Small Town with Plenty to Do

Saturday, August 26…

Sometimes I feel like we’re cheating when we check off the states we’ve visited. Three days in Kansas City yielded about 90 minutes in Kansas. On the way to Nebraska City today the highway cut through Iowa for about 5 minutes. (And we didn’t have sex in either of those states – I think I mentioned back in Florida that another RVer told us you couldn’t count a state unless you’d had sex there.) Greg has family ties in Greely and Loup City (NE), so Nebraska City and Grand Island (tomorrow) are stops along the way.

Nebraska City is actually a town of about 7000 and, beyond laundering a load of whites, we didn’t have any particular plans. Turns out this little place is full of history. 

We started with the Museum of Firefighting, which was extremely well done. Our guide was at least as old as us and a veritable font of knowledge, also reminding us a couple times that everything we saw was still functional. His story began with one of the leather buckets from the earliest when a neighborhood bucket brigade was the only defense against fire. In 1861, the station purchased its first hand pumper (which was also pulled by by hand. The black hose was dropped into whatever water source was available (the town did have cisterns by then), and the smaller red hose (which could be extended) directed the spray.

(At some point the city got hydrants - can't remember when.)

(I should've taken notes - I think this engine is 1924.)

We supported the museum with a couple small purchases from the gift shop, then walked a block to the Kregel Windmill Museum. Kregel wasn't the largest or most innovative windmill mfgr, but the shop, built in 1903, has been preserved just as it appeared in 1939. Greg appreciated he mechanical details more than I could, but it was still quite interesting.

Office (the typewriter is tiny!)

This band saw was my fave item.

ELI was the Kregel brand name.

Our third stop, the Freighters Museum, was relatively short. Short video, photos and artifacts highlighting the major role this (now) little city played in westward migration and the resulting growth of cities and commerce in western territories. Interesting, but not riveting. Last stop was Arbor Mansion (officially Arbor Lodge State Historical Park at Arbor Day Farm), home of J. Sterling Morton, a wealthy newspaper editor. (One of his sons created the process that allowed salt to flow freely, even in rainy weather. Most of us probably have a box of Morton Salt in our pantry.) The home, now over 50 rooms, began as just 4. Sterling Morton & his wife also planted dozens (100s?) of trees on the prairie property, which eventually led to him being the founder of Arbor Day. 

Coach and travel accoutrements circa 1870s.

Mrs. Morton's  bison fur coat .

Descendants of those 1 million trees.

I'll close with two very different aspects of 19th century prairie life. I think the tooth extraction sign came from the Freighter's Museum. The Tiffany window graces the ceiling of the sun room at Arbor Mansion.

 " Full set of teeth on rubber for $5" - what a bargain!

This ceiling was part of the last renovation, done
by the sons when they inherited the property.