By Marilyn Jones
Where do you begin to talk about the wonder and beauty of Nebraska? The many attractions and historic sites? How about the alphabet? Here we look at just some of the fantastic places to visit…A to Z.
A is for Audubon Rowe Sanctuary and its famous Sandhill Cranes. Although known for the Sandhill Cranes, Rowe Sanctuary supports hundreds of other bird species, including Whopping Cranes, Bobolink, Northern Harrier, and Dickcissel. Located in Gibbon, visitors flock here every March when more than a million Sandhill Cranes converge on the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska before continuing north to their nesting grounds. Trails offer a spectacular view of the Platte River and wind through the 1,447-acre sanctuary's prairies and woodlands.
B is for Boy's Town. Boys Town is the only National Historic Landmark District in Nebraska. Incorporated as a municipality, it has police and fire departments, schools, churches, and a post office. About 400 boys and girls live in the Village in single-family homes with a married Family-Teaching couple who cares for and nurtures them. Young people receive guidance for various behavioral, emotional, and academic issues. The Father Flanagan House Museum is the renovated home of Boys Town's founder and features a glimpse at early life at Boys Town. Other attractions include Father Flanagan's Tomb, a memorial chapel, the Garden of the Bible, the "Two Brothers" statue, and the Leon Myers Stamp Center that houses the "World's Largest Ball of Postage Stamps."
C is for Chimney Rock, which rises 470 feet above the North Platte River and measures 325 feet tip to base. The National Historic Site, located near Gering, was used as a landmark for emigrants traveling along the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. According to the National Park Service, as the emigrants passed by this rock, most of them noted in their diaries or journals that they were glad to see that they were going in the right direction and that it spired to the heavens. Thousands climbed up the cone to carve their names on the tower. Due to erosion, no inscriptions survived. There is ample written testimony that thousands of names once adorned the rock.
D is for Dobby's Frontier Town. During his later years, Kenneth D. "Dobby" Lee's passion became the Town. His goal was to preserve a bit of what life was like in the early years of the area. Buildings include Miller Furniture Store and Funeral Home, The Medical Building, Josiephine's ((spelled correctly)) Photo Studio, Rex's Hamburgers, The German Evangelical Lutheran Emmanuel Church, Soft Water, Cobblers Shop, Fisher Printing, The Jail, Blacksmith Shop, Lonesome Duck Saloon and Bordello, The Livery Stable, First National Bank, Gunsmith, Prairie Fabrics, PPJ Fence, Robert Anderson's Log Cabin, and The Baled Hay House.
E is for Edgerton Explorit Center in Aurora, which features scientific discovery and exploration through hands-on learning experiences, and welcomes more than 200,000 visitors to the museum annually. Several areas of the museum encourage discovery through play, inquiry, and creativity. The recently renovated lower level adds more than 35 new exhibits to the popular attraction.
F is for Fort Kearny State Historical Park. The fort, located in Kearny, was built in 1848 to protect travelers on the Oregon-California Trail, serve as a home station for Pony Express riders and Pawnee scouts, was a stagecoach station, and used to shelter crews building the Union Pacific Railroad. The Interpretive Center houses exhibits on fort history, its uses, and the men and women who lived here. Recreated buildings include the stockade, powder magazine, and carpenter-blacksmith shop. During the sandhill crane migration, the Interpretive Center doubles as an information center for crane viewers.
G is for Senator George Norris State Historic Site. The U.S. Senator changed rural life. He fathered the Rural Electrification Act that brought electric power to farms across the nation. Norris believed that everyone should have access to electricity. The REA ran into resistance but passed, bringing electricity to farms across the country. Today visitors can tour his home in McCook, where he lived from 1902 to 1944. The house and all its furnishings were donated to History Nebraska by his wife, Ellie, in 1968.
H is for Hastings Museum featuring cultural and natural exhibits. It was founded in 1927 and is the largest municipal museum between Chicago and Denver. The museum features prehistoric Nebraska, rocks and minerals, a comprehensive bird display, and People of the Plains from paleo-Native Americans to euro-Americans. It also features a Theatre with a 65-foot wide screen and a large domed Planetarium.
I is for Indian Cave State Park in Shubert. Indian Cave is the main geologic feature of the area and bears prehistoric Native American petroglyphs of unknown date and origin. Guests can view them from an ADA-accessible wooden boardwalk and viewing deck. There is also a restored schoolhouse and general store from the old river town of St. Deroin, 22 miles of hiking and biking trails, 16 miles of equestrian trails, and wildlife viewing, including deer, beavers, and turkeys.
J is for Johnny Carson. Although born in Iowa, Johnny moved to Norfolk at age eight. He always considered it his hometown. Several city attractions honor the famous talk show host, including a mural with a series of paintings by artist Karl Reeder showing his career progression. Visitors can also visit The Boyhood Home of Johnny Carson and Elkhorn Valley Museum, which features an exhibit including his Emmy awards and Kennedy Center medallion.
K is for Kool-Aid. Edwin Perkins invented Kool-Aid in Hastings. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate, which he called Fruit Smack. In 1927, to reduce shipping costs, Perkins discovered a way to remove the fluid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder; this powder was named Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid: Discover the Dream is one of the featured exhibits at Hastings Museum.
L is for Lincoln County Historical Museum. The North Platte museum is about eight acres, including the main museum building and an entire village made up of primarily historic structures from the Lincoln County area. A visit to the museum offers excellent information on the native culture and history of this region of the Great Plains. Museum staff collects, preserves, and exhibits historical artifacts from the area.
M is for the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney and celebrates Nebraska's unique artistic heritage. It is the official collection of the state. From 30 art pieces in 1976, the museum has grown to include more than 5,000 pieces. It also houses temporary exhibits that rotate through the gallery. Artists include George Catlin, early 20th-century American master and Cozad native Robert Henri, Thomas Hart Benton's original illustrations for The Oregon Trail, and one of the nation's premier collections of wildlife art by John James Audubon.
N is for Nebraska Prairie Museum. With modest beginnings in 1966 to a nearly 20,000 square foot facility with several significant additions is located just north of Holdrege. The museum chronicles Holdrege and South-Central Nebraska's history with artifacts, archival documents, and memorabilia.
O is for The Oregon National Historic Trail stretching across Nebraska. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the nation nearly doubled in size. Pioneers packed their belongings into wagons, and headed out across thousands of miles of unknown terrain. The Oregon, California, and Mormon Pioneer Trails carried 500,000 emigrants westward between the 1830s and 1860s. Today these and other designated National Historic Trails, with their landmarks and faint traces, tell the story of settling the West.
P is for Pony Express Station in Gothenburg. The Sam Macchette ((correct spelling)) Station was built in 1854 on the Oregon Trail. From 1860 to 1861, the building was a Pony Express Station. After the Pony Express ended, the station was an Overland Trail Stage Station, bunk house, storage house, and dwelling until 1931, when it was donated to the city and moved to Ehmen Park inside city limits. The Pony Express ceased to operate on October 24, 1861, when entrepreneurs completed telegraph lines to California.
Q is for International Quilt Museum. The museum's mission is to build a global collection and audience that celebrate quilts' cultural and artistic significance. Located at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the museum showcases quilts and quilt making traditions from more than 50 countries, dating from the 1600s to the present day. The facility houses the world's most extensive publicly held quilt collection. In addition to its permanent collection, the museum also features traveling exhibitions.
R is for Rocky Hollow Buffalo Company, located on the historic Monkey Ranch 11 miles north of Kimball in the western panhandle. The buffalo is 100 percent grass-fed, holistically, and naturally raised. Visitors can take tours to learn about buffalo and experience them up close. Allow at least an hour of interaction with the herd. Many will eat out of your hand.
S is for Scotts Bluff National Monument. Towering 800 feet above the North Platte River near Gering, the National Memorial has served as a landmark for Native Americans and emigrants on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Rich with geological, paleontological, and human history, there are almost four miles of hiking trails and a scenic drive. Scotts Bluff is also home to the world's most extensive collection of William Henry Jackson's artworks.
T is for Toadstool Geologic Park, a collection of badlands formations found in the Oglala National Grassland. Located near Chadron, there are two main trails. A one-mile loop trail leaving from the picnic area shows excellent examples of the hoodoos the park is known for and offers access to the three-mile Bison Trail, which ends at the Hudson Meng Bonebed.
U is for the University of Nebraska State Museum. The expansive museum's priceless exhibits featuring Native Americans, paleontology, minerals, and meteorites, to name a few. It now also features the recently opened fourth level celebrating Nebraska's natural heritage, including birds, plants, and animals. Visitors can "Come face-to-face with an ancient ambush predator that once roamed Nebraska, catch a show on the new five-foot globe, and experience science and natural history in entirely new ways."
V is for Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, located near Valentine in the north-central part of the state. The refuge offers pristine lakes, vast native prairie, and abundant fish and wildlife. Guests can bird watch, hike, hunt, and fish. The observation deck on the old fire tower West of Hackberry Lake has an excellent prairie view.
W is for Wessels Living History Farm, which brings farming history to life. Located near York, guests can learn about what it is like to live on a farm and travel through the past 100 years of farming history -- the 1920s through today. Guests might shell some corn, feed the animals, gather the eggs, learn about a Victory Garden, churn butter, or harvest oats. The farm offers history lessons by doing.
X is for Exploring "The Old Market" in Omaha. The area was the epicenter of the activity, with produce dealers, buyers, and transporters at the end of the 19th century. Today guests find restaurants, locally-owned antiques, jewelry, and gift shops, and art galleries. The Durham Museum, located in Union Station, features exhibits celebrating the region's history. Its affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution and strong ties with the Library of Congress, and National Archives, allow several traveling exhibitions to be presented as well.
Y is for Yanney Heritage Park. The Kearney city park began as an 80-acre cornfield and transformed into a beautiful city park with many unique features. Free to the public, it features an amphitheater, observation tower, lake, trails, playgrounds and splash grounds, gardens, sculptures, swans, and other wildlife, a labyrinth, and a water trail for kayaks. It is home to a senior activity center and many family and community events.
Z is for Henry Doorly Zoo, the pride of Omaha. Its mission is conservation, research, recreation, and education, and it succeeds. The award-winning zoo has a fantastic collection of mammals, fish, insects, and reptiles, plus Lozier Giant Screen Theater, a train, a tram, a carousel, and Skyfari for unique viewing. Animal viewing areas take visitors everywhere from Africa to Asia; the desert, the jungle, and under the sea.