Day 8

Friday, Oct. 4^th

We stopped at Minden, Nebraska  so we could go through the Harold Warp Pioneer Village Museum on Friday. 

  This museum is incredible.  There are several huge buildings filled with all kinds of things and many smaller historic buildings filled with collections.  The place  was opened in 1953 and is sort of an artifact in itself.   The collection of wagons, buggies, and old cars is one of the best we have ever seen.

 As you walk through the large building above you are all kinds of old planes.  There are large collections of anything you can think of from all eras;  telephones, guns, machinery, dishes, televisions, radios, musical instruments, appliances, clothing, toys and others I don’t remember.    The Hobby Building had glass cases filled with literally thousands of ball point pens from different businesses and countless salt and pepper shakers.  Another large building had an example of a kitchen, living room and bedroom from the 1830s to the 1980s.  Smaller buildings included a soddy, a church, a log cabin, a school, a firehouse and others filled with varied collections.  I can’t think of anything they didn't have a collection of at this museum.  We spent the whole morning there.  

Not far from Minden is Fort Kearney.   This was an important stop on the emigrant trail. It was established in 1848 along the Platte River to protect travelers on the trail and served as a way station, sentinel post, supply depot and message center for the emigrants bound for California and the Pacific Northwest. 

It was a home station for the Pony Express, an outfitting depot for Indian campaigns and home of the Pawnee Scouts.  The grounds are extensive but only the stockade, parade grounds and blacksmith shop have been rebuilt. The small museum has interesting displays of artifacts found during archaeological excavations at the site.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer at Grand Island, Nebraska.  

The beautiful main building has exhibits of period rooms, tools, household articles and furnishings depicting Nebraska’s history from 1860 to 1920.  There is another large building focusing on Native American and western artifacts.  The grounds are the size of a small town and contain all the buildings you would find in a late 19th century Nebraska town.  Again the season prevented us from going through the smaller buildings.  We were there 27 years ago with our two six year olds and I remembered much of the little town as we drove through it.

Comparing the three museums we visited is interesting.

 The Pioneer Village was started as a private collection and is now run by a foundation.  It is a collection of thousands and thousands of things, some in display cases and some just lined up in buildings. There is a lot to look at, mostly without any description or dates.   Things are right next to each other with no  empty space.  The large buildings were built to be functional rather than beautiful. 

The Fort Kearney Museum is there to explain the historical site and to display the artifacts found there. It is government run, well maintained and minimal. 

The Stuhr Museum main building is beautiful.  It looks like an art gallery.  In fact the first floor is entirely an art gallery with all the paintings and pieces for sale.  You cross a bridge over a huge circular moat to go into the main building. Inside the displays are well spaced with descriptions of all objects and large story boards with photographs describing the artifacts and era.  There is a life size  exhibit of a typical emigrant camp on the prairie with covered wagon, campfire, buffalo chips, etc. 

So which was our favorite?  We liked the Pioneer Village.  There was so much to see it was almost overwhelming.  Everything wasn't pretty.  It looked old and used because it was.   I suppose you need to think about the audience the museum is attracting.  Children wouldn't be happy spending an entire morning at the Pioneer Village looking at old things.  The displays at the Stuhr Museum would be of more interest to children.  It even had a special corner where children could play.  Minden, Kearney and Grand Island, Nebraska should be stops for anyone traveling through Nebraska.  These were great museums to visit.