Pioneer Village, Minden, Nebraska

What a great place to visit.  One needs 2 days to fully see everything here.  Try to pick a cool day so you can spend lots of time in the upstairs exhibits.  There are over 50,000 items to see.  I was impressed the moment we entered the mail building (there are 25 buildings of things to see).  Lots of history.  In one building, you can see the way everyday living has changed from 1830 to 1960.  Kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms are set up to show the way things changed.  There are antique tractors, trucks, automobiles, planes, farm machinery, washing machines, and so much more.  If you are ever in this area, be sure to take a couple of days to see Pioneer Village.

WWI airplane, Jenny

things women will do to look pretty.  Early way of getting your hair permed.

Pioneer Village, Tractors

Lots of tractors to see.  Some I never heard of.

Pioneer Village Automobiles and Trucks

There are 3 buildings housing the antique automobiles and Trucks.  So many to see.

Charles Shultz went out and bought a lime-green ford like this when he signed his contract for the comic strip “Peanuts”

Nash truck

Pioneer Village Wagons and Buckboards

Lots of wagons and buckboards to see.  Here are a few that we saw.

Gypsy wagon.  Very few of these wagons can be found due to the fact that they were destroyed when the owner died.

Tally Hoo.  Used for fox hunts.

Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles, Lexington, Nebraska

Great museum.   We were able to see tanks, jeeps, halftracks, a helicopter that had been shot down 5 times in Viet Nam, ambulances, a snow tractor, HMMWV’s, a WWII Volkswagon swim wagon, uniforms, motors, Hot Lips, uniforms, guns, a vehicle used in Patton’s army, and many other items.  What we liked is that we could even touch the vehicles and sit in some of them.  Great day.  Click on travel photos for more photos.

German Volkswagon swim vehicle.  Life expectancy of this was about 4 weeks.  You can see other views by clicking on museum above.

Great history here.  Snow vehicle used to rescue downed pilots and to recover the Norden bomb site.

During WWII, Germans would string piano wire across roads about neck high.  The army put a wire cutter on their jeeps to take care of this problem.

WWI truck.

Main Battle tank

Great Platte River Road Archway

The Great Platte River Road Archway is located across highway 80 outside Kearney, Nebraska.  We paid $10 to go thought his archway.  We put on a pair of earphones and followed the history of pioneers starting out on a wagon and ended with the building of the Lincoln Highway which was the first highway to connect east and west.  We saw life-size exhibits about the pioneer trails, railroad and interstates.  There were also some interesting video and a drive-in which had a short video about the Lincoln highway.  Very interesting.


a group of Mormons making their way to Utah were stranded by a storm and had to be rescued.
Mark Twain traveling by stage.  Can you image 20 people inside this stagecoach?   Sometimes, that was the amount of people traveling at one time.
Pony Express Rider off to next stop.

Fort Kearney, Kearney, Nebraska

Fort Kearney was a frontier outpost on the Oregon Trail.  Pioneers traveling the Trail would stop here.  This was also a Pony Express stop.  Fort Kearney was also on the Mormon Trail.  Not much is left of the original fort except a sod building which is set up as the blacksmith shop.  There is a replica of the stockade and the ammo dump.

sod building.

Mormon cart.  Can you imagine pulling this for 1300 miles, from Iowa City to Salt Lake, 125 days?    One had to pay $45 dollars and was allowed 17 pounds of personal items for an adult, 10 pounds for a child.

ammo dump.  Inside are replicas of cases of rifles and ammo.

Strategic Air & Space Museum, Ashland, Nebraska

Arrived at Mahoney State Park, Ashland, Nebraska and went to tour the Strategic Air & Space museum located next door.  Cost of tour was $11, well worth the money.  Gary says that this is close to the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

This is the bomber that kept flying over us when we were camped in Abilene.

Pierson Wildlife Museum Learning Center

This is one of the largest private collections in the United States.  The wild game collection has 100 full-body mounts and 50 head mounts.  We had our own private guide who explained how the animals were mounted and about the gentleman who had the collection in his home.

this was shot in 1973.  Cost $11,000 to mount.

Antelope County Pioneer Jail Museum

Small museum located in what used to be the sheriff’s office and home.  The jail was on the bottom floor, the family lived on second floor.  Besides the jail, there is a 1900 cabin that was built as a playhouse for a wealthy man’s children, and an old church.

log cabin playhouse, jail museum

church

washing machine

Neligh Mills State Historic Site

This is a 19th century flour mill with all the original equipment still in the mill.  We had a tour guide who told us how all the equipment worked.  Also was able to view a video about the mill.

pay for work.

mill

Ashfall Fossil Beds

Ashfall Fossil Beds is home to remains of 12 million year old mammals that died after a volcanic eruption.  The eruption was 1000 miles away from the water hole.  The ash was very fine, the animals inhaled the ash and eventually the ash covered every thing.    Fossils of barrel-bodied rhinos, three-toed horses, llama-like camels, sabre-toothed deer, elephants, and other animals can be seen.  There is a barn, called Rhino barn, that covers an intact fossil site with complete fossil skeletons left in place for public viewing.  We were able to watch some of the digging taking place and got to talk to an intern who explained what was going on.