Central Nebraska a Great Place to Visit History

Central Nebraska is a wonderfully historical location. Central Nebraska and the Kearney, Nebraska area plays on being where the three western trails converged: the Oregon Trail, the California trail and the Mormon Trail. This history has been turned into an audio-visual extravaganza by some of the same companies that work with Disney. The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument is a unique tourist attraction arched over I-80. The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument at Kearney, Nebraska immerses the visitor into history through sight and sounds and authentic settings that live. The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument has also become a place of reconciliation in preserving Indian culture and bringing tribes back together and back to Central Nebraska.

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument starts the visitor or researcher off with a foundation. From there a visitor can wonder through the historical buildings preserved on the grounds of Kearney, Nebraska's Trails and Rails Museum. The buildings and information on the grounds of the Trails and Rails Museum draw in the visitor as the full size engine will delight the younger set. Trails and Rails Museum is seeped in history and is a depository of many historical records of Kearney and the Central Nebraska area.

Go east on I-80 about forty miles and Central Nebraska's Grand Island beckons with Stuhr Museum. During the summer at Stuhr Museum, you can walk down the sidewalks of an actual town which runs pretty much as it would have in pioneer days. Real life people are at the forge of this recreated Stuhr Museum town, making horse shoes, or working the general store or doing other activities of the pioneers. Visitors to Stuhr Museum can even participate in some of these learning activities.

The beautiful Stuhr Museum buildings also house a wealth of information, historical details and whole rooms from the past to the present.

Go south off I-80 to Central Nebraska's Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History and you'll find yourself surrounded by the natural habitats of animals and birds. Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History houses any number of historical artifacts from the earliest days of Nebraska. If you're looking for something more modern, stop in during the huge summer Kool Aid festival. Kool Aid was invented by a Hastings resident, something celebrated every year with a weekend celebration hosted by the Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Further West on I-80, before you reach Kearney again, head south to Minden where Pioneer Village is just that. Pioneer Village has preserved historical buildings and other items as a village with 28 buildings on 20 acres. Around the village circle find a Pony Express station, a "soddy," and even the oldest steam-driven Merry-Go-Round in the country. And rides are still a nickel at Pioneer Village. Pioneer Village has Minden's first church, in which services are still held during the summer.

West and South of Kearney, Nebraska and The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, you'll find the Holdrege Nebraska Prairie Museum with its collection of carriages, wagons and trains, planes and automobiles. Here they have room after room set up exactly the way it was, way-back-when. Horses look like they are ready to take the visitor for a ride in the shining carriages.

The Nebraska Prairie Museum also features artifacts and more from the German internment camp which was in their area. World War II is on prominent display. A full-sized parachutist seems to be descending from the sky. There are even photos, information, diaries and collections from a World War II prisoner of war. The visitor cannot help but be moved by the exhibits at the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege in Central Nebraska.

Finally, back to Kearney in Central Nebraska and then South, one comes to Fort Kearney State Park. Fort Kearney was built to protect travelers heading west. The fort, blacksmith shop and parade grounds have been rebuilt and are used for re-enactments.

From The Great Platte River Road Archway, Monument Trails and Rails, Fort Kearney, Stuhr Museum, Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Pioneer Village and the Nebraska Prairie Museum, Central Nebraska offers the historian and those who love or wish to learn about area history the perfect vacation destination.