Settle into a luxurious hotel to relax and prepare for the next day’s adventure. Take advantage of the Iowa Great Lakes with a stay at The Inn Hotel in Okoboji. Built in 1896 as “the hub of society,” it has since been renovated to reclaim its Golden Age legacy of o ering pleasure and escape.
intriguing histories. So, pack up the car and hit the road for a family adventure at these destinations.
the Midwest and take riders along railroad tracks through the scenic Des Moines River valley on a 12.4-mile round trip. Its showstopper is the crossing of the historic Bass Point Creek High Trestle bridge, which is 156 feet high and 750 feet long. Once riders have reached the end of the route, they can enjoy a stop at the hospitality area before turning around and heading back to enjoy the same views from a new angle. All Explorers feature an electric motor, making the ride e ortless and accessible to people of all ages and abilities.
For more thrilling action at a faster speed, head to the Iowa Speedway, dubbed “the fastest short track on the planet.” This state-of-the-art track in Newton hosts a variety of exciting racing events, such as the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend and the ARCA Menards Series Race (both in July).
Hop in your own car and enjoy an old-fashioned movie experience at the Valle Drive-In Theatre
This Newton staple is known for being Iowa’s oldest drive-in and o ering the most authentic experience with original teasers before the main features and a historic popcorn maker.
Find more car fun at the Classic Car Museum in Okoboji. Join a guided tour to enjoy storefront and boardwalk scenes from the 1960s and admire the dealership inventory. Peek into the restoration shop to see behind-the-scenes work on stunning cars.
In Creston and Union County, stretch your legs by exploring Creston’s downtown mural collection, which portrays everything from inspiring messaging to history and pop culture. Outdoor enthusiasts can also enjoy a wide array of activities at the area’s five lakes that cover over 2,100 acres.
variety of sausages from local vendors along with brats, brews, beverages, desserts and sides while watching makers compete for awards.
REVISIT
Take a break from modern day society and enjoy the times before technology in Odebolt. Start in a historic one-room schoolhouse at the Iowa Rural Schools Museum . The authentic 1883 school is filled with original artifacts from country schools around the state. Dive even more into the area’s history with a visit to the Odebolt Historical Museum, which highlights local military history as well as tools and equipment from the farm and home of Bu alo Bill.
Further west, the Sioux City Public Museum tells even more stories. The museum’s collection of interactive exhibits includes everything from Native American artifacts to pioneer living, unusual keepsakes and famous residents.
The Surf Ballroom and Museum in Clear Lake is a must-visit Iowa attraction. Known as one of the last remaining ballrooms in the Midwest and the final concert site of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, it’s filled music artifacts and stories.
For more music history, head to the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum and Home in Clarinda to discover the fascinating story of America’s big band leader. Exhibits explore his rise to fame as well as his military service during WWII and the continuing impact of his music.
Step inside the door of a restored Carnegie Library with a visit to the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum The books have been replaced by modern and contemporary art pieces which can be admired along with the building’s architecture.
Another historical gem lies within Hotel Millwright’s stunning suites. What started as an eight-acre woolen mill complex has since been transformed into a charming boutique hotel in the Amana Colonies. It o ers beautifully designed rooms alongside a restaurant, two bars, outdoor picnic and music space and more.
For a uniquely Iowa lodging experience, look no further than Mason City’s Historic Park Inn Hotel
Recognized as the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright-designed and -built hotel in the world, it’s become an internationally renowned architectural wonder. Today, it perfectly blends history and modern amenities to ensure a comfortable stay.
Relax surrounded by luxury at the Warrior Hotel, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. After meticulous renovations, this 1930s Art Deco hotel pampers guests with classy suites, a full-service spa, its own bowling alley and a rooftop bar. Its location in the heart of downtown Sioux City o ers a collection of attractions within walking distance.
Explore even more of what Iowa has to o er and build the perfect itinerary by visiting traveliowa.com.
Learn more about these exciting destinations.
Not what you were expecting? Enjoy a deep dive in one of Iowa’s popular lakes or an elevated trek through one of our magnificent state parks. Take a closer look and you’ll discover it’s all right here in Iowa. Plan your trip at traveliowa.com Clear Lake, Iowa
pg. 46
MARCH/APRIL 2023
FEATURES
22 Birds and Blooms
Nebraska’s spring colors come to life in this bright and bountiful look at flora and fauna found around the state. Bring your binoculars and settle in!
By Cheyenne Rowe
30 Harold Warp Pioneer Village
History isn’t a thing of the past at the Harold Warp Pioneer Village in Minden. This one-of-a-kind museum, brought to life by a one-of-a-kind man, hosts stories illustrated by dedicated volunteers. Story by Tom Hess Photographs by Alan J. Bartels
46 Judi gaiashkibos
Granddaughter of a Ponca chief, Judi gaiashkibos has fought hard to turn adversity into advocacy for the native populations in Nebraska. She’s brought a bright recognition back to the Ponca tribe, remembrance to all Indigenous people and more.
By Tim Trudell
58 Lakeland Sod School
It was the best of times in the worst of times. Explore the history behind the “only known high school of sod” with this reprint from our archives.
By Alan J. Bartels
62
Building the Lake Life
A lot overlooking Big Sandy Lake got an architectural touch by the Bahe family. This grid-based, straightlaced (and lined) lakehouse brought the family together and will stand the test of time.
By Tom Hess
78 Tri-State Marker
Ever been in three places at once? Thanks to a marker placed at the junction of Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming, guests to the unassuming obelisk have the Kieler family to thank for preserving this piece of history.
Story by Deb Carpenter-Nolting Photographs by Jessica Rocha
Judi gaiashkibos,
Harold Warp Pioneer Village, pg. 30
Your everyday life deserves high-quality care, and Columbus Otolaryngology Clinic is here for you.
From sinus treatment to sleep apnea and everything in between, our expert medical providers can meet your ENT needs.
Our team offers one-on-one, personalized care that distinguishes us from other ENT providers.
The surgeons at Columbus Otolaryngology Clinic provide the following:
• General and pediatric ENT services.
• Nasal and sinus treatment.
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• Skin and oral cancer treatment.
They also diagnose and treat head, neck, skin, tongue, tonsil and vocal cord cancer.
When you see one of our providers, they won’t just check you for the symptoms you report. Instead, they will perform a thorough examination, asking relevant questions that might reveal a condition previously unnoticed. Our clinic treats the whole person, and providers take the time to get to know you and your life to make an accurate diagnosis.
To learn more about our services or to make an appointment, call our office at 402-562-4720 or visit columbusotolaryngology.com.
4508 38th St., Suite 152 Columbus, Nebraska 68601
columbusotolaryngology.com
Tri-State Marker pg. 78
Royal pg. 14
Elsmere pg. 58
Genoa pg. 46
Central City pg. 14
Kearney pg. 70
Minden pg. 30
Hastings pg. 14
11 Editor’s Letter Observations on the ‘Good Life’ by publisher Chris Amundson.
12 Mailbox
Letters, emails, posts and notes from our readers.
14 Flat Water News & Trivia
A believer in Bigfoot exhibits her story, a historical theater in Central City, an Ashland farm passionate about popcorn, an author brings fossils back to life and the Lincoln Bike Kitchen sees a cycle of success. Plus: Test your inner storm chaser with questions about Nebraska weather events and anomalies.
38 Kitchens
A healthy trio of quinoa recipes to try at home that are as yummy as their start ingredient is fun to say.
43 Poetry
The Good Life isn’t complete without good pets. Nebraska poets pay homage to their beloved companions. A rescue horse keeps a watchful eye; a yellow cat basks in golden sunlight on a lazy day.
70 Traveler
A statewide festival shares science, Lewis and Clark’s expedition lives on at this Nebraska City attraction, and a classic car collection rolls into the hearts of Nebraskans in Kearney.
82 Naturally Nebraska
Alan J. Bartels takes a walk on the wild(life) side and beats the winter blues, or SAD, one step at a time.
Omaha pg. 70
Ashland pg. 14, 62
Lincoln pg. 14, 46
Nebraska City pg.70
ON OUR COVER A tiny rubythroated hummingbird in Omaha is in search of the sweet nectar found within these red penta petals.
PHOTOGRAPH BY
KAREN KUTZ SMITH
Above: Harriett McFeely, Danelle McCollum, AJ Dahm
Page 7: Alan J. Bartels, Corey Rourke
MARCH/APRIL 2023
Volume 27, Number 2
Publisher & Editor
Chris Amundson
Associate Publisher Angela Amundson
Assistant Editor
Cheyenne Rowe
Photo Editor Joshua Hardin
Design
Edie Mann, Open Look Creative Team
Advertising Marilyn Koponen
Subscriptions
Lea Kayton, Katie Evans, Janice Sudbeck
Nebraska Life Magazine
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COPYRIGHT
All text, photography and artwork are copyright 2023 by Flagship Publishing Inc. For reprint permission, please call or email publisher@nebraskalife.com.
Lakeview Drive Lesson Plan
WHEREVER NEBRASKANS live in the state, we are blessed to have access to fine lakes and reservoirs, practically in our own backyards.
Among the most popular are McConaughy, Lewis and Clark, Calamus, Harlan County and Swanson. And dare we forget Sutherland, Merritt, Sherman, Minatare, Johnson and Medicine Creek?
Take a trip by air over Nebraska and you’ll see thousands more pockets of water shimmering on our beautiful landscape – reservoirs, gravel pits, irrigation ponds and spring-fed Sandhills lakes.
To reach my favorite lake as a child growing up in Norfolk, I simply ran across the gravel road to my grandparents’ backyard, where I would fish, swim, paddle and explore my summers away at Holly, Heather and Lise – the three lakes my grandparents, Walter and Lisetta Gutzmann, built and named after their eldest granddaughters. Grandpa hired a backhoe to carve the lakes out of the swamp. With the dirt, he built high ground for a neighborhood of 1970’s ranch-style houses. Ours was lime green (with orange carpet, of course).
In those days, before video games and social media, a kid could find his own rhythm – in sync with the seasons of nature – at a lake.
Fish feeding on bugs, forming ripples on the water’s surface: predators and prey.
Croaking bullfrogs and the tadpoles that soon follow: cycle of life.
Catching chiggers from sitting in the long grass without bug spray: actions and consequences.
I’m grateful that my mom, Jeannine Amundson, chose to build a house on Lakeview Drive, giving this kid the best lakeside childhood imaginable. Like other life lessons a lake can teach us (duck hen caring for her ducklings), in this issue we publish a reprint of longtime former Editor Alan Bartels’ first story in Nebraska Life: “Lakeland Sod High School” (pg. 58). Alan tells us about pioneering parents in the Lakeland District of Brown County who educated their children through the Depression in a sod schoolhouse. I can imagine more than a few boys and girls playing hooky to catch bullheads and sunfish in the nearby lakes.
In the very next story, “On the Straight and Narrow” (pg. 62), longtime Nebraska Life writer Tom Hess explores the world of retired accountant Ritch Bahe, who along with his wife Raette, and daughter-in-law, Lindsey Ellsworth-Bahe, built a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house at a gravel pit near Ashland. Their lakeside retreat is perfectly designed to share paradise with grandkids and friends on weekends; then come Monday morning, to restore order and balance that delights an accountant. It delights me to see rhythms and life lessons continuing at another Nebraska lake.
The songbirds are returning to Nebraska; the frogs are coming out of hibernation; Nebraskans are draining the antifreeze from their fishing boat bilge pumps.
Lakes across Nebraska are ready for another season of adventures and life lessons.
Chris Amundson editor@nebraskalife.com
Join me in welcoming Nebraska Life’s new Assistant Editor, Cheyenne Rowe, to our magazine team. Cheyenne grew up in Omaha and now lives in Central City.
MAILBOX
Close encounter
I enjoyed your story on UFOs in Nebraska in the January/February 2023 issue (“Is there Anybody Out There?”).
I, too, have a story about a UFO way back in December 1978. This was my daughter’s senior year of high school and would be her last Christmas at home with us. Christmas Day was on a Monday, so we decided to take off Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and visit my mother and my wife’s parents. My mother lived in Edgemont, South Dakota, my wife’s parents in Ravenna, and we resided in Sidney.
We left Sidney at about 5 a.m. on Saturday. My daughter was in the back seat and fell sound asleep almost immediately upon leaving Sidney. A few miles north of Sidney along Highway 385 is what’s known as the Huntsman elevator. There was a small rise just to the south of this elevator, and upon reaching the top of this rise, we could see something hovering directly above the highway. It was about as wide as the highway was in width.
I slowed up to a crawl and asked my wife if she wanted to continue on or turn around. My wife said that this thing already knows we are here, just go. We had to drive directly beneath it, and it just sat there until we were directly under it, and then it continued to hover above us at the very same speed as we were traveling at. I sped up, then slowed up, and this thing did exactly the same. All my electric elements in our Buick Regal worked fine, electric windows, etc., and this thing was only about 10 to 12 feet directly above us at all times.
My wife was terrified, head down and hands over her eyes and head. Of course, I was curious and tried all my windows, horn, radio, heater, etc. but I felt very comfortable with this thing over us, no fear whatsoever. It was shaped like a plate right side up, then if you inverted another plate and placed it on top of the first one, you would have the form of this UFO.
A few miles up the road is the community of Gurley, and as we were about to enter Gurley, this thing moved slowly out in front of us, then at a very rapid speed went skyward to the northeast. We could follow its path for a short time as it disappeared in a moment. From Gurley to Dalton, it is about 8 miles or so, and when we got a lit-
tle past Dalton there were some jet fighter planes flying very low from the west to the east. We continued to see these planes almost until we got to the Platte River.
That evening in Edgemont, South Dakota, while visiting with my mother, the evening news came on from the Rapid City, South Dakota, TV station. The local newsman provided a story of the Rapid City Air Force base having an unidentified disk on their radar screen in the Gurley area and dispatching planes to that location. He said that the Fort Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, had the same unidentified object on their screen and also dispatched planes to that area.
I then relayed to my mother our experience with this disk that the Air Force was chasing around. She wanted us to report it, but I refused to do so, and your story convinces me we were right in not doing so. Your story makes much light of anyone involved with something of this nature, and I knew the media would do the same with us. No thanks! I do not think anyone should make light of something they know nothing about or do not understand. I am now 82 years old, and if they think I am a little off the rocker, so be it. I and my wife know that there are things out there that there are no answers for from our experience of so long ago.
Loren Avey Grand Island
Big Red marches on Thank you for picture of the Cornhusker Marching Band member on the cover of
your November/December 2022 issue. It brought back a lot of memories to this 74-year-old Cornhusker now living in Indiana. I was in the band in the late 1960s under Jack Snider and Don Lentz. My first year, as a rather mediocre trumpet player, I was not on the traveling list for the Sugar Bowl. Several days before the game, Jack called and advised me we had lost a trumpet player and that I should pack my bags and get to the airport.
What a thrill that was for a small-town (Adams) Nebraska boy to get to travel via airplane for the first time and march in a bowl game. I was fortunate in the years that followed to travel to several other bowl games, and I can still hear my mellophone part in “Dear Old Nebraska U.” I think my family was as proud of my being in the band as had I been quarterback of the team. I sure hope the trombone player on the cover of Nebraska Life got a copy of the issue. Go Big Red!
Bob Fey Muncie, Indiana
Year-round beauty
Thank you for such a great publication highlighting all of our blessed state. As a Vietnam War veteran, I have seen both the world’s good and bad. Nothing compares to the natural, year-round beauty of our precious state. May God continue to bless you and our God-given U.S.A. and Nebraska, our beloved state.
Bill Friesell Hershey
Magazine break
Thank you for your beautiful magazine. It is wonderful to take a break when it arrives and enjoy all aspects of each issue. I appreciate all the work and effort your staff puts into each issue.
Marcia A. Reining Hastings
Drive like a Husker
Being a new Nebraskan after living for many years in the very rural high desert of Nevada, it has taken some time to come to grips with civilization in a city environment. One of the major challenges was learning to cope with more vehicles on the road in one day here than are on the roads in our former home for an entire year.
To cope with this situation, I enrolled in a driver’s education course, which I figured would help me come to grips with local driving customs. The first thing I learned was the yellow light. Ordinarily, I have used the brake in most yellow light situations but have since learned that the yellow light actually seems to require more effort on the gas pedal than on the braking system.
For my final driving exam, I did quite well on the yellow lights. While idling at an intersection waiting for the green light, my instructor told me it was a Nebraska custom to say out loud “I’m a Husker” three times before heading into the intersection, which would allow the last vehicle coming through the yellow to pass.
As I sat nervously behind the wheel, the green light flashed on, and I yelled, “I’m an Aggie, I’m an Aggie, I’m an Aggie” before stomping on the gas pedal. My instructor was not impressed. I go back tomorrow for a retest.
Alan B. Rowley
Omaha
DulyNoted
On the table of contents in the November/December 2022 issue, some of the map page numbers were incorrect. We resolve to be reliable navigators going forward. In addition, powerful poet Robert Ritter was incorrectly named in the January-February 2023 issue. We regret both errors.
Eagle-eyed
You ran an article about “outdoor eagle watching” in the January/February 2023 issue. Unfortunately you were wrong, there are no golden eagles at Lake McConaughy. Golden eagles do not like fish, they do not like water, and they are found in the higher plains in rocky areas. They eat anything they can catch – mice, rabbits, snakes, voles, etc. What you actually see are immature bald eagles. They do not get the fully white heads and tails until they reach maturity at five years old. If you visit the eagle viewing building at Lake Ogallala in these months, you could discover a great deal about bald eagles. Most of them are not year round residents of Nebraska. There are actually over 160 pairs of bald eagles living permanently on most streams, creeks and rivers in Nebraska, but none are nesting at Lake Ogallala.
There were never eagles at Lake Ogallala or McConaughy until the hydro power was put into Kinsley Dam in 1980s. Before that it was always frozen in the winter.
Dixie
Master
DeTuerk
Naturalist, Eagle Viewing Center at Lake Ogallala
SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Please send us your letters and emails by April 20 for possible publication. One lucky winner selected at random will receive a free 1-year subscription renewal. This issue’s winner is Loren Avey of Grand Island. Email editor@ nebraskalife.com or write by mail to the address at the front of this magazine. Thanks for reading and subscribing!
Noteworthy news, entertaining nonsense
Big(foot) believers gather in Hastings to celebrate the big guy
BY LISA TRUESDALE
When an American flag was found all torn up at Garrison Cemetery in Butler County in May 2020, officials assumed the weather was the culprit. Or perhaps a destructive human.
Not so fast, claimed Harriet McFeely. She heard the flag wasn’t just shredded but the shreds were actually braided, then knotted, then braided again. She made the trip from Hastings to Garrison to inspect it for herself.
That was all the proof she needed: Bigfoot did it.
Apparently, both wild and domestic horses around the world sometimes show up with unexplained braids in their manes, and those incidents are attributed to Bigfoot – or Sasquatch, or the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti, depending where you live in the world.
“Every place in Nebraska where horse manes were found braided, we’ve also found Bigfoot footprints, or people have taken photos of sightings,” McFeely ex-
plained. She hung a state map inside the doorway at the Nebraska Bigfoot Museum in Hastings, which she opened almost five years ago. “The blue push pins show were horse manes were found braided and the red pins are Bigfoot sightings in Nebraska. See how they’re always close together?”
Labeling the Garrison incident “one of the biggest mysteries in Nebraska,” McFeely even wrote a whole book about it, called A Walk on the ‘Weird’ Side in Nebraska. Known as “The Bigfoot Lady,”
The Bigfoot Crossroads of American Museum in Hastings continues to inspire both its founder, Harriet McFeely, and the public. Inspired by a torn and braided American Flag, McFeely’s wonder and collection has grown to include hundreds of artifacts, like footprint casts and photos.
Bigfoot Crossroads of America Museum and Research Center
FLAT WATER
she also hosts an annual two-day Bigfoot Conference, April 21-22 this year. The event, now in its sixth year, draws hundreds of attendees from around the world, including well known Bigfoot researchers like William Lunsford, who has cataloged more than 40 personal sightings of the big guy. The conference isn’t only for fans, though, said McFeely. “We also invite skeptics to come and see all the proof.”
Meanwhile, McFeely’s museum’s got hundreds of artifacts and literature she’s been collecting for about 70 years, since she was just 8. She also displays related items bequeathed to her – including the torn and braided flag, which McFeely convinced the folks in Garrison to donate to the cause.
“I couldn’t sleep for months after I first saw that flag,” she said. “It was Bigfoot, I know it. I believe it beyond a shadow of a doubt, and I’ll never question it.”
The Bigfoot Crossroads of America Museum and Research Center is at 1205 E. 42nd St. in Hastings. It’s open to the public Thursday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Sunday, 1-4:30 p.m.
Casts of Bigfoot’s tracks come in all shapes, but only three sizes: big, bigger, biggest. See how your shoe size measures up at the Nebraska Bigfoot Museum in Hastings.
Children’s book shares epic rhino discovery
BY MEGAN FEENEY
When Lincoln-based children’s science writer Alison Pearce Stevens first walked down the hill at Ashfall Fossil Beds, she traveled back in time. Or at least that’s what the signs on the way to the rhino barn said. The site near Royal in Northeast Nebraska notes how ancient the area is – how the ground beneath under our feet is as much a part of history as anything.
For Pearce Stevens, it felt profound to traverse where
ancient rhinos had once roamed. And what made the place even more special was that there was so much life at the site among the fossilized remains in the rhino barn. New paleontological interns arrived each summer and working researchers answered the public’s questions. This treasure would fascinate all children – not just those from Nebraska.
The idea instigated Pearce Stevens to write a book about Ashfall Fossil Beds for children. Rhinos in Nebraska: The Discovery of the Ashfall Fossil
Beds explains how the site was discovered and explores how paleontologists unearthed more than 200 perfectly preserved fossils, painting a rich picture of Nebraska in that prehistoric time.
The winner of three 2022 Nebraska Book Awards, the book shows what can happen when you grab a good idea by the horn.
Rhinos in Nebraska
The Discovery of the Ashfalls Fossil Beds by Alison Pearce Stevens Macmillan Publishers 144 pp, hardcover, $20
Bigfoot Crossroads of America Museum and Research Center
Small-town theater, big screen benefit
THROUGH MAY 14
BY CHEYENNE ROWE
Marquee lights flickered to life on a busy highway corner.
Past the doors the smell of fresh popcorn enveloped a warmly lit lobby. Thirty minutes from showtime and the only soundtrack is the animated chatter of volunteers ready to serve.
It’s a sight not uncommon for a weekend in Central City. The State Theater has been serving her people for more than 100 years and her sentiment remains the same. Those who donate time to the volunteer-run operation are what give it life.
“My heart and soul is in this place,” volunteer Bradon Hain said, just before the Saturday showing of 80 for Brady.
Hain, like many others, has been volunteering at the theater so long that “he’s definitely lost count” of the years.
Originally dubbed the Martha Ellen Auditorium at its birth in November 1916, the State Theater changed hands
The State Theater brings in quite a crowd for its single showings over the weekend. Volunteers like Amber Hain help keep the business booming year after year.
Cheyenne Rowe
and forms (from live-action theater and opera to movies) before entering the possession of the Blodgett family in 1966.
“When I was 8 years old Dad would bring us up here and we would watch the show and clean up after,” said Jonathan Blodgett, volunteer and president of the theater’s foundation board. “I started running movies here when I turned 14.”
His dad sweetened the deal with free concessions for their troubles, he added. A kid’s dream.
Blodgett’s role grew, eventually staying on to help after graduation, keeping a fulltime job alongside his work there. Later the theater even saw a wedding between Blodgett and his wife, where popcorn was thrown instead of rice.
As the new age in movies approached in 2012, the State Theater shut its doors. The cost to convert to digital was too much. However, thanks to the volunteer spirit and a smidgen of small-town perseverance, that didn’t last long.
State Theater Foundation was created in 2015, alongside a plan to reopen. The deed was officially donated by the Blodgett’s in August of that year, and the
The 260-acre Arbor Day Farm is packed with fun and adventure for the entire family. Join us for one-of-a-kind activities that take you high into the trees, along wooded trails, into a historic mansion, and under the soaring timbers of Lied Lodge.
Your vacation awaits; start planning at arbordayfarm.org.
rest is history. The State Theater won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Movie ticket, $5. The experience? Priceless. Nebraska City | 800-546-5433 arbordayfarm.org
A glowing marquee is the hallmark of this Central City theater. Originally built in 1916, the building has seen life as a live-action theater as well.
The
Cheyenne Rowe
Little Lincoln shop creates cycle of success
BY LAURYN HIGGINS
Nestled on the southside of the Capital City, it’s a Monday morning, and the modest umber-toned garage home to the Lincoln Bike Kitchen has just opened its doors.
The bones of the place are industrial. Work benches are tidy and coordinated, each lined with wrenches, pliers and tubes. Bikes for all ages cover the walls. The floor carries mobile racks, each holding up to 15 bikes. A loaded trailer sits outside, filled to the brim with two-wheel transportation.
“Right now, we’re as low as we’ve been in several years with about 150 in there,” said Bob Von Kaenel, president of Lincoln Bike Kitchen. “I’ve seen when there were over 500 bikes in that little shop.”
That little shop is doing big things. The Lincoln Bike Kitchen provides refurbished
bikes and parts to anyone in need. They also offer free access to their bevy of professional tools and a team of dedicated volunteers, happy to help anyone whose bike might need a tune-up or a part.
The bike kitchen fills requests yearround from local schools. Physical education teachers reach out when they have a student in need. The Bike Kitchen also has provided rides to students needing to get to class, to employees who need to get to jobs, and to those trasitioning out of homeless shelters.
Located at 1635 S 1st St., the Lincoln Bike Kitchen has been serving the greater Lincoln area for more than 10 years and is funded solely through community donations.
When Nebraska know-how meets Nebraska kindness it creates a cycle of success.
Geared to give back, Dave and Diane Carpenter retrieve bikes from the Bike Kitchen for an Afghan refugee family.
Farming family’s a-maize-ing legacy really pops
BY MEGAN FEENEY
Since 1911, the Keiser family has farmed in Ashland – mostly soybeans and corn. But fifth-generation farmer Amy Whitehead wanted to try something different that still honored her family’s roots. So, beginning in 2017, she planted an acre of the family land, rich with peat soil and good irrigation, with yellow butterfly popcorn. She picked and shelled each ear by hand, wanting to keep things “old school.” Farmers in combines would roll by and wave hello and sometimes stop to chat.
“The farmers think it’s cool what I’m trying to do,” Whitehead, who sells her popcorn at farmers markets and online, said. “But it makes it humbling when
they’re all done with harvest, and I’m still out there for days.”
Eventually, she and her husband found a 1943 sheller in Wisconsin and brought it back. Now it’s faster, but still “not super fast” to take the kernels off. Whitehead believes drying the corn on the ear makes for a tastier popcorn. She also acquired a McCormick wagon at an auction to store her corn.
“I’m happy to use what I have lying around, even if it makes things harder,” Whitehead said. “And I’m blessed to work the same land my great-great grandpa did.”
Find popcorn for sale at keiserfarms.com, or at local retail locations throughout Nebraska.
Amy Whitehead (right) and friend Deanna Summers display Keiser Farms popcorn at the Cattlemen’s Ball in Weeping Water.
Keiser Farms
Life’s too short, enjoy pizza!
Satisfy your taste buds in Burwell with hot, fresh pizza! Dine in for lunch buffets, carry out or take home from our grab-and-go freezer.
WEIRD WEATHER
Test your knowledge of weather events and anomalies. Questions by YOGESH RAUT
GENERAL
1
Mira Valley schoolteacher Minnie Freeman is said to have saved the lives of 13 children on Jan. 12, 1888, during a sudden weather event of what type?
2
The Great Flood of 1881 caused considerable property damage in Omaha but claimed only two lives. Both victims were employees of what railroad company that helped build the first transcontinental railroad?
3 What two-word term is commonly applied to Winter Storm Ulmer, which triggered widespread flooding and caused billions of dollars of damage to Nebraska in March 2019?
No peeking, answers on page 75.
4 In March 2019, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson personally recognized six personnel at what air force base for saving millions of dollars’ worth of military equipment from Nebraska floodwaters?
5 In December 2021, Nebraska saw a rare cold-weather example of what dangerous weather event in which multiple storms form along a line? Its name is a Spanish word meaning “straight.”
Dorothea Lange/Library of Congress
Papio Missouri River NRD
6 Nebraska’s 2022 drought was caused in part by a weather pattern called La Niña, which literally means “the fire” in Spanish.
7 Florence Owens Thompson, the woman depicted in Dorothea Lange’s famous ”Migrant Mother” photograph, was forced to migrate from Nebraska to California due to the 1930s “Dust Bowl” conditions.
8 Nebraska was affected by three separate billion-dollar weather disasters in 2021.
9 The flood that devastated Omaha in 1964 was caused by a “100-year storm,” which means that there is a near-zero probability of another such event happening until at least 2064.
10 Scientists believe that the Great Flood of 1993, in which the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flooded many midwestern states, was caused in part by the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
11 A tornado that claimed nearly 100 lives struck Omaha on March 23, 1913, on which holiday?
a. Easter Sunday
b. St. Patrick’s Day
c. Mother’s Day
12
February 2021’s Winter Storm Uri created record low temperatures throughout the nation. What temperature was reached for the first time in Hastings?
a. 20 degrees below zero
b. 30 degrees below zero
c. 40 degrees below zero
13
Medicine Creek Dam was constructed in the late ‘40s because of major floods in 1935 and 1947 on which river?
a. Republican River
b. Loup River
c. Elkhorn River
14
Nebraska is considered part of “Tornado Alley,” the region of the United States most likely to be hit by tornadoes. Which state neighboring Nebraska is NOT also part of Tornado Alley?
a. Wyoming
b. Kansas
c. Iowa
15 What year saw one of the coldest winters on record followed by the hottest American summer of the 20th century? The heat was felt particularly strongly in Lincoln, where on the night of July 24-25 the nighttime temperature never fell below 91 degrees.
a. 1976
b. 1956
c. 1936
Burwell your outdoor destination this year in the heart of Nebraska’s Sandhills. Relax at Calamus Lake and take in the beauty of the Loup Rivers Scenic Byway. Great restaurants and warm hospitality await you in Burwell.
Come for a visit - the gallery is brimming with
Artissimos Art Club pre-ANAC show on display March 18-31!
Rachelle Blake/US Air Force
John Sirlin/Alamy
Springtime brings out the best sights and sounds in Nebraska. This striking oriole near Grand Island is a lively visitor.
Rick Rasmussen
Blooms Birdsand
Photographers search from soil to sky for spring in Nebraska
by CHEYENNE ROWE
RADIANT WARMTH stretches across the Nebraska horizon, from soil to sunrise, spreading its wings still stiff from winter slumber.
The Cornhusker State is waking up for the spring –filled to the brim with new life, new growth and welcome change. Even for the baby chipping sparrow, who hasn’t quite styled its wild plumage, and fresh-faced tulips still too shy to open up in Norfolk – spring is a pleasant turn of events.
Now that Jack Frost has closed the door on the cold months, our Nebraska landscape awakens with flora and fauna “springing” from the ground. Nebraskans alike jump at the chance to enjoy the outdoors. The fitness savvy take to trails for their cardio, those with green thumbs start planning their gardens, and photographers point their lenses toward the emerging colors coming from above and below, capturing beautiful blossoms and birds.
Bursting bright and skyward are buds in the most unassuming of places, like Fort Atkinson State Historical Park, tipped in stunning gold. The buttery coloring of these petals look much like the feathers of the male Baltimore oriole, an abundant little songbird who frequents blooming branches in backyards and delights the airways in almost all places across the state.
Another one of the most famous avian visitors in the area? Sandhill cranes.
A keystone stop for this migratory mass brings visitors (and birds) flocking to the Iain Nicolson Audobon Center at Rowe Sanctuary. With cornfields nearby and wide sandbars to enjoy safety, springtime in this space outside Kearney is a sight to behold.
Life is abundant and colorful across the state. Many gardens are set aflame with stunning fire-like tulips, dipped in gold and red hues. There’s also the occasional tree-top nest, filled with chirping baby birds that call for their mother to feed them.
Jessica Rocha
Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston
Content and perfectly perched atop a post in Madison County, a small bluebird reflects a shade of spring sky.
Roy Swoboda
BIRDS AND BLOOMS
Perhaps still groggy from winter’s reach, a fledgling chipping sparrow has a headful of untamed feathers in Meadow Grove. Nebraska’s state parks are bursting with birds and blooms, like these ruby-red tulips at Fort Atkinson State Park in Washington County.
AJ Dahm
Roy Swoboda
An alert and attentive mother house wren stands guard between the outside world and her freshly-hatched young.
Heather Ingraham
BIRDS AND BLOOMS
With bright and buttery yellow feathers, the American goldfinch is a common backyard flower garden visitor in Nebraska.
Rick Rasmussen
Conservation program associates like Amanda Hegg cherish the transition of seasons early on.
“I always look forward to the sight of ice breaking up on the river as fresh water from mountain snow melt arrives,” Hegg said.
Shorebirds scuttle on sandbars, and migrant songbirds return to the breeding grounds with colorful breeding plumage.
“If one looks closely, you could spot spring wildflowers on the prairies and in our native plant rain garden,” she added. “Flowering native shrubs on the sanctuary, such as dogwood and wild plum, make the sanctuary smell so sweet.”
The air and ground are fresh with the likes of ground plums, ragwort, violets, puccoon, spiderwort, wild columbine, shell-leaf penstemon and blue-eyed grass – just to name a few. And this decorated vegetation serves a dual purpose. It’s equally as irresistible to birds and pollinators as it is people.
Whether it’s apple tree blossoms in a soft pink at Kimmel Orchard, bright and bold American goldfinches in a windowsill out west, or the inquisitive eye of a house wren in a tree at Lewis and Clark Lake, there is life and color waiting for all around the corner thanks to Nebraska springtime birds and blooms.
Springtime sights, from soil to sunrise, like this lone cerulean warbler in Omaha fanning its wings and the perfect pinks of a branch of blossoms at Schramm State Park Recreation Area near Gretna reflect the rainbow in the Cornhusker State.
Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston
Phil Swanson
Harold Warp PIONEER VILLAGE
Inventor’s Minden museum tells story of American ingenuity through 50,000 artifacts
story by TOM HESS
photographs by ALAN J. BARTELS
AGRANDDAUGHTER STANDS WITH her mother and grandmother at a respectful distance from the low white picket fence that guards the working replica of a 19th century broom squire’s shop. The women listen politely as the broom squire, Pat Haight, describes for them how he assembles brooms of all sizes and uses.
Haight is one of several living history exhibitors at the Harold Warp Pioneer Village in Minden, the seat of Kearney County. The Village’s 26 structures form a sprawling museum filled with tens of thousands of artifacts that evoke daily life over the past two centuries.
In the shop, each broom begins in the grip of an 1890s broom vise and ends in an 1860s broom cutter, neatly slicing the ragged edge of the broom’s dried and bound-up sorghum. Haight invites the shy granddaughter forward to help with a crucial step in the middle of manufacturing: pushing a thick, heavy needle and red thread through the tightly bunched broom straw.
Among Haight’s creations is one inspired by the baseball umpire broom he remembers seeing on television. One of his Minden school teachers, a hard-core baseball fan, tuned a classroom TV to an afternoon World Series game. Haight watched as the umpire swept home plate with a hand broom. The memory of that sweep later inspired Haight to add umpire brooms to his all-star lineup. They sell out quicker than a Bob Gibson four-seam fastball and add up to a career broom total of more than 6,000.
THE HAROLD WARP Pioneer Village is a one-of-a-kind museum that some Nebraskans liken with complete conviction to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. There are similarities. Each had its start with a patriotic man expressing his gratitude for America. Each has drawn millions of visitors. But there is one key difference. Pioneer Village is one man’s story of American ingenuity from 1830 to the present – a story told in note after note that Warp painstakingly wrote and rewrote for each of his 50,000 collectibles, enough words to fill the 500-page book he published.
Harold Warp grew up an impoverished child in a sod house near Minden. As a student, in a moment of mischief for an otherwise dutiful pupil who earned perfect attendance awards, Warp carved his
name on his wooden school desk. That desk is in the Country School that Warp relocated to the Village.
Warp was a pioneer of the plastics industry – he was the first manufacturer of polyethylene food wrap. His Chicago company Warp Brothers grew rapidly, manufacturing consumer products such as shelf lining and self-storage bags. He spent some of his plastics treasure creating the Village, his tribute to America, the Midwest and Minden. As a child of Norwegian emigrants, he loved his country for what it made possible in his life and so many others. He chose Minden for his Village in memory of his upbringing and in proximity to his 11 siblings and extended family. The Village opened in 1953. Warp died in 1994.
The Pioneer Village anchors the intersection of U.S. 34/U.S. 6 and Nebras-
of
ka Highway 10 in Kearney County. Runza operates a restaurant within walking distance. It comes in handy – because the Village’s story is so enthralling, like a summer novel you can’t put down, visitors find it hard to walk away mid-story, but eventually hunger makes its demands, and the Village isn’t serving a hot lunch.
Towering above Pioneer Village is the Farmers Cooperative Grain and Supply Co. elevator, built in 1903 – an emblem of Kearney County’s agricultural roots. Warp’s career in plastics began with agriculture, specifically an idea for improving the health of farm chickens: a sheet of durable plastic that would shield chickens from wind and cold, but allow sunlight in, at less cost than glass windows.
progress
Harold Warp Pioneer Village in Minden features around 50,000 artifacts that tell the tale
American
and ingenuity, beginning at 1830. Everything from farm equipment and a broom collection, to classic cars and a schoolhouse lie beyond the gates.
Pioneer Village displays several farm implements, including an enormous steam-powered thresher. Much of the rest of the collection, about 99 percent of it, comes from auctions across North America. One of the few items that is sourced locally is easily overlooked: a humble but useful tool for its era – a folding end gate for unloading grain gradually from a horse-drawn cart, invented and patented by the late Minden farmer Oscar Wright. Warp didn’t overlook even the smallest detail in telling the story of Minden and Kearney County.
THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRATES
its displays in a fashion no other museum attempts – chronological, like the timeline of an old-fashioned novel. Thematic displays show the evolution of every facet of Midwestern life, from kitchens to fine art. The pen collection, with more pens than your drawer of spares at home could ever hold, stores enough ink to write a million letters home. There is much more, in more categories – more than can be viewed and appreciated in an afternoon, or a month of afternoons.
The Village employs living history exhibitors to create items that recall prairie life.
Sue White operates the Village’s vintage loom. She’s making a rug for the gift shop, using techniques taught to her by Warp’s grandnephew Marshall Nelson. His mother, Lois, one of Warp’s nieces, worked at the Village for 42 years, creating items that guests could take home.
Volunteers like Pat Haight, who operates the broom squire’s shop, Sue White, who creates on the Village’s vintage loom, and Monica Miller (a 43-year veteran of the village) keep the location bustling.
HAROLD WARP
like
“People are coming back even now, saying, ‘When I was here, I was just a little girl, the spinning lady gave me something, and I still have it today,’ ” Nelson said.
For Warp family members and Minden residents, the Pioneer Village provided many of them their first job, and for a few like Haight the broom squire, employment in their later years. The Village makes them proud of their small town, population 2,977. They recall vividly their encounters with the whirlwind Warp.
Minden resident Marcy Brandt remembers Warp as a “Paul Bunyan” figure, “larger than life.” She worked summers mowing the Village’s lawns, painting signs and doing housekeeping in the Pioneer Village Motel. As an adult, she moved away, but returned in 2008.
“It was a no-brainer to move back,” Brandt said. “The little town of my childhood memory has never broken 3,000 residents, but its claim to fame is the No. 1 tourist attraction in the state of Nebraska. That’s pretty dang impressive.”
Brandt runs the Minden Opera House and is a member of the committee that
Some of the Village’s 26 buildings served Nebraska’s early pioneeers and town-builders. Sadie (left) and Chris Carpenter of Hastings took time to visit the Bloomington Land Office, enjoying a sibling-rivalry game of checkers, while their mom, DeAnn, refereed.
Buildings
this 1884 church (the first in Minden), authentic rural school building (including Harold’s own perfect attendance certificates) and sod house (complete with furnishings) offer guests a chance to explore history in full-scale.
will help Pioneer Village find ways to attract a new generation of visitors.
Nebraskans who’ve made the Village a day or weekend trip fondly remember the Village’s steam-powered carousel, now under repair, and summertime celebrations, since canceled but scheduled to return.
Sarah Adam, 20, first rode the merrygo-around as a 5-year-old. She and her father, Bill, visit the Village every year, with Sarah hoping for new Village giveaways for her collection back home. There is nothing to collect today, and the carousel is still down. That saddens Adam, but she is eager to see the Village’s charm restored in time for future visits.
Warp Village’s ongoing investment in automobiles draws repeat visits. The Minden museum’s creator loved progress, but he loved the power and prestige that propelled four wheels even more. The Village displays at least 350 cars parked in multiple buildings, with new collectibles ar-
Harold loved cars, like the one in this historical snapshot. Various buildings host his collection of more than 350 cars that help tell the story of American progress.
riving all the time. Cars and horse-drawn carriages occupy the Village’s prime real estate – the showroom immediately adjacent to the guest entrance and exit.
Close by the entrance is Warp’s favorite ride: a dark blue 1937 Cord Winchester 812 that could achieve a top speed of 92 mph. Warp liked its style, and so did Hollywood; one like it starred in the movie The Shadow. Warp was so fond of the Cord, he had his initials HW painted on the driver door.
Monica Miller sells Village admission and answers guests’ questions, a job she’s held since Warp hired her in 1979. Between guest arrivals and phone calls, Miller recalls that Warp had “enormous energy,” and “drove cars like a demon.” She once asked him why he didn’t sail. “Too slow,” Warp said.
Warp drove the Cord too fast for Miller. She preferred to stay put at the front desk. Not many in Minden lived life at Warp’s speed.
Cairo resident Brionna Lowe spent the day alongside family enjoying Village artifacts like the B&M Railroad Depot and locomotives.
handmade by Joe Paul
Cassis Rufa Shell Jewelry Collection
Morrill Village has everything a family vacation needs. Just 20 minutes from the bustle of Scottsbluff, you can hit the range at the public 9-hole golf course, go for a dip at the community swimming pool, stroll through the city park or pick-up a tennis match at the courts. And don’t forget to pack your tackle box and poles for some fishing at the sand pit ponds!
keen quinoa on
Dishes get new taste and texture with protein-packed quinoa
recipes
and photographs by
DANELLE McCOLLUM
THERE IS NO GOOD REASON why a food spelled “quinoa” should be pronounced “keenWAH.” That said, there’s also no good reason why quinoa shouldn’t be a regular part of your cooking. While it seems like a grain, quinoa is actually the seed of the quinoa plant, a flowering plant in the amaranth family native to the Andes of South America. Quinoa has a slightly nutty taste similar to brown rice, but it has far more protein than rice. That, combined with its satisfying texture, lends a certain heartiness to these delicious quinoa dishes.
Apricot Almond and Quinoa Salad
This salad features quinoa with apricot pieces and slices of toasted almonds. It makes a great lunch for taking to the office. The almonds can be kept separate and added just before serving to keep them crunchy. Add shredded chicken for an even heartier version.
Bring water to boil and add quinoa. Cook 15-20 minutes over medium-low heat until water is evaporated and quinoa is tender. Allow quinoa to cool, then combine with apricots, almonds and chives. Combine olive oil, vinegar, mustard and sugar in small bowl. Stir dressing mixture into quinoa mixture. Chill at least 30 minutes before serving.
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, finely chopped
1 ½ Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp sugar
Moroccan Quinoa Salad
This hearty salad is loaded with vegetables, protein and sweet dried fruit. It is a great side or light lunch any day of the week.
Heat olive oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add quinoa and toast until golden, 3-5 minutes. Add 1 ½ cups water to quinoa and bring to boil. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 10-15 minutes until quinoa is just tender and has absorbed the water. Rinse with cool water and drain. Cool completely.
Add carrots, green onions, chickpeas, kale, broccoli and parsley, and toss to combine. In small bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients. Pour over quinoa and mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Stir in cranberries, raisins and pumpkin seeds just before serving.
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup shredded carrots, chopped
2-3 green onions, chopped
1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 ½ cups finely chopped kale
3/4 cup finely chopped broccoli
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
Won’t you dish with us?
We’re ravenous to taste your favorite family recipes. Nebraska-sourced ingredients and stories that accompany beloved dishes feed our stomachs and our souls. Please submit by emailing kitchens@nebraskalife.com.
Sweet Potato Quinoa and Chicken Chili
This slow-cooker chili is loaded with nutritious ingredients like sweet potatoes, quinoa and black beans, and seasoned with Southwestern spices for a unique and delicious meal.
Add everything but salt and pepper to lightly greased slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Just before serving, season with salt and pepper, to taste.
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken Salt and pepper, to taste
CEDAR CREEK POTTERY
GOOD LIFE Poetry
Nebraskans’ beloved pets help make the Good Life all the better. In these poems, our Nebraska poets celebrate the animal companions – those who are still with us, and those who have passed on – who enrich our lives and fill our hearts with love.
Scarlett
Stephanie Marcellus, Wayne
My yellow cat basks
In the egg-yolk sunrise of August
She lies in the living room windowsill Her eyes barely open but boldly glimmering embers Like the shades of late-night bonfires and the flicker of summer’s last fireflies starring the lawn like earthbound constellations
Yet there is a softness in her sleepy stare like the buttery pages of well-read books and your grandmother’s embroidered pillowcases yellowing in the cedar chest
She stretches and somewhere just out the window pollen dusts off the ragweed a field of corn tassels golden while kernels dent and back-to-school sunflowers line a country ditch
Her eyelids and muscles give way to slumber just as the summer leaves effortlessly turn to fall.
Patches
Steven M. Lukas, Minneapolis
We found you on the ranch out west where you ran free in the Sandhills until accepting the bit that brought you to our small farm in Saunders County.
Now you stand waiting for three young siblings to mount barebacked armed with willow branch and weather hardened leather halter for the mile trot to School District #32.
New classmates from the east side of our section ride by high on flashy mounts with well-oiled bridles, never letting us forget there are differences.
You’ll graze on sweet clover while we sit in rows under watchful eyes of Lincoln and Washington awash in smells of oiled wooden floors and remnants of morning chores with ten neighbors.
I’m not sure of your breed, bigger than a Shetland, but smaller than the well-groomed quarter horses tethered next to you.
But you somehow find the courage to race on the way home, head down, gravel flying, your precious load hanging on by sweaty thighs and a fistful of mane.
Jake
Linda Saunders, Central City
Jake, our small dog Almost 100 dog years old Can’t take the heat, Even less so the cold.
His favorite words are Walk, Go and Ride. He loves to sit here Right by my side.
It’s getting harder for him To hear, see and chew. I understand I’m getting old, too.
Alan J. Bartels
Chico
Myron Hitz, Plainview
My dog Chico was my faithful companion and pet. He has been gone now for 50 years, and from time to time I still think of him yet!
He wasn’t my first dog, and he wasn’t my last. My memory of him being my favorite remains vivid, no matter how much time has past.
Chico was a handsome shepherd and boxer cross puppy on the day he was born.
On the day that he died, I his caretaker was so forlorn.
For almost 13 years he always had my back. His enthusiasm for living he did not lack!
I would always scratch his ears, and he would never fail to wag his tail.
Yet death here on earth for man or beast we can’t escape, for it will always prevail.
Still our Creator is all powerful, and if it be His will, Chico will be waiting for me in a section of Heaven, called “The Good Life Still!”
Tippy the Farm Dog
Joycee Weeks, Waverly
He was a little dog with a big heart
Full of mischief and from the start
His home was on a hill out west Where corn was grown at its best.
The farmer and this little dog
Had a special bond solid as a log
They’d feed the cows and work till dark And end each day with a yawn and a bark.
Tippy always came around
When he smelled good scraps on the ground
The farmer’s wife made sure he was fed
And that he had a soft warm bed.
No better life could Tippy have had
But to this story is an ending so sad
One day Tippy grew old and laid down and died
And the farmer and his wife cried and cried.
The farm is a special place for any animal
Especially for a dog big or small
There’s a saying that no matter the date Your dog will be waiting for you at heaven’s gate.
Our Faithful Forever Friends
Jana
(Farnstrom) Cockerham, Lincoln
Three female cocker spaniels gave us 42 years of love, Are now sweet angels in heaven above. Running after thrown balls, frisbees and sticks, They learned all different kinds of tricks.
How they love eating peanut butter, Nebraska corn on the cob and popcorn, With such energy jumping in leaves in the summertime warm.
My mother’s dog saved her from a rattlesnake bite, On the front porch in the Sandhills was a grateful sight.
My father’s farm dogs gathering cows, Running through fields and watching the plows.
My brother’s hunting dogs scaring up pheasants to pick, And sister’s joy of many pets who love to lick. Pets who visit nursing homes and hospitals, Guide dogs for the deaf and blind help with special calls.
Oh the stories everyone can tell of their pets with fur, And comfort of listening to a beautiful purr.
Yes, such unconditional love they share, Our fluffy companions with many colors of hair.
NEBRASKA LIFE IS seeking poems on the theme “Country Roads” for our July/August 2023 issue, deadline May 15, and “Pumpkins, Gourds and Ghouls” for our September/October 2023 issue, deadline June 15. We prefer poems that mention Nebraska. Send to poetry@nebraskalife.com or to the mailing address at the front of this magazine.
Good pups, like Khloe here, make many Nebraskans feel whole. Whether furry, feather, scaled or more, beloved pets add the perfect spice to life.
Erik Johnson
Nebraska Wine Country
Judi gaiashkibos has made it her mission to advocate for Native Americans to be recognized and remembered in Nebraska.
Right, the Santee Powwow at Nebraska Indian Community College.
Corey Rourke
NativePreservingCulture
Granddaughter of a Ponca chief, Judi gaiashkibos strives to ensure Nebraska’s Indigenous people remain relevant in modern society.
by TIM TRUDELL
Rick Neibel/Nebraska Tourism
STANDING INSIDE the kitchen
of her Lincoln home, making a cup of hot tea one quiet night, Judi gaiashkibos looks out the window into the darkness, realizing how far she has come from her childhood in Norfolk, a descendant of Ponca tribal leaders. Her grandfather Otto Boldwein Knudsen was the last chief of the Northern Ponca, who originally lived in northeast Nebraska, along the Missouri River, where Niobrara now stands.
Life wasn’t easy for the Knudsen clan. The family lived in a small, three-room house. A backyard outhouse presented challenges throughout the year. During summer months, they never knew if a wild animal took refuge in it. They also had to deal with weather conditions and freezing temperatures that arrive each Nebraska winter.
“When I was young, growing up in a family of 10 kids, we were so poor,” said gaiashkibos, who is Ponca and Santee Dakota. “I slept on a roll-away with my grandmother.”
gaiashkibos, pronounced gosh-keybosh, doesn’t capitalize her last name, “a sign of humility for the two-legged, who are not superior to the winged and fourlegged.”
gaiashkibos has taken her past and turned it into a positive in working to address issues confronting Nebraska’s four tribes, as well as the historical nations that called the state home, in almost 30 years as the executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. The commission seeks to eliminate barriers preventing equitable treatment of Native Americans across the
state when it comes to housing, employment, education, economic development and human/civil rights.
“Part of my job is to make us visible,” said gaiashkibos.
Besides dealing with the prejudice and racist nicknames Native Americans have long endured, gaiashkibos grew up in a tribe that didn’t officially exist. As part of a federal effort to force Indigenous assimilation, Congress passed the Termination Act in 1945. Less than 25 years after approving legislation making Native Americans citizens of the United States, the federal government decided to cease recognizing certain tribes. The Ponca was among 109 tribes designated for termination. Ponca’s termination began in 1962, and by 1966, nearly 450 tribal members
gaiashkibos has a special connection to the Genoa Indian School – her mother was a student there. Her recent attention has been to right the wrongs of such boarding schools. About 4,300 Native American children and young adults lived at Genoa from 1884 to 1934.
Alan J. Bartels
History Nebraska
were wiped from the enrollment rolls.
“When you’re terminated, nobody knows anything at all about your tribe,” gaiashkibos said.
Despite growing up poor and in a tribe that no longer existed in the eyes of the public, gaiashkibos recalls traditional ways continuing with her family. Helping her grandfather dry corn each summer, her job was to shoo away the flies.
Katie Brossy, gaiashkibos’ eldest daughter, remembers well the day the Ponca became a tribe again. With Nebraska Sens. J. James Exon and Bob Kerrey leading the way, Congress voted to restore federal recognition. While Brossy, an attorney in Washington, D.C., who specializes in Native American law and issues, remembers the celebration, as her mother recalls the challenges the Ponca went through before President George H.W. Bush’s signature restored the tribe to federal status.
Achieving federal status was a long battle fought by Fred LeRoy, who served as the Ponca’s chairman after the tribe was reorganized. He had previously campaigned for state and federal support to unite the tribe and make it whole. The Vietnam veteran, a former Marine, took on the battle to put the tribe back together. LeRoy, so revered that the Ponca health clinic is named in his honor as well as the annual April powwow at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, died in 2012 at age 63.
While the federal legislation didn’t restore reservation land, the Ponca bought traditional land, stretching from its headquarters in Niobrara across eastern Nebraska as well as counties in South Dakota and Iowa, that is now in trust status.
Today, the Ponca own and operate a 70,000-square-foot casino in Carter Lake, Iowa. At 10,000 square feet when it opened in 2018, Prairie Flower Casino initially employed 100 people. With a 60,000-squarefoot expansion in 2022, the multi-million dollar casino added 200 new jobs. Over its first five years, the casino attracted more than 800,000 visitors. The revenue has been used to help fund tribal programs.
“Who would have ever thought the Ponca tribe would be where we are at today? We’ve come a long way,” gaiashkibos said. “Prairie Flower is doing way better than we could have imagined.”
Judi gaiashkibos stands with Danish journalist Amalie Schroll Munk at what remains of the Genoa Indian School entrance. Youth and adults alike tour the school’s museum every year.
Genoa U.S. Indian School Foundation
Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs
National Archives
YOUR PATH TO PO SSI BL
E
96% of 2021 grads found work or continued their education.
87% of 2021 employed grads are working in Nebraska.
86% of 2021 grads continuing their education are doing so in Nebraska.
WHILE GAIASHKIBOS embraces the recent success of the Ponca, her attention quickly changes to an ongoing effort to right the wrongs of government boarding schools.
A Queensland blue heeler and German Shepherd roam a grassy patch of land near the former Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School, searching for signs of a long ago cemetery, used to bury the remains of almost 100 Native American children who died while attending the boarding school.
As the search, which later involved ground-penetrating radar, indicated the possibility of bodies in the area, gaiashkibos personally felt a tug at her heart. Not only does she mourn the loss of ancestors, but she also recalls the story of her own mother being a student at the school, about 30 minutes west of Columbus.
“People have no idea about Indian boarding schools,” gaiashkibos said. “And once they learn about boarding schools, they’re either going to help us heal, or
COFFEE ROASTER
they’re going to be complicit in trying to bury that history. Those children need to have their names called out.”
Long before termination and the eventual restoration of the Ponca, the tribe’s children were among those from 40 other tribes across the western United States to be forcibly removed from their homes and sent to the Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School. For 50 years, from 1884 to 1934, about 4,300 Native American children and young adults lived there, attending school, learning trades.
Forced to cut their hair, wear Euro-American clothing and punished for speaking their traditional language, boarding schools created trauma that has transcended generations, with some still feeling it today.
Eleanor Knudsen, gaiashkibos’ mother, was among the children sent to Genoa. She rarely spoke of her experiences at the school, and when she did, there was always a tinge of sadness. She believes her
Proud to stand for her heritage, gaiashkibos has supported many with similar causes, like Walter Echo-Hawk and his wife Pauline. Echo-Hawk is a tribal judge, author and more.
Beatrice
Milford
mother’s experiences at the Genoa school reinforced non-Indian perceptions of Native Americans.
“She always told us to have our hair done and to wear nice shoes,” gaiashkibos said. “She said white people would judge us by that.”
The generational view continued with gaiashkibos’ attitude toward her own daughters, Brossy said. Even though the family didn’t have a lot of money growing up, gaiashkibos always made sure everyone looked nice.
“As Native people, we already come with certain stereotypes built in,” Brossy said, “so we almost always have to go the extra mile to show that we’re not a stereotype.” gaiashkibos co-chairs the council overseeing Genoa’s Digital Reconciliation Project, which provides a space to tell the stories of the children who attended the school, their communities, as well as their descendants. The ongoing project is a corroboration of the Genoa school, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the state’s Indigenous nations.
Explore Lincoln’s Best Treasure of antiques and collectibles. You’ll at the Aardvark Antique Mall. Lincoln’s best kept secret! Located o Open daily, 9 am-8 pm aardvarkantiquemall.com 402-464-5100 5800 Arbor Rd • Lincoln
gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, testifies in Lincoln, circa 2016. The hearing addressed reducing alcohol-related problems in Whiteclay.
Nati Harnik/Associated Press
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center
Keen, portraying Chief Standing Bear, poses next to the
and Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks in 2017. gaiashkibos’ daughter, Katie
STANDING BEFORE A group of a few hundred people at Lincoln’s Lied Center, Brossy introduced actor Wes Studi as the first recipient of the Chief Standing Bear Prize for Courage, given by the Chief Standing Bear Project. The event capped Nebraska’s second observance of Indigenous Peoples Day in October.
Studi, an actor and activist, started his acting career in Nebraska, appearing in PBS’ The Trial of Standing Bear in 1988. Studi protested injustices against Native Americans during the 1970s as part of the American Indian Movement and has continued addressing issues.
Recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day was a joint effort led by gaiashkibos and Nebraska state Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks and Tom Brewer, an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. The initial Indigenous Peoples Day celebration took place along Lincoln’s Capitol Mall, near the statue of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, a legend among all Native American nations. A statue of Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte, an
Taylor
Chief Standing Bear bust at the Nebraska State Capitol with Judi gaiashkibos
Brossy, is also an advocate for native peoples, working in Washington, D.C.
Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs
Umo Hon (Omaha) citizen and the first Native American doctor, joined Standing Bear a year later.
Standing Bear won the first civil rights case in Native American history when he sued the government for denying him the right to return to the tribe’s homeland in Knox County to bury his son, who had re quested to be buried there following the tribe’s forced relocation to Oklahoma. The 1879 federal trial in Omaha resulted in Native Americans being considered peo ple under the U.S. Constitution.
The Lincoln sculpture is one of three life-sized statues of Chief Standing Bear; the other two are located in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and at the Ponca tribal headquarters near Niobrara.
Brossy’s firm has done pro bono work with the tribe. She and her mother both worked on the project to get the Chief Standing Bear statue in the U.S. Capitol, where it replaced a statue of William Jen nings Bryan. gaiashkibos worked with state legislators in the Nebraska Unicameral to help pass the bill to get the statue installed. Brossy then got all the federal approvals to pave the way for the unveiling.
“It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to work with my mom on a project that we both really loved and cared about,” Brossy said.
Besides leading Native American efforts statewide, gaiashkibos’ community work includes several community organizations, such as the Joslyn Art Museum, Rail to Trails Advisory Board, United Way, and CEDARS Home for Children. She has also served as a member of the Nebraska U.S. Civil Rights Advisory board and Omaha Mayor’s Native American Advisory Board.
As the first Native American named as Nebraskan of the Year by the Lincoln Rotary Club in 2022, gaiashkibos was recognized for her ability to culturally bridge government and private organizations. Other awards include the Sower Award and being named as one of the 30 most influential women in Lincoln.
While gaiashkibos has been visible in the community, her work continues to help Native Americans around the state, and the rest of the country, be visible.
Howells: Apr 15 – May 26
Kearney: Jun 5 – Jul 10
Belvidere: Jul 19 – Aug 20
Wahoo: Aug 29 – Oct 7
Gering: Oct 16 – Nov 20
Omaha: Dec 1 – Jan 27
NEBRASKA MUSEUMS
BAYARD
History Nebraska/ Chimney Rock Visitor Center p 53
DAVID CITY
Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art p 54
FREMONT
Dodge County Historical Society Museum/ Louis E. May Museum p 55
GRAND ISLAND
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer p 19, 56
KEARNEY Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) p 56
LA VISTA Czech and Slovak Educational Center and Cultural Museum p 55
LINCOLN International Quilt Museum p 56
History Nebraska p 53
MADISON
Madison County Historical Society Museum p 55
MINDEN
Harold Warp Pioneer Village p 35
NEBRASKA CITY Wildwood Historic Center & Period House p 57
NELIGH Pierson Wildlife Museum Learning Center p 56
OMAHA
The Durham Museum p 54
Omaha Children’s Museum p 57
SEWARD
Nebraska National Guard Museum p 55
ST. PAUL
Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball p 57
YORK COUNTY
Clayton Museum of Ancient History at York College p 57
Explore Fremont’s
Georgian Architecture
Admission: $5 for Adults, $1 for Students Free for ages 5 and under
Louis E. May Museum
Dodge County Historical Society
Visit
cultural
in LaVista! Explore our exhibits featuring the Immigration Room, Music Room, Sokol Room and Josef Lada calendars from the 1940s. Our gift store offers many beautiful Bohemian items from the Czech land.
Explore ancient Rome, the Near East and much more. Special Bible exhibit shares the story of scripture from scroll to modern translations. Children’s interactive Little Kingdom now opened!
View rare artifacts from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Roman Empire! Young and old can experience the museum’s Little Kingdom interactive area. Uncover objects in an archaeological dig, “live” in an ancient house and “shop” a Roman market. Admission is FREE with donations always accepted.
ADMISSION IS FREE
Open Tues-Fri, 9 am-5 pm Check Facebook page for updates!
TOUR THIS 10 historic home built in 1869 for the Ware family. Guided by docents in period dress, learn about the family and the era. Stroll through the Victorian Garden anytime, the perfect place for weddings or special events accommodating up to 100.
Open Daily: April 29-Oct. 31 Mon-Sat, 10-5 Sun, 1-5
ClaytonMuseumOfAncientHistory.org
402-363-5748 • 1125 E 8th St • York
Open Tues-Fri, 10 am-5 pm • Sat 1-4 pm claytonmuseumofancienthistory.org 402-363-5748 1125 E 8th St • York, NE
for in part by a grant from the York County Visitors Bureau
Paid for in part by a grant from the York County Visitors Bureau
Home
for
Run
Baseball Fans!
In downtown St. Paul, explore memorabilia of American Major League Baseball players from Nebraska. Also, we now have information on over 160 players. We are now open on Saturdays and Sundays by appointment only, otherwise, Open Mon–Fri, 10 am–4:30 pm
Located in the lower level of the Mackey Center on the York College campus
Lakeland Sod High School
In the 1930s, residents of a rural Sandhills community couldn’t afford to send their kids away to a town high school – so they used a little pioneer resourcefulness to create a school of their own.
by ALAN J. BARTELS
Editor’s Note – A longtime staff favorite, we decided to bring this story out of the archives for our newer readers. It originally appeared in the January/February 2007 issue of Nebraska Life.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I found myself on a remote stretch of road in the Sandhills. I had negotiated this sandy trail in Brown County only a few times before. The going was slow, as I paused to look at every box turtle, snake and shorebird I encountered.
Then I saw something that I hadn’t noticed before. “Was that a gravestone?” I asked myself as I stopped the car and backed up. Sure enough, along a fenceline stood a stone marker.
I climbed out of my vehicle and cleared away some of the grass. The stone was etched with an image of four buildings and the words:
LAKELAND SOD HIGH SCHOOL 1934-1941
COOPERATIVE EDUCATION
DURING DEPRESSION YEARS ONLY KNOWN HIGH SCHOOL OF SOD
I saw no evidence of any old school. Other than the narrow road, my vehicle, the fence, and the marker, I saw nothing manmade. At that point I thought the marker really was a gravestone – a memorial of something no longer in existence, something that had decomposed back into the earth.
Over the next several years I passed this lonely marker on many occasions. Almost every time I would stop and remove some of the grass in front of it. I felt it should be seen by passersby.
Lakeland High School was often in my thoughts. Although I knew nothing about it, I was proud that the little school had existed in Nebraska, if only for a few years.
Finally, I decided to find out more. Various sources indicated that there were many sod schools across the United States, but I didn’t find evidence of any other sod structure built as a high school. Conversa-
tions with local historians confirmed this. It didn’t take long to learn that though the sod structure was long gone, the marker I found was no gravestone. In a sense, the school lives on.
RANCHING AND FARMING
in the Sandhills aren’t easy. Those ways of making a living were even more difficult during the depression years of the 1930s. Like today, the region’s schools were far apart, but with starving cattle, low beef prices and repeated crop failures, many families couldn’t afford to send their children all the way to Ainsworth or other towns to high school. Yet, those citizens – from an area of natural lakes in southwest Brown County known locally as Lakeland – knew that a quality education was essential to their children’s future. They gathered for a series of meetings and decided to build a sod school.
Brown County Historical Society
Sod construction was important to Nebraska’s pioneers, but by the 1930s the few “soddies” that remained were mostly decaying relics. That a sod high school was built in the 1930s shows that the pioneering spirit remained. People made do with what they had.
Construction began on July 20, 1934. School started Sept. 10, and classes were held in the unfinished soddie until it was completed on the 19th. Using sod from a dry lakebed, walls were built two feet thick to keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The school was plastered on the inside, had a wooden floor and, for lighting, windows on two sides. Even back then, the state had standards for appropriate lighting and amount of floor space per student. Lakeland Sod High School met those standards.
The school consisted of two rooms: a 15-by-18-foot classroom and an 8-by-15foot room intended as a storage space, but which ended up serving as living quarters for the teacher. Other schools and local families donated most of the furnishings. The school library consisted of 60 books, but hundreds more were borrowed from the Nebraska Library Commission each year. They arrived in boxes from time to time.
Nearby stood two sod privies and a sod barn that could accommodate up to a dozen horses. Many of the students rode horses to school, some as far as 12 miles. One student had to open and close 14 gates between home and school. Students who lived farther away stayed with nearby families in return for helping out on their ranches. Some of these children saw their families only once a month during the school year.
First-year expenditures were kept to a minimum. The school’s first teachers, Elmer and Mary Holm, shared an annual salary of $450 plus some food and fuel – and lodging in the school’s back room. Textbooks and scientific supplies came to $35, with students sometimes selling pies to raise money for books. Fuel costs were only $15, mainly because several times a year, students, parents and teachers would gather “prairie coal” (cow chips). In preparation for winter, the dried manure was piled up to the eaves. In all, the first-year cost for building and operating the school was $1,102.60.
This solitary stone reminder sits near the sod highschool site. A historical marker, located 7 miles west of Ainsworth, was erected in 1976. Lakeland High School saw 33 students in its lifetime.
Alan J. Bartels
Alan J. Bartels
Brown County Historical Society
DURING THE SCHOOL’S existence, 33 students attended for at least some length of time. Eleven received their diplomas from Lakeland, and Francis Fletcher, now living in Ravenna, is one of them. I was relieved to track him down – more than one person told me they didn’t think any Lakeland alumni were still living.
Fletcher graduated in 1938, one of a graduating class of three. As a freshman, he started high school planning to stay just long enough for his older brother to get the family’s corn crop picked. But he had so much fun that he ended up staying in school, graduating in only three years.
He shared many stories with me and smiled and laughed with delight as he remembered each one. He chuckled as he told how the boys once ran a thin wire from the battery of Holm’s Model A to the windowsill where the girls liked to sit. There’d be a lot of excitement when the girls received a shock. Then there was the time they pushed Ted and Hazel Clapper’s Model A roadster up against the door to the boys’ outhouse and effectively locked teacher Russell Dybdahl inside. When Dybdahl finally escaped, he
found all the students studying busily at their desks.
The students must not have tormented Dybdahl too much, though. He taught from 1937 to 1938, then returned in ’39 and stayed till the school’s closing in 1941.
Though times were tough, the boys still managed to scrounge up 5 cents between them to give to the mail carrier who came by each day. On his return trip, he’d bring the boys their nickel’s worth of tobacco. Fletcher used to bring his .22-caliber rifle along on the 5-mile pony ride to school. During the hour-long lunch break, the students would do some target shooting behind the school. Another student sometimes brought a high-powered rifle and spent the noon hour “looking for coyotes” – though Fletcher confided that the boys would bring their girlfriends along on these horseback hunts and that they never even saw a coyote.
One night the school had a dance. Two fellows from Kansas were there, and one of them got into an argument. During a scuffle over a pistol, a shot was fired through the sod roof. Fletcher said that nobody thought anything of it.
Winters could be severe. During the winter of 1935-’36 it snowed for 30 days straight, and the temperature often approached 30 degrees below zero. For more than a month, half of the students were unable to make it to school, but Fletcher said that school was never called off on account of weather. His father told him that if he ran into bad weather, just to let his horse’s head loose from the reins, because the horse would find the way home.
AT LAST, RAIN returned to the Sandhills. Pastures greened up, and ranchers were again able to make a profit. Families could better afford to send their children to schools that provided sports programs, more advanced facilities, and a wider curriculum. Lakeland High School held its final classes in 1941. By then the soddie was showing signs of wear. It was abandoned and allowed to return to the earth from which it came.
The stone marker was dedicated in 1976 by the Brown County Historical Society. A few years later, a Nebraska Historical Marker was erected 7 miles west of Ainsworth along Highway 20.
Darrel and Ruth Ann Steele of rural Ainsworth are both longtime members of the Brown County Historical Society. Ruth Ann spent years researching the schools of Brown County. Shown here in a photo from 2007, the couple visited the site of each one to search for remnants and artifacts.
Alan J. Bartels
Along with many parts of Nebraska, major flooding inundated the Lakeland area in 2019. The stone marker, usual ly obscured by prairie grasses, was sub merged for months. The marker now bears the rusty stain of that natural disas ter. Long Lake State Recreation Area, the scenic escape where I would camp during my explorations of Lakeland, has been sold and is no longer open to the public.
I can’t help but think what a great ed ucation it must have been attending that little sod school, where the curriculum included algebra and business arithmetic, English, Latin, geography, civics, science, economics and world history. Most peo ple would probably say that students and teachers have it easier today. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better. Fletcher believes students at these smaller schools received high-quality educations, and he himself went on to teach for several years. He also served in the military during World War II and farmed for many years.
WOB NEKORB
This is a place where tradition has nothing to do with being resistant to change.
The era in which the sod school was born isn’t so different from what we’re experiencing today. We’re in the middle of a prolonged drought. Making a living in agriculture and other occupations can be difficult. Smaller schools close or merge, and parents have to make difficult choices about where to send their children for an education. Some kids are making very long trips (on buses these days, not horses) to get to school and back.
As our small rural schools close, towns lose part of their history and identity. Our once-close communities loosen according to changing school district boundaries. Perhaps a little pioneer ingenuity can make it work and provide quality education at the same time. I think it can be done.
the long-ago settlers who found their way to this place. It’s a way of life with its roots planted deep in the earth, not by chance, but by the dedicated work of many hands. And it’s a way of life that endures in Broken Bow and Custer County. The roots are deep. The roots are strong. .dnuobhtrae peek t’nod yeht tuB They keep us growing.
That the Lakeland Sod High School existed at all is a testament to the indomitable spirit of Nebraskans – and in that sense, the school lives on.
We thank Ruth Ann and Darrel Steele, and the Brown County Historical Society in Ainsworth for their assistance with this story. The stone marker is northeast of Elsmere, 5.5 miles north of the junction of Moon Lake Avenue and Elsmere Road.
Broken Bow has something for everyone
• 126 total acres of parks
• New aquatic center
• Fishing pond
• Picnic and camping facilities
• Numerous playgrounds
• Bike paths and walking trails
• Visit our downtown merchants
• Restaurants and breweries
• Art galleries and museums
• Custer County Historical Society
• Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway Visitors Center
For more information: brokenbow-ne.com
BROKEN BOW. ROOTED, BUT NOT STANDING STILL.
“Center Of It All” on scenic Highway 2, along the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway.
This 2,700-square-foot lakehouse near Ashland in Saunders County boasts strikingly straight lines and a seamless blending of the indoors with the out, just like the homeowners ordered.
Stephanie Ling/studio951
ON THE
Lake house pushes design norms through accountant’s linear vision
by TOM HESS
ACCOUNTING RETIREE Ritch
Bahe of Ashland jokes that he can’t draw a straight line with a ruler. “I’m a doodler,” he said. “I love to draw, but I don’t have the ability to create.” So he was going to need help in designing a distinctive lakefront home on a lot he purchased in Saunders County.
When Ritch and Raette, his wife of 48 years, bought an open lot overlooking Big Sandy Lake, a gravel pit turned reservoir, Ritch invited their daughter-in-law, Lindsey Ellsworth-Bahe, to design the showcase they envisioned. The project was in Lindsey’s wheelhouse. She’s the interior design program director for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Architecture, where she earned a master’s degree in architecture in 2003.
When Ritch told Lindsey he wanted straight lines, he meant straight lines. A retired CPA and auditor, Ritch prefers things that are continuous and that add up. That’s what Lindsey gave them.
Ritch majored in accounting at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he also caught and ran the ball for the Huskers under Coach Bob Devaney and Coach Tom Osborne. Ritch scored a 12-yard touchdown run in the 1974 Cotton Bowl, helping give the Huskers their 19-3 victory over the Texas Longhorns.
As he graduated from UNL, the St. Louis Cardinals NFL team drafted him but did not sign him. Ritch liked lines so much he thought about being an athletic field groundskeeper, mowing grass with precision. He stuck with accounting. Now retired, he mows parallel to sidewalks and rakes a symmetrical pattern in his lakefront sand several times a week.
Keeping enjoyment of the outdoors as a top priority, the home’s design features a plethora of outdoor spaces, including eating areas and places to gather together. Inside, bright pops of color throughout the main floor bring nature inside. With a wall of wide windows, sunlight spills into an open interior great room and dining area. Even the master bed and bath carry the theme of tightlined tile and wood accents.
Lindsey designed the 2,700-square-foot lakefront house in a way that would make any accountant happy: a 12-foot grid that could be broken down by fractions of 4 and 8 feet for doors and windows. The front entry materials – cedar, custom porcelain tile and stone – line up inside and out. The tile grout inside isn’t offset but runs a straight line up – a more specialized and demanding choice, because the bottom tiles must bear the weight of those directly above them.
“Once the tilers knew my intention and goals … to create connections between inside and outside, they took pride in their craft to enhance and support the overall effect and the impact this detail could have,” Lindsey said. “It is the same with
the cedar wood tongue-and-groove detail and the overhead canopy at the entrance. Without these details I think the overall harmony of the space … the gliding planes wouldn’t have occurred.”
Beyond that, the Bahes gave Lindsey the creative freedom to depart from right angles.
“It was an advantage that Ritch and Raette let me explore” beyond the grid, Lindsey said. “They were open to a nontraditional house.”
IN HER ARCHITECTURAL
training, Lindsey developed a deep appreciation of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s “organic architecture.” Wright’s most famous work, a home in Pennsylvania
Stephanie Ling/studio951
Stephanie Ling/studio951
Paul Brokering/studio951
Paul Brokering/studio951
BAHE LAKE HOUSE
A main-floor kitchen keeps with the straight and narrow details, featuring warm and natural wood cabinets, flawless and modern tile backsplash work and stainless steel countertops. A raised, outdoor, dining spot is the perfect place to enjoy uninterrupted views of surrounding lakeside nature.
Stephanie Ling/studio951
Stephanie Ling/studio951
Another of many outdoor spaces, this patio area keeps the straight-laced look while also allowing the Bahe family easy access to nearby sandy shores and lake-life entertainment like fishing and boat rides. The back doorway is just steps from the front entrance.
called Fallingwater, is built over and complements a waterfall. In designing her father-in-law’s home, Lindsey would blend the precise preferences of an accountant with Wright’s theories of connecting inside and outside space in order to celebrate the views, water and sunlight. Ritch had wanted the lakeside home to run northsouth; instead, the home is at an angle to allow for extended views of the lake from all interiors rooms of the home, as well as shade from the afternoon sun for the outdoor patio.
The cedar-tile-stone front entrance doesn’t reveal much to visitors. The relatively solid south-facing facade protects the home from solar heat gain, but it does have a long horizontal window that runs the length of the living room. This 24-foot window frames the landscape beyond and celebrates the horizon. Once past the entrance, the interior opens up to expansive views, water and light.
“The entrance sequence is a celebration, a transition from daily work life to coming to retreat and vacation or get away, with a
large canopy, a cantilever corner, a narrow, not very deep entrance, and the ability to access the back deck. This sequence becomes an immediate gateway to the view,” Lindsey said. “I was customizing the space for what would occur in it.”
Immediately after entering the home, a visitor can choose between two options: a door immediately on the right that opens to the master bedroom. Turn left through a passageway, and the visitor enters the great room – a spacious combination of living room, TV room, kitchen and dining room. The central roof plane peels up to create a series of clerestories that let in ample sunlight.
The prominent feature is an exposed black I-beam, another straight line and the spine of the home, supporting the second floor without the need for lakeview-obstructing columns or walls. The I-beam allows for the walkway above to appear to float. Custom steel banisters are threaded with steel cable to further reinforce a sense of lightness when walking on the second floor. The ceiling peels
Don't disappoint the grandparents! Book now for the summer!
Stephanie Ling/studio951
BAHE LAKE HOUSE
upward, from the west to the east, to welcome in morning light.
The Bahes bought an additional lot for the possibility of expansion and to increase privacy.
“Our lot faces a narrow strip of water, at north end of the development,” Ritch said. “It’s entirely nature off to our north. That’s why we had Lindsey put windows on the north side, where my wife can sit and enjoy the view.”
Big Sandy Lake is a spring-fed, reverse C shaped reservoir formed when Western Sand and Gravel mined gravel for highway construction. The Bahe home is on the southern edge of the top part of the reverse C, facing north. From the Bahe’s deck, the Bahes see a Corps of Engineers dike to the northeast, holding back Platte River floodwaters.
The view north, across the lake, includes a hay field, bales standing guard
over the harvest, and a grazing pasture for cattle, studded with wild cedar trees. Cottonwoods host bald and golden eagles in their treetops.
Lindsey added a design element that surprised her father-in-law. When he’s on the lake, he sees the sky reflected in the mirrors installed in the upstairs bedrooms. “It’s as if you can see right through the building,” Ritch said.
Helping with the project was Ritch’s golf buddy, Dave Johnson of the Nebraska firm studio951, recently acquired by Shive-Hattery, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ritch and Dave play at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln.
“This project was a very unifying project for the Bahe family,” Johnson said. “The whole family had involvement. It’s probably one of the best houses we’ve ever produced. It’s one of the more complex houses, detail-wise” – including the in-line tile and
cantilevered walkway above the great room.
All this was done to enhance a home with the kind of view that Ritch had never taken much time to appreciate growing up and in his career as a CPA and auditor.
“I grew up in Fremont, and not on a farm. My clients were in rural farmland, mainly Sandhills cattle feed lots,” he said. “I was familiar with the country, but never experienced it for myself.”
Originally intended as a vacation home, Ritch and Raette now live in the lakeside house whenever they choose, at least six months a year full time, often sitting on the patio, sheltered from the sun by the home’s 24-foot height and orientation, and hosting their children and grandchildren for the weekend and taking them out on their pontoon boat.
Even with all those right angles, there’s nothing square about their Nebraska lifestyle.
Spilling-over with sunshine, this upper deck gives picture-perfect views of the Bahe’s secluded lake property. Each of the rooms in the house has equally impressive versions of this sight, thanks to design work by the Bahe’s daughter-in-law, Lindsey.
Stephanie Ling/studio951
Tami White
Dean Stelling
Robb Thomas
Jodi Wiese
Nebraska Traveler
TAKING TO THE ROAD FOR FOOD, FUN AND FESTIVITIES
by MASON LEE
TRANSPORTATION
CLASSIC CAR COLLECTION
OPEN YEAR-ROUND • KEARNEY
Visitors at the Kearney Classic Car Collection may think they’ve traveled back in time to an era when gas was 25 cents a gallon. The polished sheen of a 1963 cherry red Corvette and the distinct ringing of a period gas station bell are reminsicent of decades past. Cars reflect the light of neon signs as repurposed hoods serve as projector screens to display historical footage.
One fateful day 11 years ago, Brad Kernick was approached by a man claiming to represent a well-to-do individual with a massive car collection. As a member of the Kearney Visitors Bureau and a self-proclaimed “die hard car guy,” Kernick jumped at the chance to use Kearney as a new home for this collection. On a field trip to a retired dairy farm, he discovered seven barns full of classic cars belonging to the Taulborg family. A collector’s dream come true.
Currently 201 vehicles occupy 50,000 square feet, more than an entire football
field. Most of these cars come from the Taulborg collection. From the luxurious look of the 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith Limo to the extravagant tailfins of the 1959 Cadillac, the collection showcases the evolving styles and technologies of the American automobiles as well as the culture surrounding these vehicles.
The recreation gas station comes complete with a black hose that sets off a bell once a car, or pedestrian, applies pressure to it. According to Kernick, there are many who still remember a time when this ringing meant attendants would come running and fill a patron’s car with gas.
A replica drive-in movie theater complete with the original ticketbooth stands testament this same era.
Kernick often asks guests about their experience after exploring the museum. They commonly respond, “I had no idea how amazing this would be.” 3600 E. Highway 30, Suite B. (308) 234-1964.
Kearney car museum pops the hood for car buffs and gearheads.
WHERE TO EAT ANGUS BURGERS & SHAKES
This fun, contemporary and upbeat eatery has top-quality burgers made with Nebraska Star Beef. There’s also beer, bacon jam and truffle fries. 421 Talmadge St. (308) 455-6218.
WHERE TO STAY BURCHELL’S WHITE HILL FARMHOUSE INN
This bed and breakfast provides quiet country charm in the middle of a working farm. The farmhouse has guest rooms with private baths and entrances. 1578 30 Rd., Minden. (308) 832-1323.
HISTORY
LEWIS & CLARK VISITOR CENTER
OPEN YEAR-ROUND • NEBRASKA CITY
Thomas Jefferson wondered if there might still exist mammoths and other ancient creatures in the western part of the country when he commissioned an expedition in 1803 to explore the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase, which would become parts of 14 present-day states.
These parts of the continent represented a great unknown to the young United States. Jefferson selected two young military officers to lead the expedition: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The territory they explored encompasses the eastern edge of Nebraska.
The explorers kept detailed journals, and somewhere in the vicinity of present-day Nebraska City they recorded finding an ideal place for a fort. Overlooking the exact stretch of Missouri River they braved over 200 years ago, the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Visitor Center inspires future generations of explorers and scientists.
Located on a postcard-picture-ready 79-acres of wooded bluffs, with views of the river, this three-story, 12,000 square foot center can transport guests back in time. The sights that await hungry eyes are reportedly very similar to what would have greeted the expedition. As far as exhibits go, 122 animals and 178 plants, all discovered by the duo, are on display.
Those looking to get a live look at historical happenings are invited to “Saturday with a Soldier.” With the first visit from
expedition re-enactors arriving April 15, live demonstrations, tomahawk tossing, hide scraping and more will be up for discovery on the second Saturday of each month.
Two and a half miles of trails, a fullscale replica of a flat-bottomed keel boat, and a re-creation of a Native American earth lodge also provide plenty of opportunities for guests to do exactly as Jefferson instructed the explorers. “President Thomas Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to observe and discover, and those two words still apply today,” said Doug Friedli, director of the visitor center. 100 Valmont Dr., Nebraska City. (402) 8749900, lewisandclarkvisitorcenter.org
WHERE TO EAT
CALABRIA ITALIAN RESTAURANT
This family-owned Italian restaurant creates an inviting ambiance with soft music and lights for a casual upscale feel. The pasta and entrees are authentically delicious. 725 S. Sixth St. (402) 713-5162.
WHERE TO STAY LIED LODGE
Situated on 260 acres of natural beauty at Arbor Day Farm, this nature-inspired hotel includes a spa, pool, restaurant, lounge and outdoor activities in the trees and orchard. 2700 Sylvan Road. (402) 873-8733.
Walk in the footsteps of explorers at this historic visitor center.
Other events you may enjoy
by JOEL SPRINGER
Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea through May 14 • Omaha
See creatures of the sea in large and vivid detail made of less-than-natural ocean material. These creatures are constructed of waste plastic from the coast of Oregon to demonstrate the problems facing the world’s oceans. The installation at Lauritzen Gardens includes a life-size shark, penguins and a huge triggerfish. lauritzengardens.org.
Descendants of DeWitty Exhibit through May 28 • Omaha
Travel back in time to DeWitty, one of the largest African-American settlements in Nebraska history. This Durham Museum exhibit tells the story behind the men and women who fled slavery during the Civil War and how they came from all over the north, including Canada, before arriving in the Nebraska Sandhills. durhammuseum.org.
Hyde Observatory Programs through Aug. 31 • Lincoln
Have you ever wanted to know how many stars there were in the night sky? The Hyde Observatory in Lincoln is offering free programs every Saturday night from sundown to 11 p.m. The observatory also gives you a chance to gaze up at the universe through one of its three main telescopes for public use. The trio of high-tech devices are housed together on an observation deck. (402) 441-7094.
Nebraska City Tourism & Commerce
Statewide science festival encourages all to explore life’s bigger questions.
NEBRASKA SCIENCE FESTIVAL APRIL • STATEWIDE
Born in 1903, Harold Edgerton and George Beadle both went on to have storied careers in completely different scientific fields. These scientists have something in common. They were born and educated in Nebraska. Cameras developed by Edgerton were used to photograph the wreck of the Titanic and locate the final resting place of the USS Monitor. George Beadle received his bachelors in science in 1926 in Lincoln. He went on to trace the genetics of Indian corn and pave the way for the discovery of DNA.
This April, throughout the state, the Nebraska Science Festival aims to raise up the next crop of homegrown scientists. The entire month will see an array of free
activities for adults and children alike. In 2013, Kacie Baum noted the need for a way to increase science literacy in the state. The two-day festival that she started has grown into a month-long celebration of wonderment.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center events manager says the festival is “for those who are lovers of science but maybe stopped learning about science at certain points.” It is never too late to learn more. In fact, the scientific breakthroughs made by Beadle and Edgerton occurred late in their careers. The activities are a
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Other activities include a statewide art contest with a fungi theme and a statewide scavenger hunt. On April 29, the Durham Museum in Omaha will open its doors to the public for a free exposition.
In his career, Beadle criticized those who sought only to pursue research while neglecting contributions in educating the next generation. He would smile with pride at the culture of curiosity and learning that has taken hold in his home state. Visit the Nebraska Science Festival website for updates on all activities throughout the state. nescifest.com
Quarter Horse Show
March 31-April 2 • Lincoln
See these riders demonstrate their skill on their quarter horses. There will be performances in reining, riding, showmanship, barrel racing and other events. Riders of all ages will compete before judges of the American Quarter Horse Association. Saddle up and make your way out. nebraskaquarterhorseassociation.com.
APRIL
Hall County Student Art Show
April 8-May 7 • Grand Island
The Stuhr Museum in Grand Island has long exhibited talented artists. During this exhibit, the youth of Hall County can display their art for the world to admire. The
North Platte Train Show
April 15 • North Platte
Trains of all (miniature) sizes come rumbling down the tracks to the 19th Annual Train Show at the D&N Event Center in North Platte. Hosted by the Nebraska West-Central Division of the National Model Railroad Association, there are toy and model trains galore to enjoy. Several vendors sell trains and collectibles in every scale and gauge. (308) 386-2489.
Kearney Concert Association presents: Jeremy Stolle
April 20 • Kearney
Broadway performing artist Jeremy Stolle, who currently plays the Phantom of the Opera, is soaring into Kearney at the Merryman Performing Arts Center. Jeremy is known for his singing on
Shrine Circus
April 24-25 • Grand Island
Colorful and crazy clowns, enormous elephants, aerial acrobats and other performers delight the masses as the circus comes to town. The Central Nebraska Shrine Club presents the Shrine Circus in Grand Island for two days in April. This fun event for the whole family has been sponsored by the Shriners for more than 100 years and proceeds benefit the Tehama Shrine Temple in Hastings. Come experience this right of passage event! heartland eventscenter.com/2023-shrine-circus
Arbor Day Celebration
April 28 • Nebraska City
Spring has sprung. What better way to celebrate the new shoots and sprouts of greenery than at the Arbor Day Farm? Get your fill of the season with the day’s free admission on April 28 and Arbor Day activities the rest of the weekend. There are plenty of places to explore on the farm as the season begins. arbordayfarm.org.
Junkstock
April 28-30, May 5-7 • Waterloo
Can’t get enough of deals on vintage, handmade and repurposed items? Maybe you just like old stuff turned into art, browsing shops and hearing live music. With plenty of good food to top it off, you’ll be savoring the down-home feel of this fun event at Sycamore Farms in Waterloo. Join visitors from far and wide as they hunt for a good deal and a good time. Tickets start at $15 for a one-day pass, or $25 for a weekend. junkstock.com.
Indoor Auto and Bike Show
April 29 • Kearney
Take a drive through the past to the Buffalo County Fairgrounds Exposition Building for a look at the 17th annual Central Nebraska Auto Club’s car show. Expect to be dazzled by numerous cars, trucks and other autos of the past. If you want to register your own vehicle, you may do so at the club’s website. centralnebraskaautoclub.com.
MAY
Jazz Music Festival
May 5-7 • Brownville
Put on your dancing shoes and enjoy the music of the jazz age at the ROAR! music festival in Brownville. This weekend concert series will feature songs from greats like Sophie Tucker, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and more. brownvilleconcertseries.com.
SIP Spring
May 6 • Ashland
Those interested in sipping some of the best blends might enjoy visiting wine, craft beer and spirit tastings at this year’s 10th annual SIP Nebraska festival. Alongside live music, educational opportunities, food, artisan and craft vendors, passionate creators and equally excited visitors gather to celebrate Nebraska’s beverage industry at Mahoney State Park. Other activities include goat yoga, wine glass painting, an outdoor massage station, dance lessons, games, fire pits and more. blurparties.com/sip-spring
Renaissance Festival of Nebraska
May 6-7, 13-14 • Bellevue
Jousting and singing. Jewelry and swords. Activities galore. What a wonder to behold history and fantasy joining together at Nebraska at Bellevue Berry Farm. Nebraska’s Renaissance Festival is teeming with excitement, from live jousts and meeting the royal court, to touring Pirate’s Cave, to basket weaving lessons and pottery demonstrations. renfestnebraska.com.
Lincoln
Marathon
May 7 • Lincoln
The 46th annual Lincoln Marathon kicks off for the cardio-inclined on May 7 just after 7 a.m. With options including the Mayor’s Run (a one-mile kids’ run), a half (13.1 miles) and a full marathon (26.2 miles), there’s something for everyone from elite runners to everyday athletes. Spectators are welcome and encouraged. Award ceremonies are also sprinkled throughout the day for top overall and age-division finishers, among others. lincolnmarathon.org.
Jurassic
Quest
May 12-14 • Lincoln
See dinosaurs roar to life before your eyes as you walk among towering animatronic creatures from times long gone. The order of the day at Lancaster Event Center will involve the excavation of fossils, training raptors and observing a whole herd of dinosaurs. See these ancient beasts come to life before they migrate out of town. jurassicquest.com.
Cinco De Mayo
May 12-14 • Omaha
Watch dancers, horses and floats fly past you at the Cinco de Mayo Parade, Omaha’s largest parade. This is just one of the events amid a three-day celebration of Latino culture. With a carnival and concert by Charly Perez on Friday, the parade and health fair on Saturday, and a “Mass with Mariachi” and Los Rieleros del Norte concert on Sunday, get ready for a weekend full of food, fun and fellowship. cdmomaha.com.
TRIVIA ANSWERS
Questions on p 20-21
1 Blizzard (the “Schoolhouse Blizzard”)
2 Union Pacific Railroad
3 Bomb cyclone
4 Offutt Air Force Base
5 Derecho
6 False. (La Niña means “the girl”)
7 False (she was from Oklahoma)
8 True
9 False. (“100year storm” has a 1 percent probability of happening in any given year)
10 True
11 a. Easter Sunday
12 b. 30 degrees below zero)
13 a. Republican River
14 a. Wyoming 15 a. 1936
Page 18 Sarpy County flood damage circa 1964. “The Migrant Mother.”
Page 19 Offutt Air Force Base flood waters in 2019. A tornado near McCook. Trivia Photographs
Photo: Arturo Banderas
COUNTY CHEYENNE
Things To Do...
• Ewing Funfest – Memorial Weekend
• 4th of July Celebrations in Stuart
• Chambers and Ewing
• O'Neill Summerfest – July 14-6
Relax…
Atkinson
Sandhills Guest House • 402-925-5600
Holt Creek Getaway • 402-925-2528
Oregon Trail RV Park • 402-925-5117
Eagle Springs Lodge • 402-925-5475
Chambers
Winings Guest House • 402-482-5741
Ewing
Two Rivers Motel • 402-626-7211
• Holt County Fair in Chambers - August 7-12
• Atkinson Hay Days – August 18-20
• Irish 'Toberfest BBQ and
• Brew Rib Cooko – September
Mill Race Park & Campground • 402-925-5313
Monument Hits the Mark(er)
Kimball County landowner keeps tri-state boundary in line
story by DEB CARPENTER-NOLTING photographs by JESSICA ROCHA
ANYONE STANDING AT the coordinates of 41.0017° N, 104.0532° W, 154 years ago would have seen only a single, man-made marker – the Tri-State Marker – an unassuming placeholder for the spot that Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming all meet.
Today the marker is open to adventurers wanting to get off the (literal) grid. But why is this spot historically significant in the first place?
On Aug. 17, 1869, long before anyone had GPS at their fingertips, astronomer and surveyor Oliver N. Chaffee stood at this intersection and established the corner monument.
When the tri-state area (Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming) opened to home-
steading, an acreage east of the marker was being farmed. But, according to Dennis Kieler, whose land sits under the marker, “the rest of the ground in both Colorado and Nebraska has never been broke” by the plow. There are still buffalo wallows in the pasture and wagon ruts from trails the farmers and ranchers took to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, long ago.
The Kieler family’s roots have been planted in Weld County, Colorado, since 1893. Dennis’ grandfather, James (Jim), came to the area with two brothers, Ben and Ollie. One homesteaded east of the oil road that comes south out of Pine Bluffs. The other broke ground 3 miles southeast. Jim homesteaded a mile and a quarter straight south of the marker.
Those who hold the Tri-State Marker close at heart have worked hard to maintain its presence. Individuals including former Kimball County Tourism director, Jessica Rocha, local county commissioners, landowner Dennis Kieler and more joined together for the ribbon cutting at the walking trail.
Eventually, Jim purchased Ben’s homestead. He later acquired even more land when the Stewart place, a mile east of the marker, sold in the 1920s. Half of the Stewart’s house was in Colorado, the other half was in Nebraska. Dennis attributes this story-changing gain of land to the Great Depression’s grip on everyone in the nation. “The Depression took more farmers than the drought,” he said. “People had trouble just living.”
As other homesteaders moved on, Jim acquired more and more land and grew to farm around 2,800 acres. Working that much ground took its toll, and he suffered a massive heart attack at age 42. Jim’s son, Howard (Dennis’ dad), took over after his folks moved to Fort Collins,
Colorado. Dennis was about 20 years old at the time and worked it on shares with his grandfather until he died.
Born and raised on the homestead (south of the cornerstone), Dennis lived there until he went to college and married. He eventually took over the farm after his own father retired. Dennis’ son, Cotton, the fourth generation of Kielers, now helps whenever needed.
Jim Kieler knew the significance of the marker and recognized the need to share it with visitors. He wasn’t the only one. Many others have helped to keep up the site over the years. In 1981, Art Henrickson and Howard Kieler rehabilitated the corner marker. In 1990, a brass disk was drilled into the top center of the corner stone.
In 1997, local, state and federal organizations worked together to further preserve the monument. Three different types of stone were set in place around the marker to show each of the three states. The base showed the latitude and longitude. “Not long after that,” Dennis said, “some kids came in with a sledgehammer and broke up the base.”
In 2004, a local Boy Scout and the Kimball Rotary Club placed a metal plate with the state names engraved, as well as a fence around the marker. Dan Kinnison assisted Howard in keeping the monument in good shape. Issues arose again when people didn’t respect that the marker was on private property, leaving gates open and taking chunks from the monument as souvenirs.
Members of the NCCC AmeriCorps team, who assisted Kimball County groups during recent efforts, celebrate being in three states at once. The marker’s brass disc has been around since 1990.
Later Dennis was contacted about working with Kimball County Tourism to make the marker accessible to tourists, while still keeping the property safe. County commissioners on all (three) sides of the fence came together with Dennis to put in a parking lot and a walking gate into the pasture.
The family has always felt the responsibility to maintain the legacy of the marker and Jim’s wish to keep it open to the public. “Dad respected my grandpa’s wishes and I’ve respected my dad’s wishes,” Dennis said. Issues continue occasionally, however. Even with ground rules written boldly on signage, people still drive in. “I’m not going to close it off, but disrespect will close this—and lots of historical places like it,” Dennis concluded.
Uniquely, thanks to the limitations of technology of Chaffee’s day, the marker is off several hundred feet from the intended placement. Rather than move the marker, the powers that be re-drew the border, changing Nebraska’s boundaries forever.
There’s an old saying, “You can’t get there from here.” With no direct access from Nebraska to the marker, visitors can start from Beech Street in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, and drive south for 12 miles (this becomes County Road 164), then park in Colorado and stroll 3/4 of a mile to their destination.
Keeping the land wild, while also allowing it to remain open to the public, a newly designed walking trail was added to make the journey easier to follow. Kimball County’s Tim Nolting walks it, as do a number of other guests each year.
ATURALLY EBRASKA
SAD no more Writer walks into spring with high spirits
by ALAN J. BARTELS
WALKING IS PART of my daily routine. I don’t mean shuffling from my house to the car or back and forth from my desk to the copier. Every day I make a conscious effort to walk outdoors. Actually, I’ve been doing it daily for so long that it now happens almost unconsciously – like breathing or brushing my teeth. But that wasn’t always the case.
More than 20 years ago I heard a radio report about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The reporter interviewed people whose moods sink during the shortest days of the year – like a seasonal bout of depression that pops up each winter.
I’d never heard of SAD, but I recognized the symptoms. I already knew that the cold, shorter days of winter could get me down. Treatments for those diagnosed with SAD include a prescription for Vitamin D or exposure to special light bulbs. Maybe I’m just cheap, but I came up with another idea. Despite sometimes long hours at work, I made it a point to be outside at least a little each day. Often it was as simple as sweeping off my sidewalks or walking to the post office. Then, a health scare in 2012 inspired me to really hit the pavement and get myself in better shape.
One day, a few years back during my usual lunchtime walk in downtown Norfolk, an employee from a local business ran outside as I was walking by. He asked how much weight I’d lost, said how he and his co-workers had noticed the pounds dropping off, and then he congratulated me. The man added that they’d seen me walk by so many times over the years that they nicknamed me “the walker.” Not only was I becoming physically fit, but I was
Walking outdoors isn’t just good for you – it is a perfect cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
also getting the natural exposure to the outdoors that is so important for healthy living.
The brilliant writer Richard Louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” to describe the myriad of effects suffered by humans deprived of regular exposure to the natural world. In his international bestseller, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, his interviews with experts illustrate the obvious link between a lack of nature
to maladies such as diabetes and depression. Here’s a one-sentence synopsis for those of you who won’t read the book: Direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults.
I no longer hang my occupational hat in Norfolk, but I still walk every day. An 11-acre arboretum belonging to the Lower Loup Natural Resources District is a short distance from my office. I walk the paved trail there before work every morning and nearly every day during my lunch break. Sometimes I even walk there after work.
After thousands of laps past the small wetland, the creaking Aeromotor windmill, and the small stand of aspen trees, I am sure that the resident cottontail rabbits and fox squirrels must know I’m not going to chase them. Still, they always dart away. And there are the honking Canada geese that fly over, tracks from the deer herd that visits at night, a friendly local dog whose owner must let him out in the morning, and a wary red fox that hunts near Dane Creek.
What I don’t see much during winter are the fair-weather walkers, joggers, and bicyclists who frequent the trail spring, summer, and early fall. But I need to be out there every day – even during winter. You see, I’m afraid that if I skip my walks even one day due to cold, windy, icy, nasty weather, that one day could turn into two, and so on. Before you know it, I’d be a couch potato again.
Yes, it’s been a long winter in Nebraska, but don’t be sad. The days are getting longer, and spring has finally come.
