Discovery in Nebraska

Since September 9th, I’ve traveled across much of the country. I’ve visited a lot of interesting places, and had some unforgettable experiences. Starting to sound like the journey is over, and this portion is winding down. I’m now in Minden Nebraska which is roughly 800 miles from the Arizona house. I’ll probably make that run in two days flying.

But meanwhile, let me tell you about what I discovered here in Minden. The Pioneer Village Museum. The creation of Harold Warp, a Nebraska native, entrepreneur and visionary. With the success of his plastics business he made the decision to collect and preserve our history and achievements. He started with 20 empty acres and built his museum, bringing in historic buildings, and beginning the process of finding, collecting and housing a shopping list of Americana.

Geesh, I’m starting to sound like a brochure. What I want to get across is that from the outside I found myself thinking “Well, I’m here, so even though it doesn’t look like much, I’ll check it out.” A few steps inside the main building and I found it hard to keep my mouth closed as my jaw kept dropping. 2 ½ hours later I’d managed to almost see most of that one building. Thank goodness they have a reasonably priced hotel I’d already checked into. This is a museum that takes, no demands, a full day plus to see it all. Admission automatically includes the second day. For RV travelers they have a large, free parking area (no hookups).

I took several hundred photos and would like to tell you what display was my favorite, but cannot – too many to choose. Every facet of the American way of life, every tool and machine is represented all laid out in chronological order. Depicting laundry, for example, starts with washboards and then presents what has to be every form of washing machine invented up through the 60’s. Here is one that is dog powered!

I’ll post later about some special people I met here, but meanwhile want to encourage you to put The Pioneer Village on your list of must-see places. I can, without reservation, say this museum is the “Smithsonian of the Mid-West.”