Living Our Dream

Nebraska City, NE, Part II: Lewis & Clark
 

When we first started full-timing back in 2006, we started blogging to document our travels. When we first started, we were under the impression we would be able to copy our blog entries onto CDs as a way of preserving our posts. About a year into blogging we found out that wasn't possible. Then Margery found   Blurb, which allows you to transfer your posts to book form. We completed the book for our first year of travels while we were in Florida last winter. You can find more details about how the publishing works in our post titled How We Became Publishers.

We recently finished the book for our second year of travels, and it arrived while we were staying in Nebraska City. We are again very pleased with the results.

We're hoping now that we have more practice in formatting and a good system for proofreading we will be get years three and four completed in the near future.

 The day after visiting Arbor Day Farm we wanted to visit Arbor Lodge, which is a 52-room mansion that belonged to the Morton family. Arbor Lodge is part of a state park located adjacent to Arbor Day Farm.

Shortly after arriving in Nebraska City, J. Sterling Morton and his wife built a modest 4-room frame house on their 160-acre claim. Joy Morton, who was J. Sterling Morton's oldest son and founder of Morton Salt, inherited the house when his father died in 1902. Although the house had been enlarged and remodeled several times by his father, Joy Morton expanded the house to the 52-room, neo-classical mansion that stands today. Joy Morton lived in Chicago and used Arbor Lodge as a summer home.

In addition to the mansion, Arbor Lodge State Park includes gardens and an arboretum. The arboretum contains 270 varieties of trees and shrubs. Since we figured some of our time at the state park would be spent outside, we wanted to go early in the day to beat the heat. Although the AAA Guide Book said the house didn't open for tours until 10:00 AM, we searched the state park web site hoping to find earlier summer hours. Since we couldn't find anything on the web site at all about the hours for the mansion, we assumed the AAA Guide Book was right and went a little after 10:00. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out the mansion didn't open until 1:00 PM. Apparently, they are experiencing budget cuts and had to shorten their hours. Shudda called.

Since it was already getting hot and humid, we didn't want to go hang out at the motor home and come back later, so we decided to save Arbor Lodge for another visit. We did take a quick look around the gardens, but found them to be somewhat seedy and weedy - another apparent victim of budget cuts. They did, however, have several beautiful hibiscus. The blooms were as big as dinner plates.

   

The other thing we wanted to see in Nebraska City was the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Center, which was less than a mile down the road from the campground. Since our plans to see Arbor Lodge misfired, we headed to the Lewis & Clark Center instead.

After President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, he commissioned Meriwether Lewis, who was his aide, to explore the area to try to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis selected his friend and colleague William Clark to be his partner. In 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition to the  Pacific Northwest paddled up the Missouri River right past the site of present-day Nebraska City.

Outside the Lewis & Clark Center is a replica of the 55-foot keelboat used by Lewis and Clark.

The boat had three methods to propel it upstream. A sail could be used if the wind was favorable. If the water was relatively shallow, poles were used. Oars were for deeper water.

The original keelboat was built in our old hometown of Pittsburgh. Meriwether Lewis left Pittsburgh with the boat on August 31, 1803, so that date could really be considered the start of the expedition, and Pittsburgh could be considered the starting point. However, Lewis declared the official starting point of the expedition to be Camp Dubois, which was a spot on the east side of the Mississippi River near present-day Hartford, IL, that was used as a camp during the winter of 1803-4. The expedition officially departed from Camp Dubois on March 14, 1804.

The Lewis & Clark Center includes an indoor interpretive center with interactive displays by the University of Nebraska. There was also a good movie about the expedition.

 

 The displays concentrate on the travel, the flora, the fauna and the scientific discoveries made by Lewis and Clark. The first floor has displays about navigation and river travel. Beavers were plentiful along the rivers back then.

A fun display featured a super-sized mosquito that emphasized how the expedition was plagued by insects along the rivers. By the way, we think we saw this guy's big brother back at Fort Bridger RV Campground. The display dared visitors to stick their arms into the opening. Actually, there is nothing in there but several strings hanging down to tickle your arm.

The second floor of the center has many of the larger animals observed by the expedition like this elk.

Bison were a common sight in the northern plains.

Outside, there are several walking trails. The center is located on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, so we took the trail that went to the river overlook to see where Lewis and Clark passed by over 200 years ago.

Another trail led to a Native American earth lodge. The earth lodge was commonly used by Plains Indians, especially those who were less nomadic. The lodges were a familiar sight to traders along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

Inside, the lodge was surprisingly roomy, and surprisingly cool.

After visiting the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Center, we went back to the motor home for a while to cool off. A little later, we went to up into Nebraska City to La Portal Mexican Restaurant for an early dinner. We passed by the restaurant several times around lunchtime, and every time we did the parking lot was packed. We went in mid afternoon after the lunch rush, so there was hardly anyone else there.

There were at least a dozen combo dinners to choose from that all cost $6.99 each. We both ended up having the same one that included an enchilada, a burrito and a chili relleno. Margery had a beef enchilada and burrito, and Paul had chicken.

While most Mexican restaurants include two menu items plus refried beans and rice, El Portal skips the sides and gives you three items. The food was good, but not great, and the prices are very reasonable.

We stayed in Nebraska City for a week. We didn't do a lot of sightseeing, so that gave us plenty of time to relax. On the day before we left, we did our usual pre-departure chores. Then we headed southeast the next morning.

Hastings, NE, Part II: Stuhr Museum

Our second sightseeing outing while staying in Hastings, NE, was Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. As we said, there were a lot of pioneer museums and pioneer villages to choose from around Hastings. We chose the Stuhr Museum because it features an 1890s-era living history village. Stuhr Museum is located about 20 miles north of Hastings in Grand Island, NE.

The museum is named for Leo Stuhr who was the son of German immigrants that owned a farm in Grand Island. Leo Stuhr served in the Nebraska House of Representatives and went on to become the state's first Secretary of Agriculture. He was appointed to the Federal Farm Board in 1930. In 1960, Leo Stuhr donated 35 acres of land and funds to build a county museum.

Along the parking lot is a railroad display that includes the 1901 Union Pacific engine 437, an 1871 passenger car and a 1912 Union Pacific caboose.

The main museum building has displays of local photos and artifacts that follow the history of pioneers and early settlers.

 

Unfortunately, photography wasn't permitted inside the museum, but the displays were well done, and artifacts were well marked.

On the other side of the parking lot is the Gus Fonner Memorial Rotunda that features a collection of Native American and old west memorabilia. Photography wasn't permitted in the rotunda either, but we did stop for a photo of ourselves on the way there.

After checking out the old west memorabilia in the rotunda, we walked over the the 1890s village they call Railroad Town. The Union Pacific Railroad came through this area in 1866, and once the transcontinental railroad was opened in 1869, towns like Grand Island grew up along the route. Railroad Town is a collection of buildings from the late 1800s that have been relocated from other areas, mostly from elsewhere in Grand Island.

From the parking lot at the museum building we walked through the arboretum to Railroad Town. The arboretum has a picnic area, several small flower gardens, a rose garden, and a pond.

 

The first house we came to was the Lesher House. Built in 1883, this house was originally located in the residential section of Grand Island. The cupola appears to be decorative, but it is part of the house's natural air conditioning. By opening windows in the cupola it would act as a chimney and draw warm air out of the house. Apparently, they didn't have the cupola windows open when we were there because the house was hot and stuffy inside.

 

Across the street is the Milisen House, which is the town's largest house. This two-story home was built in 1879 and belonged to Charles Milisen who was one of the town's earliest settlers and a respected civic leader.

Grand Island's best-known resident was actor Henry Fonda. The house where he was born in 1905 was relocated to Railroad Town in 1966.

 

At the far end of town is the Stolley House that was originally near Grand Island. You can tell from the windmill, the water tank and the garden this house was located in a little more rural area.

Railroad Town has a collection of stores and shops, many of which have interpreters demonstrating crafts such as spinning, leather working, tinsmithing and blacksmithing.

It was around lunchtime, so some of the shops were closed. We weren't real anxious to spend a lot of time inside anyway because the temperature was around 90, and the old buildings were all hot, stuffy and a bit musty. We previously mentioned the increase in humidity we were noticing as we traveled east. In fact, it rained the morning we went to the Stuhr Museum, which made the humidity shoot up even more.

 We were so uncomfortable because of the humidity we skipped some parts of the village that were located away from Railroad Town. There was a group of log cabins, a 1900s farmstead, a one-room school, a church and a ranch that we didn't see. There is also a building that houses a collection of antique farm equipment and automobiles. We would have gone to see that, but it is only open from 10:00 to 11:00 AM and from 2:00 to 3:00 PM each day in summer. We arrived just about 11:00, so it was too late to see it the morning. By the time we were finished seeing the other things we wanted to see it was only 1:00. We were hot, thirsty and hungry, so we chose not to wait around until 2:00.
 

We both have been hungry for Chinese food lately, so Margery did some research and found a restaurant in Grand Island that got good reviews. Since it was our 42nd wedding anniversary, we decided to stop for a late lunch to celebrate.

Hunan Chinese Restaurant is in a little strip mall about 10 minutes from Stuhr Museum. Most lunches are priced at around $6, which includes soup and appetizer. They have an extensive lunch menu, but we didn't see our favorite - General Tso's chicken. The waitress assured us that #18 on the menu was the same thing as General Tso's chicken, so that's what we ordered. Paul also ordered hot and spicy soup and crab rangoon for an appetizer, while Margery got egg drop soup and an egg roll. Crab rangoon is a deep-fried dumpling stuffed with cream cheese and crab meat. The soups and appetizers, especially the crab rangoon, were delish.

When our lunches arrived, we paused for an ice-water toast to our anniversary before digging in.

The dish we ordered wasn't exactly the same as the General Tso's chicken we were used to, so we were a little disappointed. It was still good, but it wasn't what we were hungry for. Oh well, that's just another excuse to eat out again soon.

We scheduled a whole week at Hastings Campground, and since we decided to be fairly selective and slow down our sightseeing, we had plenty of time to relax. Paul got the overhead cabinet rearranged and got the Wii game console hooked up in its permanent location. We both got haircuts, and we also caught up on laundry and other chores. From Hastings, we continued our way east. We'll have more info about where we end up in our next post.