WanderNebraska Travel Adventure Program in full swing

“We are thrilled to kick off the third year of this program,” said Leslie Fattig, executive director at NSHSF. “The fact that we have 195 organizations participating in the program shows a high level of excitement. These organizations are committed to preserving their local history and their place in the development of Nebraska. We are proud to support their work.”

WanderNebraska was created to promote the work of local museums, historical societies, and libraries and increase awareness of what is found in the local sites along Nebraska’s backroads and in communities that are often overlooked by the typical tourist.

This year’s program features a total of 195 sites across the state of Nebraska, including 33 new locations, and runs through November 30.

Western Nebraska is in the Wild West Frontier region and includes the following 20 sites: Broadwater Museum; Chadron Public Library; Chappell Memorial Library; Cheyenne County Historical Museum and Post Company in Sidney; Crawford Public Library; Dawes County Historical Museum in Chadron; Dobby’s Frontier Town in Alliance; Ethel and Christopher J. Abbott Visitor Center in Bayard; Fort Robinson in Crawford; Gering Public Library; Hemingford Public Library; Kimball Public Library; Legacy of the Plains Museum in Gering; Lyman Public Library in Lyman; Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron; Oshkosh Water Tower; Potter Historical Depot Museum; Potter Historical Uptown Museum; Potter Public Library; Silver Hill Museum in Oshkosh; Sioux County Museum in Harrison.

“It’s a great program and we’re very tickled to be a part of it,” said Duane Nightingale of the Cheyenne County Historical Museum and Post Company in Sidney. “We are a museum, here in town, and it brings a lot of people in here and they learn about the history of our little town.

“This was a working fort, back in the day. It started in 1867 and it ran through 1894 before it closed. It brings people in and we can tell them the history of our area and the things that happened around here and why the fort was brought here, in the first place, and so on and so forth. So, we’re glad to have it.”

Nightingale said the venue has already seen WanderNebraska participants come through the door and the program has impacted visitation numbers.

“It’s so good for us, because we can get our story out, too,” he said. “That’s what we like. Gets people off the interstate and gets them on the state highways and they can see a little bit of Nebraska, instead of zippin’ right on through and not experiencing this part of the country.”

Silver Hill Museum in Oshkosh consists of two separate buildings, one of which is the old opera house that was later turned into a theater.

“Which, most of us that are alive now, probably 70-ish, remember it as where we went as teenagers. It features little individual partitions. One’s made up as a kitchen. One is a sitting room. One’s a bedroom,” said volunteer Marlis Shearer.

“We also have Miles Marriott. He’s kind of the county bad boy. Actually, he was an outstanding artist and we have a couple of his pictures. He’s originally from Dawson County. … He also was a taxidermist and we have a huge collection of his birds that he taxidermied. But, he also shot the sheriff and spent time in the state penitentiary. So, he’s a good boy/bad boy. We also have the original projector. I mean, it’s like they just walked out, in the projector room, so that’s pretty cool. And we recently obtained the popcorn popper that we all remember.”

The other building is the original established schoolhouse, built in 1905.

“It’s a rock schoolhouse and attached to it is a metal building with farm implement types of things,” Shearer said. “We have a military museum in there with pictures of our military personnel from the county and those who were killed in action and a lot of uniforms. The schoolhouse is an old-time school house. Every October, we hold pioneer school for our elementary school’s fourth graders.”

Jill Balcom, a Sioux County Historical Society board member, said the Sioux County Museum consists of seven buildings.

“We have the original newspaper office, the Harrison Sun newspaper office. That was built in 1924. It became our first museum building in 1976,” Balcom said. “We have a schoolhouse. We have Harrison’s old post office. We have a house and a carriage house that’s named for the family that owned it, so we call it the Holt House. Then we have the Zurcher building, which was an old-time garage and it has a 1930 Buick touring car in it, plus Harrison’s original hose cart for the fire department. And then we’ve got our new building, which is packed. All of our buildings are just full of things.”

Visitors can order their WanderNebraska booklet through the NSHSF website at NSHSF.org. Booklets contain information about each site, and include a map showing the seven different regions, which can be used to help visitors plan their trip.

The WanderNebraska website, wandernebraska.com is available for those who prefer to use their electronic devices.

Each listing includes the site’s name and summary, hours of operation, contact information, a Google map for directions, upcoming events, and a list of nearby WanderNebraska sites.

Prizes, including magnets, keychains, T-shirts, socks, ballcaps, books, and more have been brought back for the 2024 program year and are awarded by the number of stops visited. The top five visitors will receive a special gift basket from NSHSF.

Participants register their site visits by using the booklet or scanning a QR code located at each historical location. Visit WanderNebraska.com or see the booklet for more information.

Watch for information about the historical focused, fun WanderNebraska Adventure Tours coming soon with Sara Crook on social media and the nshsf.org website.