Western Nebraska - Road Trip 2007 Quiz

Answer: Grand Island

On our visit, the museum was gearing up for Hall County's 150th Anniversary; unfortunately, we couldn't stay. Among the highlights of the museum is its staff of living history reenactors, including a hatmaker, a fine general store, a tinsmith, a carpenter (all actively practicing their trades) and a 93-year-old fellow running the hardware store who had real-life experience using most of the implements in the place. I don't recall his name, but the man knew his stuff and knew it well.

Answer: Buffalo Bill

North Platte boasts the legendary showman's "Rest Ranch" (now a state park), as a major attraction. As the town was Cody's home in retirement, many local sites are named in his honor, including the city park and a rather impressive "tourist trap", Fort Cody, which features the former Medal of Honor winner's visage looking down from a 30-foot painting.

Answer: A gorilla

Notable on the menu at Ole's are Rocky Mountain Oysters, a delicacy ubiquitous west of North Platte, albeit nearly absent in parts east. For more information on this staple of Great Plains cuisine, see http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/rockymtoysters.html.

Warning - not for the squeamish. If head cheese grosses you out, do not even think about visiting the above link. And, yes, I've had them. Mike, however, has not.

Answer: Ogallala

Another Old West-themed Ogallala attraction is Boot Hill, an honest-to-goodness cowboy cemetery rediscovered by archeologists and historians in the 1970s. Researchers have painstakingly identified many of the remains therein - those that were unclaimed by living family now rest beneath stylized wooden markers, upon which my party and I placed polished stones (more durable than flowers) as tokens of respect.

Answer: Chimney Rock

Though modest in height compared to the igneous formations of the Rockies further west, Chimney Rock still makes an impact, and was mentioned in the diaries of westward American emigrants more often than any other site. The world traveler Sir Richard Burton wrote admiringly of the formation when he visited it in 1860 after investigating the Church of Latter-Day Saints in Utah - and if you know much about Burton, you know he was not an easy man to impress.

But that is another quiz.

Answer: True

Scotts Bluff was the site of intensive development by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal agency dedicated to putting people to work and preserving historic and natural wonders in the process.

As an aside, there is an absolutely remarkable tour guide who comes down to Scotts Bluff from Michigan(!) every summer to do living history. I can honestly say that I learned more about the American trails west in my brief conversations with him (complete with extensive props and questions from the boys) than I had learned in all my life to that point - and that's saying something.

Answer: Stonehenge

For some odd reason, Carhenge - a replica of Stonehenge made entirely of junked automobiles - was the primary motivation behind the whole trip. Finished in 1987 by Jim Reinders, the upright cars rest in holes five feet deep, while the lintels atop the circle are welded on.

In addition, there are other car sculptures in the "Carhenge Art Preserve" nearby, including a quite impressive spawning salmon and a Tyrannosaurus Rex sculpted from defunct autos. Again, this must be seen to be believed.

Answer: The Sandhills

Perhaps even more impressive than the Sandhills is the route we took west - Highway 26 through the North Platte Valley. While the Sandhills feature rolling mounds of the granular material, the North Platte Valley - which in days of yore embraced the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail - has fantastically scenic gorges, striking limestone outcrops, and in places a fine view of the looming Lake McConaughy - and some cool historic sites to boot.

Answer: The migrations of America's "First Peoples" east after crossing the Bering Strait

A trained historian will immediately notice that American Indians are largely absent from the Arch, except as they relate to the migrations of Euro-American pioneers. Though criticism like this may smack of "political correctness" to a more conservative reader, it is frankly ironic that a museum-goer will learn more at the faraway Field Museum in Chicago about the Platte Valley's role as a Pawnee route than they will at a museum dedicated to the route itself.

Answer: False

After the westbound trails ceased to operate with the advent of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s, General of the Army William T. Sherman bluntly admitted that he could see no military use for Fort Kearny. It closed in 1871, and was reduced to little more than its footings in short order. It was little more than pasture for the first half of the twentieth century. It has since been partially restored - its stockade and powder magazine (the latter buried beneath tons of earth) make for great fun for the kids, and the blacksmith's sod house and modest visitors' center are very educational. (As a boy, I always thought of the stockade, with it's high, pointed walls, as the "fort" - as an adult, I've come to realize it was actually a secure animal enclosure. Romantic notions die hard.) The lion's share of the post (which was never heavily fortified - no blockhouses, no gun turrets) remains unrestored, though the footings for the buildings remain in place to mark where the Fort's structures once stood.

Thanks for taking this quiz! If you have any corrections or comments, particularly those that would make this a better quiz, please let me know.