Photograph by Grand Island Tourism

Nebraska does history differently – it’s hands-on, tangible and active. From dusk cannon fires to blacksmiths to heritage festivals, there is no shortage of history events across the state. Here are seven places in Nebraska where you can experience living history firsthand.

 

Stuhr Museum Grand Island

Railroad Town is pretty busy for a town with no residents. It’s not abandoned nor a ghost town – but a walkable life-size frontier town part of the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island. More than 60 structures stand as a representation of prairie towns circa 1890s.

Every summer day, Railroad Town comes alive as volunteer living historians crowd the streets. Children play jackstraws on the lawn. The blacksmith fires the forge and pounds steel on the anvil. A post man sifts through the mail at the post office. A shopkeeper opens the General Mercantile Emporium and counts bills. Students walk down Depot Street for class at the one-room Peters schoolhouse.

Women and girls wear gigot sleeved dresses while the men and boys adorn their button-ups with vests and suspenders. It’s 1890s life as it was – work, play, dress and all.

While guests may not look like a pioneer, they are encouraged to engage in 1890s life: learn how the tinsmith makes tin cans, play croquet at the Milisen House, tend to the herb garden at the doctor’s house, write a letter at the post office – and even read real stories first published in the 1890s in the latest issue of the Platte Valley Independent.

The newspaper isn’t the only real historical record – all the homes along the town’s four-city blocks are original to Grand Island. Bell Cottage on College Street is the birthplace of Oscar-winning actor Henry Fonda. His family rented the home on 622 W. Division St. in 1904 from banker George B. Bell. The green 1884 house continues to portray a small rental cottage from the 1890s, telling the story of middle-class families in Nebraska.

Many of Railroad Town’s 60 structures are also original artifacts from Grand Island. Front Street features the most buildings in town with an 1890s telephone exchange, Elftman’s Barber Shop, A. J. Sousa Shoe Shop, Kechely Bank, Marshal’s Office and the Wm Siebler Blacksmith Shop.

The living historians who interpret Railroad Town’s frontier life are local volunteers  and employees trained by the museum. Youth as early as fifth grade join the town’s history as living-history apprentices. Apprentices join other historical interpreters every July for Railroad Town’s 1894 Independence Day.

Grab a frozen pickle juice from the Silver Dollar and celebrate America’s independence as it was 130 years ago.

 

Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Visitors Center Nebraska City

President Thomas Jefferson was always curious of the west and the untapped frontier that awaited. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, official exploration of the land began. Jefferson commissioned an expedition to find new trade routes, establish positive relations with the Native American tribes and study the land and climate of the West. 

Jefferson selected two military officers to lead the expedition: Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. For two and a half years, the Corps of Discovery traveled through the West marking their discoveries and meetings with Native American Tribes, including their journey along the eastern edge of Nebraska.

In July of 1804, Lewis and Clark arrived near present-day Nebraska City along the Missouri River. Overlooking the very route the captains took over 200 years ago, the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Visitor Center details the captains’ scientific discoveries during their 8,000-mile journey.

Lewis and Clark systematically documented their discoveries and recorded at least 178 plants and 122 animals during the expedition. Life-size animals round each corner of the 12,000 square foot center while interactive displays sing bird songs for identification and categorization.

Every month throughout the summer, the center hosts Saturdays with a Soldier: reenactors represent members of the Corps of Discovery and share stories of daily life on the expedition. Visitors join demonstrations that include tomahawk throwing, musket shooting and hide scraping. After testing their throw against the reenactors’, guests explore the full-size replica of a flat-bottomed keelboat. Children and adults climb on board the 55-foot vessel to learn the strength it took to paddle upstream and travel over 4,000 miles of rivers.

The center celebrates its 20th anniversary  Aug. 23-25 as reenactors portraying expedition soldiers, French engagés, blacksmiths and mountain men inspire visitors to explore and be curious – just like Lewis, Clark and Jefferson 220 years ago.



Photograph by Brian Weber

 

Fort Atkinson State Historical Park Fort Calhoun

Fort Atkinson was Nebraska Territory’s first military post, school, library and large-scale agricultural operation. Troops arrived in 1819 and built the fort in 1820 to primarily protect the American Fur Trade but also maintained a self-sufficient community west of the Missouri River.

Fort Atkinson was home to two primary military regiments: the Sixth Infantry and the Rifle Regiment, both represented by distinct uniforms at the fort’s living-
history demonstrations. The Sixth Infantry, named “The Regulars,” served from 1819 to 1827, the entire tenure at the fort. The Rifle Regiment, or the “Rifles,” was a group of specially trained long-range sharpshooters who served the fort until 1821 when it dissolved into the Sixth Infantry.

At its peak, Fort Atkinson housed one-fourth of the standing United States Army – nearly 1,200 troops – under the command of Col. Henry Atkinson. During
living-history demonstrations, the Regulars are recognized for their blue wool dress coatee and a .69 caliber smooth-bore, flintlock musket. Rifles wear green linen frocks with yellow fringe and bear Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifles.

Self-sufficiency was essential to life at Fort Atkinson as supplies were limited and transportation was arduous. Daily work was largely agricultural to sustain the soldiers and civilians. Demonstrations at Fort Atkinson are representative of the tradesmen and practices that sustained the fort: carpenters, blacksmiths, sutlers, musicians, fur traders, tinsmith, laundresses and military personnel.

Reenactors at Fort Atkinson personify real soldiers and civilians who served at the fort – using carefully researched records from the National Archives. During candlelight tours in November, a docent leads guests through a third-person view of evening life at the fort during the 1820s.

The fort continues to celebrate its bicentennial anniversary with living-history weekends throughout the year.

 

Fort Kearny State Historical Park Kearney

Fort Kearny was the first fort built to protect travelers along the Oregon-California Trail. Established in 1848 as Fort Childs, the U.S. War Department renamed the fort to honor Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny. Until 1871, the fort served as a supply depot, sentinel post, Pony Express Station, stage station, and protected workers building the Transcontinental Railroad.  

Dedicated volunteers reenact life at Fort Kearny – and it’s a family affair. Not only did Fort Kearny host soldiers, workers and Pony Express riders, but it was home to the soldiers’ families, dairy farmers and laundresses. Families reenact alongside the soldiers as the civilians that kept the fort fed, clean and company.

Every day is different as volunteers curate their own specialty with the characters they choose to represent, whether that is their speech, dress or profession. Guest may interact with wooden barrel makers to trappers to generals and laundresses – but a crowd favorite is nightly cannon fire during Labor Day weekend.

“When you’re watching a youngster, and they see a guy in an 1860s uniform, and they see a cannon go off, and there’s people around with these firearms – it’s a shock, but after a while they get comfortable, and you see their eyes opening up,” said Gene Hunt, Park Superintendent.

To fire an 1860s cannon, six military personnel must work in unison with precision to clean, load and fire the cannons. Debris and embers must be removed before another round is loaded. One man scrapes out large debris, careful not to ignite any residual gunpowder, while another wets a sponge to collect embers.

Once the barrel is dry, a round is prepped, approved by the sergeant and loaded. While the man walks the round to the barrel, he must use his body as a shield to avoid enemy fire. With a gentle tap, he pushes the round to the bottom. Another pricks the powder and inserts a friction primer. At the command of “fire,” the cannon ignites.

Booms echo throughout the grounds as five cannons blast one after another as the sun sets over Fort Kearny. “It really shows how dangerous these cannons were during the Civil War,” Hunt said.

Guests hear the crack of the barrel, smell the gunpowder and watch the smoke as the cannons fire on Aug. 30-Sept. 1.

 

Henderson Mennonite Heritage Park Henderson

Over 200 immigrants crowded into a narrow, roughly constructed Immigrant House in 1874. From grandparents to children, 35 families crammed into their new home and endured their first Nebraska winter. This September, Henderson Mennonite Heritage Park celebrates the journey and history of the 35 Mennonite families who immigrated from Russia and settled in Henderson 150 years ago.

Mennonite families in the Molotschna Colony in Russia sought peace and freedom to practice their beliefs. As Russia’s Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin pushed for mandatory military conscription, the families’ military exemption and religious freedoms were at risk. A delegation was sent ahead to scout America, and in 1874 they journeyed to America in search of a new home: Henderson.

The Henderson Mennonite Heritage Park began in 1998 on the 8.5-acre homestead of original setters Jacob and Anna Friesen. The Immigrant House was the first structure built as a replica of the original building built by the Burlington River Railroad – the families’ first home. Today, it houses a collection of artifacts from the journey including immigrant trunks, Russian clocks, family photos and Bibles.

Every September, Henderson celebrates the journey and history of its founding families during Heritage Day. Children attend country school in the fully restored District #73E country schoolhouse. Guests learn how to bake bread on an outdoor wood stove or get wet washing the laundry. Volunteers demonstrate how to rug braid and rope – and anyone can help press homemade apple cider.

Each building represents a part of Henderson’s history and its Mennonite community. The newest edition to the site is a reconstruction of a Country Mennonite Church that was built outside of Henderson in the late 1880s.

The Mennonite families created a home, community and lasting heritage in Henderson. Visitors join the 150th celebration on Sept. 14 to see one of the many communities that founded the great state of Nebraska.



Photograph by Henderson Mennonite Heritage Park

Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park Burwell

Nine of the original permanent buildings still stand at Fort Hartsuff. Known as the “prettiest post on the plains,” its lime structures preserve one of the most complete examples of forts during the Plains Indian Wars. This September marks 150 years since its establishment in 1874.

As settlers expanded west, tension arose between Native American tribes and the settlers. After Sioux attacks in October 1873 and January 1874, settlers asked for military protection. Construction began on Sept. 1, and was renamed that winter in honor of Gen. George L. Hartsuff. Soldiers patrolled the valley while the fort became a major employer and market for local farmers and construction workers.

This Labor Day weekend, life at the fort will be on display as reenactors from the First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry Regiment Company A and Fremont Pathfinders host military demonstrations like bayonet displays and cannon fires. Reenactors love to tell stories of the Plains Indian Wars and the Fort Hartsuff soldiers who protected homesteaders.

Original structures like the post headquarters, barracks, hospital, officer’s quarters and quartermaster stable stand alongside reconstructions of the wagon scale, privy and blacksmith-carpenter shop. Reenactors fill the fort representing the military and civilians. Demonstrations can include blacksmithing, baking, laundressing – and even an 1870s doctor.

Guests celebrate the fort’s establishment on the exact date of construction and enjoy historical speakers, children’s activities and food vendors Aug. 31-Sept. 1.

 

Wessels Living History Farm York

David Wessels didn’t want the story of the American farmer to die with him. Life on the farm needed to be preserved and real for the next generation. In his will, he requested that a portion of his land and capital be used to construct and maintain Wessels Living History Farm at York.

Wessels wanted real, active history – get your hands dirty in the soil and learn about agriculture as it’s been done for generations. At Wessels Living History Farm, guests are put to work. Gather eggs from the hens. Handwash the laundry. Haul water from the 140-foot well. Shell corn for the chickens and pop some over the wood burning stove as a little reward for your hard-earned history lesson.

The 160-acre site south of I-80 displays a 1920s farm typical to York County. Not only does it include Wessels’ house and original tractor building, but it features a collection of historic buildings gifted from members of the surrounding communities.

Bill Peters donated the 1920s red, timber barn from its home in Shelby. The granary, which belonged to Ralph Stuhr, moved from its original location a couple miles west of Bradshaw. The 1905 church was a gift from the congregation of the Zion Lutheran Church from Thayer. The one-room schoolhouse relocated from its place in Sutton.

The farm and its volunteers tell a generational, collective story: grandmothers see the life of their parents, fathers relate to their grandparents’ stories and children see their heritage come to life by their own hands.

Director David Batty started volunteering after relating his own family history to the farm during a visit in 2018. “The wood burning stove is just like the one our grandmother had that she used ‘til the day she died,” Batty said.

Wessels Living History Farm preserves David Wessels’ dream and continues to educate visitors, young and old, on what it took to not just survive but enjoy the simple life as a Nebraska farmer.


Photograph by Andrew Carpenean