Crossing into the West
California Hill looking southeast towards the Platte River
For those of you who only see the interior of the United States from an airplane, it might surprise you to know there are nuances of culture for those people who live here. I learned that the summer I worked as the recruitment chairmen for my college fraternity driving 10,000+ miles in my car across the state of Nebraska.
Leaving Lincoln heading west, you begin to melt from Midwest to the West. It’s right about where the precipitation patterns drop enough to switch from farmland to cattle grazing. Of course, central pivot irrigation drawn from the Ogallala Reservoir has opened up more farmland, but the ethos remains the same.
The landscape is more rugged and punishing especially when a thunderstorm or snowstorm rips across the Plains. You can see its inevitability coming your way. Ominous and humbling. This attracts and retains a different type of person. The cowboy and cowgirl ethos. Knowingly enduring this harshness and willing to accept the risk.
Ancient Migratory Paths
I enjoyed my stop at Fort Kearny Historical State Park, which is a replica fort built on top of the original. It served as a US Army post protecting Oregon Trail and other westward travelers. Some landscapes were destined for migration. Ancient game paths now layered with humankind’s. What is now called Kearney, Nebraska is one such place.
The Platte River (inch deep and a mile wide) attracts seemingly infinite numbers of migratory birds, including the Sandhill Cranes. Within a short distance are the Mormon Trail, California Trail, Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Overland Stagecoach, Transcontinental Railroad, Lincoln Highway, Interstate, and fiber optic.
Honoring Those Who Were Here
All of these followed variants of pre-historic game trails learned from the Native Americans who were the original inhabitants of this vast land. You and I use their place names and other words all the time without taking notice. Nebraska, Iowa, Dakota, and Kansas just to name a few.
Maybe it is time we should learn and honor their stories. I don’t plan to celebrate the Manifest Destiny narrative in this documentary. Rather, I plan to view it in its holistic impact on those who were already here and those who have come since - the good and the bad.
Cycles of Life
Stopping in North Platte to interview a man who I had recruited 28 years before from that same town to join our fraternity was fascinating. We had both lived longer than we were aged at the time of our first meeting. He’s a native of North Platte and you’ll enjoy what he shared about the unexpectedness of 2020, including losing his mother to cancer during the COVID pandemic.
We discussed the nuances of eastern and western Nebraska culture, since he spent a fair amount of time living in Lincoln and Omaha. As he said, ranchers have been social distancing forever. There are differences.
Road Food and Roadside Attractions
I snuck in stops at Runza (it’s a Nebraska thing) and the world’s largest rail yard run by the Union Pacific on the Transcontinental Railroad line in North Platte. Then picked up a to-go order of Rocky Mountain Oysters from the iconic Ole’s Big Game Bar in Paxton.
As sunset approached and a raging thunderstorm passed to the north, I rambled up the best stretch of the Oregon Trail for wagon ruts. California Hill at sunset with a storm nearby made me glad I had my Subaru not an open wagon. The kid in me was filled with electric glee.
What’s a surprising nuance about the part of the world in which you live?
