September 11th, 2022 Travel to North Platte

We left our spot at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds and headed west.

We had a beautiful day – check out those skies!

 

So many abandoned places – I would love to know the stories behind this:

Cows, Cows, Everywhere:

I just find these rolls amazing…do they have a name?

OH! Trains!  Always following us:

  Love the patterns: 

Isn’t this interesting!

We arrived at the Lincoln Highway RV Park.  Because Andy was a veteran, our first night was free.  WOW!  I wanted to give the owner a hug. 

We are staying here for 2 nights. It has a store, repair shop, a bar/grill, and a campground that has a number of long term folks.  We did talk to our neighbor who works for the railroad and stays here.  Overall it is a clean park and the sites are roomy and nice.

After setting up, we took a ride around the town and stopped at the local Moose Lodge.  We met a few locals and had a great time.

Tomorrow we are off to see the Golden Spike Tower and some other memorials so stay tuned and enjoy today.

 

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 103 Miles 

Routes Traveled:

Nebraska: Avenue N; US-30; 2nd Avenue; I-80; US-83; US-30

September 9–10 2022 Fort Kearny and Stuff

September 9th, 2022

Today’s adventure took us to Fort Kearny.

A few tidbits..

“Fort Kearny was the first Western military post built to protect emigrants on the trails west, and it later served as the headquarters for a number of small outposts along the emigrant trails. This military post was strategically located at a junction where various eastern feeder trails merged into one. This broad and vast single trail followed the Platte River 330 miles west to Fort Laramie. Fort Kearny was also a place where emigrants could resupply and a Pony Express station.

After the fort was abandoned by the military, the land was made available to homesteaders. In 1922, the Fort Kearny Memorial Association was founded; and purchased 40 acres of land at the site of Fort Kearny, which consists of about half the land the fort formerly sat upon. In 1929 this land became a state park. None of the original fort stands today. The area surrounding the fort has been mostly developed with farms, so all traces of the old migratory trails are gone. Still, archeologists have identified the locations where several buildings once stood. Since few pictures or sketches of the fort were ever made, it is difficult to know what the fort used to be like; however, a replica of the blacksmith shop is now part of the museum”

More information can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Kearny 

https://nebraskastudies.org/en/1800-1849/forts-built/fort-kearny/ 

https://history.nebraska.gov/blog/marker-monday-kearney-fort-kearny

https://www.nps.gov/places/000/fort-kearny-state-historical-park.htm

We signed in at the visitor center and had a great chat with the docent there.  She told us much about the park and its history.  Through pictures and written diaries, they have found many of the original cedar posts of the buildings.  Those original posts are now covered by other posts so we can get an idea of where many of the building stood.  (Of course, like most historic places, money is an issue to build replicas.)

So we went thru the little museum, saw the film, and then walked the grounds.

Very interesting..there was some information at the Archway also.

 

Blacksmith/Carpenter Shop – Reconstructed 1994:

 

  

 

My grandfather was a blacksmith for the mines so it is always interesting to me to see the old time shops.

The Grounds:

The post you see are the markings of where they unearthed the original cedar postings:

The Powder Magazine – Reconstructed 1975:

Going inside:

One of inside pictures:

Every fort had parade grounds with a flag.  Here is Fort Kearny’s Parade Grounds:

  

One of the original cedar posts uncovered:

Fort Kearny was an open fort – no wall or barriers.  However, at one point, there were threats of Native Americans so a protected area was built.  Whenever there were threats, all personnel, civilian and military moved into this protected area.

Each corner had this type of structure – to be able to see what was happening in all directions and defend themselves.

 

The folks would be in here until the threat was over and they could return to their homes.

   The cottonwoods:

 

  

Most cottonwoods in this area will live to be 100 years old.  Our docent told us that one of the volunteers at the fort is starting new trees from the sprouts.  Since they do not know how old many of these trees are, they want to make sure this fort continues to have them.  How cool is that!

The Happy Campers – LOL!:

The weather had significantly cooled down – from a high of 101 yesterday to a high of 65 today.  We were blessed to be able to see the fort this morning because it rained this afternoon while we just relaxed.

 

September 10th, 2022

We woke to 49 degrees and rain – Yuck.  So we dumped what needed to be dumped, filled what needed to be filled, found a great laundromat and did laundry and just caught up on things in the motorhome.

Yes, we are still doing repairs, rearranging, and upgrading so soon I will have a blog on all we did.

Tomorrow we head to North Platte so stay tuned and enjoy today.

 

 

 

September 8th, 2022 - Great Platte River Road Archway Monument

Over the last week or so, our water pressure has been dropping and this morning it was really bad!  Andy and I have been tossing around what it could be and today he said, “let’s take out the inside filter and see what happens.”  (On a side note…in the summer when I went to order more filters, I found out that they no longer make them but there was a substitute, which we purchased.)  So we took it out and OMG.. the pressure is back.  We still may have a problem with the pump but we will see what happens.

Here is little personal note.  For years my favorite reading genre was apocalyptic fiction books.  Well, as many of my friends will attest, when the pandemic hit, my books were no longer fiction and I truly panicked.  (In fact, even today, seeing the news either TV, Radio, or online, I am still living my books.  But that is a story for another time.)  So I had to stop reading that genre and over the course of trying other types, I settled on historical fiction specifically the Oregon Trail and the Orphan Trains.

Talk about living your books, Kearney is the place.  Did you know that the Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, Pony Express, California Trail (49er Trail), all came thru Kearney.  At one time, there were over 2000 people coming thru Fort Kearny EVERY DAY!  Can you imagine!  (By the way, the fort is spelled without the extra e.)  Also, the Lincoln Highway and I-80, the first superhighway, comes thru here.

So this morning, off we went to the Archway Monument:

 

Outside there was an authentic wagon.  Can you imagine traveling in this for over 1000 miles?  Can you imaging walking beside this for over 1000 miles and having to do it before the winter?  Our ancestors were very brave and strong.

He was huge and dedicated to all the buffalo that roamed the plains.

   

Interesting tidbit on the Lincoln Highway.  I did not know that it was built seedling mile by mile.

As people used the highway, motels sprung up.  This was the sign from the original motel in Kearney.

Inside we paid for our tickets, were given instructions on the audio part of the tour (I just love audio tours) and were directed to the escalator.  The museum is on two floors above the highway.  The first floor is dedicated to the emigrants and then to the railroad.

This sign was at the bottom of the escalator. Wow, 350,000 people in 25 years!

At the start of the timeline, Native American showing the Fur Trapper the ancient trail:

And our journey begins:

The museum was like a time line.  From the start of the emigrant trains:

To the establishment of Fort Kearny:

 

 

And all those folks passing thru – on the Oregon Trail:

On the Mormon Trail:

Another tidbit on the Mormon Trail…the first group walked with handcarts… Oh my!

On the California Trail – in search of gold:

Going over the mountains:

The trails were scattered with belongings.  When folks sold everything, many kept things that felt were important but were not good for the trail.

There were many interesting tidbits scattered throughout the museum:

Moving into the stagecoach and railroad era:

Check out the price of those tickets:

There was not a lot on the railroad.  I did find this very interesting (sorry about the blur).

From that area, we moved to the second floor which was all about cars, transportation, highways, and how it changed the country.

 

Initially there were not many accommodations on the Lincoln Highway so folks just stopped along the road and camped in their cars, in tents, or in the open:

1733 Ranch marked midway across the country.  We were told that there was a marker there so went to look for it after our tour but could not find it.  The ranch is now a number of homes.

 

 

And then the superhighways:

And, of course, all the diners that popped up around the country.  Isn’t she cute!:

No, she is not real.

From there we did more of the outside exhibits on the homesteaders.

 

 

 

I am fascinated with the faces of the sculptures, no matter where we go.  They just capture so many emotions.

  

Right outside the museum was a bridge over the Platte River that joined with walking and biking trails all around Kearney.

If you look to the right of the river, there are wire buffalo statues.

The statues:

At the end of the tour, we stopped in the little travel shop there and had a great conversation with the travel advisor about Nebraska (He was so excited about his state).  I know that we would love to spend a lot of time just following the old trails.  Each little area has so much history. So yes, we got brochures.

After our adventure, we decided to get some supplies then back home.  It is HOT!  101 degrees late afternoon..  Too hot for me and I will say that our AC is struggling to keep up.  Cooler weather is on the way!

Tomorrow we will explore the Fort so stay tuned and enjoy today.