2009-07-10
in the footsteps of Schmidt
by kenny
One of our favorite sections of the museum was where they had set up a row of kitchens from different eras. You walk down the hallway and the first room would be from the 1800's and when you reached the end you would looking at a typical 1980's room. They did the same with bedrooms and living rooms, and the mannequins' clothing styles would change to fit the era. They also had some rooms based on professions like barber, dentist, shoemaker, etc. We really liked this place but only stayed about 6 hours. It was not enough time.
Next we headed north to Kearney, Nebraska and the Great Platte River Road Archway as seen in "About Schmidt". It is a big, beautiful archway that crosses over Interstate 80.
Inside the archway is a museum/exhibit celebrating the pioneers migrated west. And that was all I really knew about it. What we in for was excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone. You start by going up an escalator to catch up with some covered wagons that are on the trail before you. You are given a headset that is activated by your different locations in the exhibit. The audio explains what you are looking at and usually has someone reading a diary entry from the trail in character with background noise to be expected in the environment you are in.
The first part is about the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Trail, which was news to me, as I had never heard of the last two because there was no video game promoting their journey. You hear stories of gold miners in 1848 who made it rich and the 49ers who didn't. Homesteaders who were trying to make a new start and Indians who were pushed farther and farther west. Joy and sadness. Kindness and cruelty.
From there the exhibit evolves from the journey to the settlements. I feel like they did a pretty fair job of both highlighting the amazing accomplishments of the pioneers and laying out the devastating impact on Native Americans and the land. There is a section on the Pony Express, the telegraph, and the race to build a transcontinental railroad. The railroad and the inventions of automobiles led to the establishment of new highway systems and the Lincoln Highway. our nation really changed at his point. Diners, drive-in movie theatres, motels, gas stations, and roadside attractions spring up across the country. National Parks were being established. Road trips and the traveling vagabond lifestyles became popular.
The Archway is a really great stop and if you're anywhere near Kearney, make sure you go. From Kearney we headed west on the Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30, which runs parallel to Hwy 80) to Paxton and Ole's Big Game Steakhouse and Lounge. Rosser O. "Ole" Herstedt opened his saloon at 12:01 am the day after Prohibition ended. Obviously, the place was popular and Ole did well. Locals would gather and swap hunting stories. Ole started hanging the mounted heads of the animals he had killed. But apparently deer and elk weren't enough. Over a period of 35 years he traveled to every continent killing animals. The saloon expanded to include the 200 animals heads.
At a quick glance, this all sounds kind of charming. But this man killed more than game animals. And I wouldn't be surprised that most of the meat was wasted. Zebra, water buffalo, giraffe, elephant, polar bear, highland coo, moose, deer, elk, cats, birds, bear, rabbits, bison, and various horned goat-like animals from Africa. Seriously. Who shoots a cow and mounts the head? The place was packed when we got there, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ole's keeps Paxton alive. The food was decent, and our server, a young man of about 14 (the owner's son) provided some of the best service we've had. The owner let us stay in the parking lot overnight, so I came back for breakfast in the morning.
Nebraska has some other really beautiful surprises. There are 2 National Forests. Real ones. Samuel R McKelvie National Forest is located in north central Nebraska. The Nebraska National Forest is divided into two separate ranger districts. The main part is in the northwest corner of Nebraska, near Chadron. We visited the Charles E Bessey Ranger District in the Sand Hills of central Nebraska, near Thedford. This area was established in 1902 as an experiment to see if a forest could thrive in the sandy prairie grasslands of the Great Plains. Well, it worked and is now the largest man planted forest in the U.S. Anyhoo, it was quite amazing. After all the grassy flatness, we were suddenly walking around in a forest of Ponderosa pines.
The Willa Cather Memorial Prairie was another beautiful piece of Nebraska countryside. Willa Cather was author that lived in the first half of the 20th century. She moved to Nebraska as a child, fell in love with the prairie, and wrote about it. She's pretty great. You can read more about her here, here, and here. But for now I will leave you with these passages from her book My Antonia:
One of our favorite sections of the museum was where they had set up a row of kitchens from different eras. You walk down the hallway and the first room would be from the 1800's and when you reached the end you would looking at a typical 1980's room. They did the same with bedrooms and living rooms, and the mannequins' clothing styles would change to fit the era. They also had some rooms based on professions like barber, dentist, shoemaker, etc. We really liked this place but only stayed about 6 hours. It was not enough time.
Next we headed north to Kearney, Nebraska and the Great Platte River Road Archway as seen in "About Schmidt". It is a big, beautiful archway that crosses over Interstate 80.
View of the monument from the road (1:10)
Inside the archway is a museum/exhibit celebrating the pioneers migrated west. And that was all I really knew about it. What we in for was excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone. You start by going up an escalator to catch up with some covered wagons that are on the trail before you. You are given a headset that is activated by your different locations in the exhibit. The audio explains what you are looking at and usually has someone reading a diary entry from the trail in character with background noise to be expected in the environment you are in.
The first part is about the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Trail, which was news to me, as I had never heard of the last two because there was no video game promoting their journey. You hear stories of gold miners in 1848 who made it rich and the 49ers who didn't. Homesteaders who were trying to make a new start and Indians who were pushed farther and farther west. Joy and sadness. Kindness and cruelty.
From there the exhibit evolves from the journey to the settlements. I feel like they did a pretty fair job of both highlighting the amazing accomplishments of the pioneers and laying out the devastating impact on Native Americans and the land. There is a section on the Pony Express, the telegraph, and the race to build a transcontinental railroad. The railroad and the inventions of automobiles led to the establishment of new highway systems and the Lincoln Highway. our nation really changed at his point. Diners, drive-in movie theatres, motels, gas stations, and roadside attractions spring up across the country. National Parks were being established. Road trips and the traveling vagabond lifestyles became popular.
A ride along the Lincoln Highway (2:18)
The Archway is a really great stop and if you're anywhere near Kearney, make sure you go. From Kearney we headed west on the Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30, which runs parallel to Hwy 80) to Paxton and Ole's Big Game Steakhouse and Lounge. Rosser O. "Ole" Herstedt opened his saloon at 12:01 am the day after Prohibition ended. Obviously, the place was popular and Ole did well. Locals would gather and swap hunting stories. Ole started hanging the mounted heads of the animals he had killed. But apparently deer and elk weren't enough. Over a period of 35 years he traveled to every continent killing animals. The saloon expanded to include the 200 animals heads.
At a quick glance, this all sounds kind of charming. But this man killed more than game animals. And I wouldn't be surprised that most of the meat was wasted. Zebra, water buffalo, giraffe, elephant, polar bear, highland coo, moose, deer, elk, cats, birds, bear, rabbits, bison, and various horned goat-like animals from Africa. Seriously. Who shoots a cow and mounts the head? The place was packed when we got there, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ole's keeps Paxton alive. The food was decent, and our server, a young man of about 14 (the owner's son) provided some of the best service we've had. The owner let us stay in the parking lot overnight, so I came back for breakfast in the morning.
About Ole's Big Game (2:57)
Sometime in the middle of the night we woke up to flashing lights-the most amazing lightning storm we have ever seen. The sky light up like a strobe light, and without mountains, the 360 degree view was unearthly. There was no sound and no wind. The video below only partially does it justice. We've both seen some pretty amazing lightning storms, but never any that flashed so quickly or covered so much of the sky. We thought the aliens were coming.
Sometime in the middle of the night we woke up to flashing lights-the most amazing lightning storm we have ever seen. The sky light up like a strobe light, and without mountains, the 360 degree view was unearthly. There was no sound and no wind. The video below only partially does it justice. We've both seen some pretty amazing lightning storms, but never any that flashed so quickly or covered so much of the sky. We thought the aliens were coming.
Crazy Nebraska Thunderstorm (0:34)
Nebraska has some other really beautiful surprises. There are 2 National Forests. Real ones. Samuel R McKelvie National Forest is located in north central Nebraska. The Nebraska National Forest is divided into two separate ranger districts. The main part is in the northwest corner of Nebraska, near Chadron. We visited the Charles E Bessey Ranger District in the Sand Hills of central Nebraska, near Thedford. This area was established in 1902 as an experiment to see if a forest could thrive in the sandy prairie grasslands of the Great Plains. Well, it worked and is now the largest man planted forest in the U.S. Anyhoo, it was quite amazing. After all the grassy flatness, we were suddenly walking around in a forest of Ponderosa pines.
The Willa Cather Memorial Prairie was another beautiful piece of Nebraska countryside. Willa Cather was author that lived in the first half of the 20th century. She moved to Nebraska as a child, fell in love with the prairie, and wrote about it. She's pretty great. You can read more about her here, here, and here. But for now I will leave you with these passages from her book My Antonia:
"Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen."
"I can remember exactly how the country looked to me as I walked beside my grandmother along the faint wagon-tracks on that early September morning. Perhaps the glide of long railway travel was still with me, for more than anything else I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping, galloping ..."
"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the color of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."
"There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made."
"I can remember exactly how the country looked to me as I walked beside my grandmother along the faint wagon-tracks on that early September morning. Perhaps the glide of long railway travel was still with me, for more than anything else I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping, galloping ..."
"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the color of wine-stains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."
"There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made."
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