listlessly in the doorways of their homes. It was the mid-1930s, and although the New Deal had created some economic recovery, President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed more could be done.

The creation of the Works Progress Administration was part of the Second New Deal. The WPA employed men to build public infrastructure across the nation. The lighthouses at Lake Minatare in Scotts Bluff County and in Kearney’s Harmon Park were both WPA projects.

Workers constructed Lake Minatare’s lighthouse from native stone. Visitors can climb a spiral staircase up 55 feet to take in views of the gorgeous 2,158-acre manmade lake originally completed as part of an irrigation project.

Kearney’s lighthouse in Harmon Park has an external staircase to climb for a view of the rock garden and a scenic pool below. Some people have fun speculating about what’s behind the gated door. It feels like a scene from a fairytale.

Although neither lightouse ever emanated light, their construction provided a ray of hope during a dark time in history.

Neither the lighthouse in Kearney’s Harmon Park nor the one at Lake Minatare emanate light, but both delight visitors with scenic views and interesting stories.

AJ Dahm

Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston

Laura Vroman

Cody didn’t have a grocery store, so students and teachers built one out of straw.

Circle C Grocery Store

Cody

Teachers and administrators at Cody-Kilgore were worried. Like many rural parts of the state, student enrollment was declining. A committee of educators learned that some parents didn’t send their kids to school in in town because there wasn’t a grocery store. Better to just drop kids off at a school in a place where they could also do their shopping. The community needed to think big to solve their problem. The community needed to build a grocery store.

The idea was wild, but it made sense. And as long as they were thinking outside of the box, why not make it a community effort led, in part, by the students? Inspired by another local business, the students built a straw bale building. They tore apart 1,300-pound round bales that they square baled, set up, stuccoed and cemented.

From the outside, there’s nothing too fancy about the 3,500-square-feet structure, but it’s nicely insulated thanks to all that straw. A smart little C surrounded by a circle adorns the exterior, and students sometimes decorate the wooden fence posts outside the façade.

After the kids finished building the store, their work wasn’t done. Today, they work the registers, stock and rotate the shelves, and help with ordering, accounting and pricing. “The grocery store is the vital heartbeat of the community,” said Liz Ravenscroft, store manager and business teacher.

Storz Gazebo

Lauritzen Gardens

Omaha

Visitors to Lauritzen Gardens may stumble upon an enchanting hexagonal gazebo off a lesser traveled path between the Victorian Garden and the Garden of Memories. Past a grove of sweet-smelling magnolia trees, there is a wooden latticed structure with a curvaceous red metallic roof. The roof is adorned with an ornate cupola.

It is likely the last remaining structure from Omaha’s 1898 Trans-Mississippi and

International Exposition, an event that aimed to sell the nation on the glories of the West.

After that successful expo, Omaha investors raised enough funds to buy the grounds and its temporary structures for a second event, the Greater America Exposition of 1899.

It’s believed the Storz Brewing Co. used the gazebo as a bierstubee – or beer room – for one or both expositions before it was later retired to the lawn of The Gottlieb Storz House for nearly 100 years.

Wayne and Rhonda Stuberg, later owners of the Storz house, gifted the structure to the Lauritzen Gardens. It was relocated and restored in 2012.

It’s a quiet place to sit and reflect on new buds and deep roots.

World’s Largest Time Capsule Seward

After the final fireworks lit up Seward’s sky, parents draped tired children over their shoulders. Happy, sweaty, maybe sticky with something sweet, the families piled into cars to drive home, concluding another celebration in Nebraska’s Fourth of July town.

Seward is a place that values its heritage and history. Little wonder then that it’s also home to the World’s Largest Time Capsule. Furniture store owner Harold Davisson dug a hole in his yard for a 45-ton concrete vault. He filled it with

Top, the Storz Gazebo is the last remaining structure from the 1898 Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. Above, Seward’s time capsule preserves cars and kitsch.

Lauritzen Gardens

Christa (Burns) Porter/Flickr

5,000 items, including people’s letters, coins, stamps, alcohol, a bikini bottom, a motorcycle and a yellow Chevy Vega and dedicated it in 1975 with a planned opening for 2025.

In 1983, Davisson added the pyramid top to the capsule along with an additional car and other items. He died in 1999, but his structure continues to delight and intrigue visitors to Seward. Stay tuned, dear readers – Nebraska Life will cover the opening in three years.

Monolithic Dome

Central City

Central City is a growing community in tornado country without a high-capacity storm shelter.

“Our water table is high here. We don’t have a lot of crawl spaces or basements for protection,” said Jeff Jensen, superintendent of Central City Public Schools.

His district is also one with increasing needs. So when considering construction of a new gymnasium, Central City Public School leaders became enamored with the concept of a monolithic dome - a

structure made of steel-reinforced concrete that can withstand winds up to 250 mph. It would be more affordable to build than a traditional structure and could double as a storm shelter, like those in neighboring Kansas and Missouri.

Another bonus: it could be eligible for FEMA dollars. Within half a mile, just under 3,000 people could find safety in the gym-shelter. After Jensen and others wrote and rewrote several grants and bounced between federal and state agencies for years, the district received approval for just under $4 million in FEMA funds for the project.

They inflated the dome in November 2021 and pressurized it. Structural foam, rebar and concrete followed. Federal funds cover 75% of the structure. To complete the project, the district borrowed money at 1% and relied on private donations to close the gap for scoreboards, gym floor and lockers.

Because this creative project is the result of community cooperation and buy-in, Jensen hopes to put “Central City” on top of the dome. And, if it can hold up to storms that rage so furiously, it can definitely handle the cheering of enthusiastic Bison fans.

Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer Grand Island

Nebraska pioneers employed boldness and hope to survive and thrive in their new homeland. In 1963, their Grand Island descendants hired architect Edward Durell Stone to reflect that pioneer spirit with a commemorative museum.

Stone – who designed the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. – created the Leo B. Stuhr building for Grand Island. It showcases the International style of architecture and is Stone’s only Nebraska work.

Situated on the museum grounds’ 200 acres, a smooth white symmetrical concrete structure graces the surrounding prairie. From the plane on his way to the building site, Stone was smitten with the view below of fields and the meandering Platte River. He reflected these elements in his design, said Chris Hochstetler, executive director of the museum. The building is a mosaic of squares and concentric squares, like fields. A moat encircles the building, as a river might. Visitors cross a bridge,

From above, the moat circling the Leo B. Stuhr building of the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer resembles a wagon wheel. It’s an appropriate shape for this artistic masterpiece commissioned by Grand Island residents who wished to honor their ancestors.

Chris Amundson

admiring wild ducks, geese and blue heron, to the double glass doors. Private donors came to the rescue again decades after the building’s initial construction in 1967, financing a $7 million “Gem of the Prairie” restoration completed in 2015.

The effort refurbished the facade, restored the original 10-feet door height and installed clear tempered glass around indoor pools, replacing rails, to make it look as Stone envisioned it. Floor vents replaced radiators, new roofing and updated electrical and mechanical systems were installed.

Hochstetler said the building feels like it belongs in Nebraska, in part because it’s so surprising. “There’s a moment when you encounter something you think shouldn’t be there, but it impacts you so powerfully, you know it needs to be there. This building has concreted itself as part of the prairie.”

Jeff Jensen

Workers inflate the dome of Central City’s new public school gymnasium, which will double as a storm shelter for the community. The structure can withstand winds up to 250 mph.

Sod houses were out, because the soil was too loose, and there weren’t many trees in the Sandhills in the 1920s, so Arthur residents used straw bales and mud to build their church.

Pilgrim Holiness Church

Arthur

In 1928 Congregationalists in Arthur worked together to build their church. There weren’t many trees in that part of the state, and the earth was unsuitable for sod houses. But the Sandhills offered all the materials the church members would need.

With prairie grass, domestic hay and mud, plaster and stucco, they built their place of worship. The rectangular building is one and a half stories tall with a small vestibule, seven rows of pews in two aisles, and an altar platform. Behind the altar platform, is a kitchen and parlor with a staircase leading to two sleeping rooms. This served as the pastor’s residence and was also a place where Sunday school was held.

After the church closed its doors, the Arthur County Historical Society took over the building. The society completed restoration

Ammodramus/Wikipedia

work on the church’s exterior in 1976 and began operating it as a museum. Pilgrim Holiness Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is the oldest baled straw structure in Nebraska.

The Harvey P. Sutton House, A Frank Lloyd Wright house

McCook

Cape whirling, Frank Lloyd Wright arrived at the only building design of his built in Nebraska and declared it an abomination. Owner Elizabeth Sutton had made changes Wright hadn’t approved of and aroused the man’s ire. It wasn’t the first time the two had locked horns, but it would be the last. When Wright billed the Suttons after the house’s completion, the amount was twice

The only Frank Lloyd Wright house to grace Nebraska features a cantilevered veranda roof, which later owners had to restore after a fire damaged it many years before.

Alan J. Bartels

“Hobbit” fans rejoice in this whimsical B&B with round doors and snug interior nooks filled with games and books.

what the architect had bid.

The Sutton House was built between 1905 and 1908 in Wright’s “Prairie Style.” The home boasts an open floor plan from dining room to living plan – rare for its day – and a nearly hidden main entrance for privacy. Windows allow light in while preventing outside eyes from peeping. Most distinct is the home’s cantilevered veranda roof that juts out without visible supports. That structure was damaged by a fire in 1932, but later owners restored the home to Wright’s original vision and have plans for it to remain that way.

Covington Cottage

South Sioux City

There’s a new Hobbit house but it’s not in the Shire. It’s in South Sioux City. Taking a page from J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, Dar-

win and Maureen Knecht recently opened Covington Cottage.

Darwin worked alongside son-in-law Jacob Metz for 14 months to build the residence with features that include round doors, a grass roof, wooden roof beams, an electric fireplace, and a load-bearing tree stump. Marilyn outfitted it with homey rugs, arts and Hobbit-like artifacts, books and games.

The Knechts dubbed their new place Covington Cottage. It sits on five landscaped acres adjacent to the couple’s other’s Airbnb, a treehouse, and their coffeeshop, which is open to the public.

They hold events open to the community on the grounds, such as yoga and live music, and rent the space out for private parties and events. That’s very much in the spirit of Bilbo Baggins:

“If ever you are passing my way, don’t wait to knock! Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time!”

Was he a Nebraskan in disguise?

Maureen Knecht

The Museum of Nebraska Art is set to reopen in 2023 with an exciting restored, renovated, and expanded museum!

This endeavor supports our mission to celebrate the art of Nebraska, while providing a welcoming and beautiful space for all.

To find out more visit us at mona.unk.edu

Opal and CZ Ring by David Rosales

Nebraska Traveler

TAKING TO THE ROAD FOR FOOD, FUN AND FESTIVITIES

Call it a Comeback –River Otters Rebound in Nebraska

When Gordon Warrick saw the tracks in the snow, he felt elated. Paired paw prints lolloped along the Niobrara River at Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge. He followed the tracks under Buffalo Bridge and scanned the river for the sight of a slick brown head or a furry round bottom or anything scampering along the bank.

As a kid growing up in Nebraska in the 1960s and ’70s, the closest Warrick had come to seeing river otters was watching Wild Kingdom. The species was listed as endangered in Nebraska in 1986 – the year the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission began reintroducing more than 150 of the semiaquatic mammals into

by MEGAN FEENEY

the state’s waterways. The program was a success. Last January, based on recommendations from staff biologists, otters were removed from the state threatened list. Today, there are an estimated 2,000 in Nebraska.

Warrick became a biologist with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and lived outside Nebraska for years. He saw otters in Washington state, and he spotted tracks at the wildlife refuge where he worked in New Mexico.

“I was as about as excited as if they had been the tracks of Big Foot,” he said.

Warrick’s first Nebraska otter sighting happened on a 2002 visit home. He saw two otters romping on the sandbars of the

“Yes, it’s cold outside, but you really ‘otter’ come find

Platte River outside of Kearney. Witnessing the winsome little mammals left him craving more. Otters were a hopeful testament to how humans could help repair the broken links in an ecosystem. After Warrick moved back to Nebraska in 2015, he went looking for otters regularly.

But on that day following tracks under Buffalo Bridge, it was not to be.

He returned again and again and again. A year from that track sighting, on a cold, grey winter day, his efforts were rewarded.

Several inches of snow blanketed the ground, and the river was mostly frozen.

“But downriver, on the outside bend

Gordon Warrick

where the current was stronger, there were dark areas of open water. Within them, I detected movement,” Warrick said.

Warrick hiked down to the river and onto the ice. He approached the open water and knelt. He heartbeat quickened. The otters moved close enough that he could see their whiskers. Two popped out onto the ice. The otters and Warrick spent a couple minutes checking each other out. Then the otters slipped back into the water and were gone.

Since that frigid day, Warrick has enjoyed more otter encounters along the Niobrara River. He’s witnessed them mating and feasting on crawfish. His advice for would-be fellow otter watchers:

“Go out along Nebraska’s rivers in all seasons, but especially when there are fewer people around. Look for tracks. Watch the water. Sit down and be quiet. You do that often enough, you’ll see some river otters.”

Cabin Fever Antique Show

Jan. 7-8 • Lincoln

Antique enthusiasts rejoice in this treasure hunt for glass, jewelry, toys, furniture and collector’s items. Dealers from across the state and beyond lay out their wares at the Lancaster Event Center fairgrounds. $8 admission for both days. Facebook.com/CabinFeverAntiqueShow

Kearney Area Storytelling Festival

Jan. 8-12 • Kearney

After a year hiatus because of the pandemic, the Kearney Area Storytelling Festival is back. This year the festival welcomes Megan Hicks and Tim Lowry as featured national storytellers. Local storytellers are welcome to share their tales, too. kearneystorytellingfestival.org

Hops & Grapes Festival

Jan. 28 • Omaha

Tickets include unlimited tastings of local beer and spirits and Napa wines. This benefit for Partnership 4 Kids, a youth development project, will feature live music, local food, interactive games, an auction and raffle from 7 to 10 p.m. Tickets $100. p4k.org/events

Explore Cherry County

Explore

Great Reuben debate heats up Omaha’s Blackstone District

by BECKY McCARVILLE

Savory, creamy, crispy, and yes, ooey-gooey flavors and textures strike a mouth-watering balance as Omaha’s Blackstone District restaurants serve up their Reuben sandwich-inspired creations during the annual Great Reuben Debate.

From Jan. 14 through 31, enthusiasts can tuck into various Reuben interpretations at participating Blackstone District restaurants and vote for their favorite version, from the traditional Reuben sandwich to Reuben pizza, tacos, poutine, meatball, pretzel, hot dog and a vegan rendition.

The classic Reuben, an umami avalanche of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing piled between

Race capacity is limited, so don’t delay!

toasted slices of rye bread, originated in the 1920s at the historic Blackstone Hotel, reopened as the lush Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel at 36th and Farnam streets in Omaha.

As the story goes, Chef Bernard Schimmel, son of hotelier Charles Schimmel, created a sandwich he named after Reuben Kulakofsky during a late-night poker game at the hotel. The Reuben sandwich won the 1956 Sandwich of the Year title by the National Restaurant Association. Today it’s served at pubs across the nation.

While the Reuben got its start right across the street from Crescent Moon Ale House, the longtime Omaha bar and

Photo: Teri Elmshaeuser

Becky McCarville

grill won the 2021 Best Reuben title both in votes received and sandwiches sold during last year’s Great Reuben Debate. In 2020, Rathskeller Bier Haus won popular vote bragging rights, while Crescent Moon sold the most sandwiches.

Crescent Moon owner Bill Baburek thinks his establishment will win again this year, but he’ll have to put his Reuben where his mouth is. He’s up against restaurants including Ansel’s, Cheeseburgers, Farnam House, Geraldine’s, Lucky Tiger, Mula, Nite Owl, Noli’s Pizzeria, Orleans Room, Rathskeller Bier Haus, Stirnella and The Blackstone Meatball. That’s some beefy competition.

Voters use a QR code to vote for their favorites.

Every diner who leaves one of these amazing participating establishments with the tang of sauerkraut lingering in their mouth, a bit of grease on their fingers and a belly full of decadent Reuben goodness is also a winner.

Midlands International Auto Show

Jan. 21-23 • Omaha

Tricked-out trucks, a rare collection of classic cars, and the sweetest SUVs are on display at the CHI Health Center in Omaha’s North Downtown neighborhood. Kids can race each other with remote-controlled cars. If they have too much fun, the adults might want in on the action. Admission $7-9.

Groundhog Day Parade

Feb. 5 • Unadilla

A parade begins at 2 p.m. at Dan’s Tire Company and proceeds three blocks through the town’s historic v-shaped Main Street. The taxidermy form of groundhog Unadilla Billie takes the torch from the retired Unadilla Bill to forecast whether winter will last for six more weeks. After the parade, go to Mal’s Bar & Grill to attend the Groundhog King & Queen coronation. The royalty are humans, but Billie will still be proud.

Heartland Hoops Classic

Feb. 12 • Grand Island

High school players from across the state and beyond return to the hardwood. Eight teams – some nationally ranked – all try to box out the competition. Sneakers squeak and rims ping. Players call for ball and cheering fans scream their heads off. This family friendly event staves off February doldrums. Tickets $12-20.

Marvelous Maples

Feb. 19-March 5 • Nebraska City

At the Tree Adventure in Nebraska City, guests learn about the art of maple tapping and then take a seat around a campfire while a guide illuminates the steps of the syrupmaking process and offers several tastings. Finger-lickers bring your own wetwipes. Tickets must be purchased in advance. $20, includes Tree House Admission. (402) 873-8717.

A cider a day keeps the winter blues away in Lincoln’s Telegraph District.

by EMILY CASE

For many, that first bite of a fresh Nebraska apple each fall conjures memories of our state’s orchards, of family trips to pick fruit from twisted limbs or of grandma’s apple pie. Nebraska apples become impossible to find as winter drags on, but Saro Cider’s taproom in Lincoln’s Telegraph District serves the taste of Arbor Day Farm’s fruit in a tulip glass.

Cider is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting fruit juice. Saro Cider makes its own and also creates products with other Nebraska businesses.

For its Joy Harvest cider, Saro, pronounced SARE-row, uses apple juice from Nebraska City’s Arbor Day Farm to

create an effervescent lightly sweet golden nectar. The cidery also makes a pommeau – distilled barrel-aged apple wine – called Under the Apple Tree with Brownville’s Whiskey Run Creek Winery and Distillery and Arbor Day Farm. It’s available in Saro’s taproom and stores. The earthy taste of roasted coffee beans with the bright zing of fresh apples and a creamy head come together in Saro’s Bogota, a cider collaboration with Lincoln company Broken Rail Beverage Company.

With white brick walls, large windows, and midcentury furniture upholstered in cushy mustard and cobalt velvet, Saro’s taproom evokes an upscale airport

Photo: Arturo Banderas

Larry L. Kubert/Lincoln Journal Star

or train station. A light grey map mural graces a wall. There’s a relaxed, upbeat vibe with customers chatting at the bar and tables.

In the past, Saro brewed a popular cider with fir tips that a forest ranger gave them from Nebraska National Forest at Halsey. Drinkers said the herbaceous, citrusy brew made them feel as relaxed as walking through the woods.

When co-owners Tracy Sanford and Matt Wood restored the trolley shop building in the Telegraph District for their cidery, they hoped it would contribute to the upward trajectory of the Lincoln neighborhood. Both the drink and the place have deep histories that Nebraskans may enjoy in the present.

Saro is trying to spread the cider love to other parts of Nebraska with tastings. At a recent event in Neligh, organizers wanted to keep the keg. Maybe Saro should have let them – at least until fresh Nebraska apples are available again.

Omaha Fashion Week

Feb. 23-27 • Omaha

Designers from Nebraska and across the Midwest unveil new looks. Student designers kick off the festivities with runway shows featuring their work. Then, on the weekend, Emerging and Feature Designers will showcase their collections. A “Shop the Runway Sunday” encourages fashion fans to buy their favorite pieces directly from the floor. Local fashion for the win! Tickets $45-120.

Page 18 A cyclist enjoys cruising across a bridge on The Cowboy Trail.

Page 18 Johnny Carson returned to Norfolk to film his TV special, “Johnny Goes Home.”

Page 19 Tastee Treet is a beloved Norfolk eatery that serves hot dogs with ground beef and cheese on top, among other sandwiches.

Mike Machian

Winter Reading Roundup

Readers curl up with books featuring Nebraska connection

by MEGAN FEENEY

THE SHORT DAYS and cold nights of Nebraska winters create a season of reading for book lovers statewide. From a fictional thriller set in the Sandhills to Omaha history, from poignant poetry to medical mystery, we hope these new titles, along with the Nebraska One Book selection, feed your inner bookworm.

Pickard County Atlas

Sandhills thriller with incendiary

secrets

The fictional Sandhills county in seventh-generation Nebraskan Chris Harding Thornton’s debut novel, Pickard County Atlas, embodies a character as fully formed yet fragile as its human inhabitants. Soapweed, yucca and bunchgrass hold the thin topsoil, but great gray skies threaten to blow it all away.

“Pickard County’s dirt was as erratic as the weather,” Thornton writes. “The place was a cusp, and it’d once drawn people accustomed to life on cusps.”

Residents in the late-1970s fictional town of Madson live on the verge of poverty – and of sanity. The place’s very existence, dogged by droughts and dust, is also tenuous. “All that kept the whole county from going up were a few spindly arcs of center-pivot irrigation lines.”

Against this menacing background, sheriff’s deputy Harley Jensen cruises the country roads at night trying to banish a haunting childhood memory. When a curious crime spree erupts, Jensen’s path collides with Paul and Rick Reddick, a pair of brothers who are still reeling from

the fallout of their brother’s murder two decades earlier. One brother is hopped up on pills and the other is a suspected arsonist. The sheriff’s deputy has crossed lines, too. Embers nurtured long ago may burn it all down.

Sara Adkisson-Joyner, manager of Jackson Street Bookseller in Omaha’s Old Market, calls Pickard County Atlas a “nod to rural noir,” saying Harding evokes the “stark landscape of small-town Nebraska with the intimacy of a skilled craftsperson.”

Pickard County Atlas by Chris Harding Thornton Farrar, Straus and Giroux Hardcover, 272 pp, $27

Deer Season

Unsolved crime tests rural Nebraska town

Alma Costagan doesn’t want to spend her Saturday afternoon giving shots to pigs with her husband Clyle. But their farmhand Hal Bullard has taken the weekend off for the opening of deer hunting season. Alma has become a surrogate mother to Hal, who has an intellectual disability as the result of a childhood accident.

These characters inhabit the fictional rural Nebraska town of Gunthrum in Deer Season by Erin Flanagan. The story unfolds in 1985, so there’s no social media, but the town’s barstools, church pews and grocery checkout provide rich channels for gossip. Rumors seize Gunthrum when Hal returns home early from his hunting trip with a smear of blood in his truck on the same night a teenage girl goes missing.

Alma knows Hal isn’t telling the entire truth – his story feels shaky – but she also doesn’t want to believe he’s capable of hurting someone, despite violence in his past. She must consider how far she’s willing to go to protect him. In this farming community, everyone has their own secrets and their own loyalties.

The characters in Deer Season, a Flyover Fiction book from the University of Nebraska Press, are funny and flawed. The author grew up on a farm in Iowa, which is why her depictions of farm chores and routines feel so authentic.

Moments of humor or wry observation in the farming sections offer relief from the book’s driving tension. Flanagan illustrates that family and community bonds may be frangible, but they are also mendable with enough care.

Deer Season by Erin Flanagan University of Nebraska Press Paperback, 307 pp, $22

My Omaha Obsession

History buff reveals the city’s long-held secrets

Written by an author known only by the pen name Miss Cassette, My Omaha Obsession explores the city’s unknown history through some of its most mysterious buildings and personal histories.

One chapter recalls how, as a child, Miss Cassette was in the middle of enjoying an ice cream sundae at an oldschool joint in downtown Omaha, when her grandmother confessed a secret. As a teenager, Grandma had enjoyed another forbidden treat on the same block. In the

early 1930s, behind a “judas hole” and a password, a speakeasy once served drinks like the Sloe Gin Fizz that grandma had become so fond of.

As an adult, the author set out to uncover more secrets of the past. To do this, she consulted the book Omaha: A Guide to the City and its Environs, written in the 1930s by members of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Among other discoveries, she learned about the Clover Leaf Club, a drinking and dancing establishment that was once a happening spot in Omaha. The Union Pacific Center stands there today, but by using photos, old books and archived newspaper articles, the author rewinds decades of history and urban development.

The Clover Leaf Club offered an airconditioned environment decorated like a “forest glen,” with drinks, food and evening entertainment. Liquor and gambling violations plagued the place. One evening outside the club, a drunken lady hit a police officer in the head with her shoe. Later, under different management, members of a burlesque show were charged with indecent conduct and “wearing clothes of the opposite sex.”

Imagine, the author implores: Imagine the life below the city, with its live orchestra and its hidden card rooms and its beautiful performers. Imagine Omaha with the life it once held and the secrets it has kept.

Shelly Mutum, owner, The Next Chapter Bookstore in Omaha, says Miss Cassette’s “excitement, curiosity and passion for every new story, every new mystery is palpable and captivating for any reader.”

My Omaha Obsession: Searching for the City by Miss Cassette University of Nebraska Press Paperback, 378 pp, $25

How to Love the World

Nebraska poets share words of hope

Nebraska poets feature prominently in How to Love the World, an anthology edited by University of Nebraska Ph.D. graduate James Crews.

“This small poetry collection overflows with reminders that we need to savor the people, experiences and things that bring us joy, hope and love,” said Carla Ketner, owner of Chapters Books & Gifts in Seward.

In the poem “Perceptive Prayer,” Grace Bauer encourages appreciation of “what is both ordinary and extra.” Marjorie Saiser’s “When Life Seems a To-Do List” describes a moment of slipping away to appreciate the nighttime skies. Ted Kooser celebrates the common dandelion as a marker on a thawing spring path. Reflective pauses throughout the book invite readers to journal or meditate on the presented themes in each section.

“How to Love the World is an island of beauty and peaceful reflection amidst the tension of daily life,” Ketner said. “Especially in these stressful times, we all need books like this one.”

How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope Edited by James Crews Storey Publishing Paperback, 195 pp, $15

The Track the Whales Make

Willa Literary Award winner charms with new collection

New poems by Nebraska poet Marjorie Saiser explore themes of love and letting go, of what holds the center and what falls away. In The Track Whales Make, she uses familiar Nebraska land-

scapes as metaphors.

In “I Had a Marriage in Those Days,” she writes: “Each row of corn was snug up against/ a neighboring row, took its shape/ from it, gave its shape to the next row./ When I drove the roads, the corn/ ticked by, agreeing on everything.”

In another poem, “Charmed by the Dirt Road,” Saiser recalls visiting her significant other’s mother on the farm. She watches the woman kill, clean and cook a chicken for dinner: “I saw the array; plates plain and shiny, the cups/ waiting for their coffee, all the song of this,/ the chorus, the riffs, and I thought/ with some minor changes I could do it.”

Poems from earlier anthologies appear, too, and lovingly refer to Nebraska places. In “I Save My Love,” a Nebraska coffeehouse gets a shout out: “I save my love/ for the smell of coffee at the Mill,/ the roasted near-burn of it, especially/ the remnant that stays later/ in the fibers of my coat.”

Carla Ketner, owner of Chapters Books & Gifts, who is from Seward County, particularly loves the work republished from Lost in Seward County. Ketner’s favorite lines are: “This was the time between,/ this was the mortar,/ and we struck it lightly, gave it shape.”

“Saiser doesn’t always strike lightly,” Ketner said. “But she gives shape to the things we’re feeling and makes us feel less alone.”

The Track the Whales Make: New and Selected Poems

By Marjorie Saiser

University of Nebraska Press Paperback, 181 pp, $19.95

Patient Zero

Nebraska doctor weaves tales of medical mysteries

Lydia Kang is an author of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. She’s also a doctor of internal medicine at University of Nebraska Medical Center. Kang combines skills from both professions in her latest nonfiction book, Patient Zero.

Co-written with writer Nate Pedersen, Kang examines 21 of history’s worst

diseases – including measles, Ebola, cholera and more – through stories of each illness’ “patient zero,” or first known carrier. Presented in a series of vignettes, Kang and Pedersen unpack scientific missteps and breakthroughs. Fascinating sidebars, public health posters and historical photos keep the layout lively and fun.

One story from the book might make Beef State residents think it’s actually a work of horror. Ever heard of alpha-gal syndrome?

Caused by the bite of the lone star tick, which lives in Nebraska, alpha-gal syndrome causes people to become allergic to certain kinds of meat. First, the tick bites a cow, deer or sheep, getting a certain kind of sugar from the mammals’ blood into its saliva. When the tick bites a human and exposes them to the sugar, it makes the human immune system say, “bye-bye forever, beef.”

Carl Erickson of The Bookworm in Omaha calls Patient Zero a “deeply informative” and “absorbing companion” to Kang and Pedersen’s earlier work, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything.

Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World’s Worst Diseases by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen Workman Publishing Co. Hardcover, 390 pp, $25

The Bones of Paradise

Nebraska One Book selection for 2022

One morning, two people are murdered at different times in the same remote meadow of a Sandhills ranch. Star was a young Native American woman; J.B. Bennett was a white rancher.

Set a decade after the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee centers on two women. Rose is Star’s sister, who has witnessed her people dislocated from their land and decimated. She vows to avenge Star’s death. Dulcinea is J.B. Bennett’s estranged wife, who returns to reclaim her family and ranch from a tyrannical father-in-law. A rich cast of

characters navigates the turn-of-the-century in this beautiful and terrible landscape. Exploring themes of family, history, vengeance, race and love of the land, The Bones of Paradise is the One Book One Nebraska selection for 2022. Libraries across the state – along with literary and cultural institutions – will hold talks and events about the book. This is the 18th year of the One Book One Nebraska reading program sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Humanities Nebraska and Nebraska Library Commission.

The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee William Morrow Paperback, 416 pp, $16

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS

DEATH OF THE SENATE

My Front Row Seat to the Demise of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body

Ben Nelson Foreword by Trent Lott and Joseph Lieberman

$34.95 hardcover

MY OMAHA OBSESSION

Searching for the City

Miss Cassette

Foreword by Chris Ware

$24.95 paperback

RHYMES WITH FIGHTER

Clayton Yeutter, American Statesman

Joseph Weber

$34.95 hardcover

LETTER FROM A PLACE I’VE NEVER BEEN

New and Collected Poems, 1986–2020

Hilda Raz

Edited by Kwame Dawes

Introduction by John Kinsella

$29.95 paperback

NEBRASKA’S BUCKS AND BULLS

The Greatest Stories of Hunting Whitetail, Mule Deer, and Elk in the Cornhusker State

Joel W. Helmer

Foreword by Randy Stutheit

$19.95 paperback

THE TRACK THE WHALES MAKE New and Selected Poems

Marjorie Saiser

Introduction by Ted Kooser

$19.95 paperback

ATURALLY EBRASKA

Hanging on for the Hunt

Reconnecting with friends and nature

by ALAN J. BARTELS

EVERY SQUIRREL BARK or robin chirp made me think a deer was walking through the woods.

It was the 2021 season opener of the Nebraska rifle season. My best friend Michael “Shane” Nordhues and I were in separate ground blinds in a shelterbelt near Burwell.

My cellphone vibrated with Shane’s excited text after a fat doe ran across the neighbor’s land at sunup. A deer could step into view at any moment. That feeling is exhilarating.

Despite having frozen toes, being in the woods with Shane again was a privilege. We hadn’t hunted together since our high school days. After Shane’s stage four cancer diagnosis in 2019, I didn’t know if we’d ever have the chance to do it again.

After hours, days and weeks of thought – and plenty of regret over allowing 30 years to pass since our last hunting excursion together – I sent Shane a message suggesting we plan a deer hunt near our old stomping grounds.

We had both joined the U.S. Army after high school. We even signed up and stood side by side as we swore our oath on the very same day. After that, Uncle Sam sent us in different directions. I did four years of active duty and four in the U.S. Army Reserves. Shane stayed in for 28 years, retiring as a First Sergeant. Now he lives in Missouri, near his wife Amanda’s current duty station at Fort Riley, Kansas.

To seal the deer deal, and hopefully inspire Shane to hang on the nine months until opening day, I bought him

a Cabela’s hunting coat and made the five-hour drive to give it to him on his birthday. He appeared weak, tired and older than his 50 years. Treatment for the cancer in his mouth and neck left him unable to speak for months. Unable to taste. Deadened his salivary glands to the point that his mouth was dry. The pain he had been experiencing for months was indescribable. But when I walked into his dining room unannounced, I recognized the same bright gleam in his eyes from our youth.

After school and weekend hunts were tradition for Shane and me when we were students at Greeley High School. Cottontail rabbits, squirrels, doves and pheasants weren’t safe – especially when Shane took aim. In those days, Greeley County’s few jackrabbits were as close as we ever got to harvesting big game.

on eight-foot-long slate tables (that’s how you really learn to shoot pool). Old men like Peter “Blue” Gray, almost always dressed in his faded bib overalls, John “Harry” Harris, and Rusty Dugan, along with others, would settle in for games of Pinochle or Pitch on quiet afternoons. Poker was not allowed. The men drank Pabst Blue Ribbon or Budweisers in glasses with salted rims. The drinks left wet rings on the card table, the patina worn into a cloverleaf-like shape after decades of wear from players’ hands sliding quarters into the pot.

Larry and Donna provided a welcoming, safe place that now exists only in fortunate peoples’ memories. Larry, Donna and the building are gone now.

During our fall hunt, neither Shane nor I fired a shot. That doesn’t matter – it was never about the kill. Knowing that time was limited for both of us – whether measured in months, years or decades – we reunited to relive part of our youth and to reforge our relationship with each other and the great outdoors.

If we got tired, hungry or discouraged by missed shots, Shane would screech his rusted Cutlass Supreme to a stop in front of Torson’s Tavern in Greeley for lunch. That is, if we weren’t driving thicket to thicket in my equally rusty Mach 1 Mustang. Larry and Donna Torson served runny chili dogs for $1.35. For 10 cents per player, there were games of 8-ball and snooker

I’m happy to say these bonds are getting stronger. So is Shane. He is now cancer free, feeling better and better every day, and talking again. In fact, at times, I can barely get a word in edgewise.

We’ll be back in our blinds during the January antlerless season. Shane will bring the doughnuts, and I’ll supply the coffee. I don’t know if we’ll shoot anything, and I don’t know who is driving. But when lunchtime rolls around, this pair of old men are likely to come to a screeching halt in front of some small-town diner not far from home, each of us thankful for best friends, health and the outdoors.

Alan J. Bartels is the former editor of Nebraska Life who now contributes a column about the state’s great outdoors.

Jennifer Lewis

LAST LOOK EDITORS’ CHOICE

photograph

ROGER RICHTERS

EVERY MORNING, THE first thing Roger Richters does is look outside to see if it’s a good day for pictures. One day, the view jolted him. Snow reflected an endless cerulean sky. Hoarfrost ornamented bare trees. He packed his photography equipment and drove in his pickup to find a good spot to shoot.

Richters jumped out as the sun began its ascent on the western horizon, warming the blue with a magenta glow. He recognized it was a special moment and didn’t hesitate. With photography, you had to show up, even when it was cold or early.

As a fourth-generation farmer in Seward County, he had learned the same lesson as a kid. Now, as he approaches the sixth decade of his life, he feels grateful for these “euphoric moments,” capturing Nebraska’s beauty.

His photography hobby is still fairly new, but it occupies most of his free time and his mind. “If you have something you’re passionate about, you’ve got the world by the tail,” Richters said.

IN EACH ISSUE, Last Look features a reader’s photograph of Nebraska – landscapes, architecture, attractions, events, people or wildlife.

Submit your best photographs for the chance to be published in Nebraska Life. Send digital images with detailed photo descriptions and your contact information to photos@nebraskalife.com or visit nebraskalife.com/contribute.

This photo was created with a Nikon D810 camera equipped with a Nikkor 14-24mm lens at 18mm, exposed at ISO 100, f/11 for 1/25 of a second.