From Boys Town down the Platte River

Saturday night brought some heavy winds, thundershowers, and hail to eastern Nebraska.  It was pretty scary, and most of it was from 11 to 3 in the morning.  So, I slept in before heading into Omaha to see Boys Town.  This is the place started by Father Flanagan and featured in the movie with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.  Today, they have almost 20 locations around the country (serving troubled boys AND girls), but this one remains the "headquarters."  One of the boys was working the visitor center desk, and he got me started on the car audio tour.  They have a great museum, and you can look around the town to see the schools, the residences, the post office and police station, as well as the historic places like the chapels and Father Flanagan's home.  He's buried in the catholic chapel.  In the museum, I saw Spencer Tracy's Oscar for Best Actor, which he gave to Father Flanagan.  For years, the boys attached stamps to a ball, eventually making Ripley's Believe It or Not by forming it until it was 32 inches around and over 600 pounds!  It's estimated to contain over 4.5 million stamps!!  Boys Town is highly inspirational; it shows how much good can be done by selfless people who have faith.

Fremont, Nebraska has a statue of Lincoln along the Lincoln Highway.  He's holding a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.









In a town called Columbus, they have a monument to Andrew Jackson Higgins.  He's the guy who invented the landing craft that were used in World War II at D-Day.  The monument has soldiers charging up the beach with the boat in the background.  Very impressive!







The Platte River, which runs across south central Nebraska, was followed by the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails as well as the Transcontinental Railroad and the Lincoln Highway.  All along the way are markers of different types.  This one tells where a post office used to be that was a landmark for travelers.







The original 1913 Lincoln Highway ran through Duncan, Nebraska, north of the Union Pacific railroad tracks.  Future re-alignments kept south of the tracks and avoided crossing them so many times as the old roads had done.  The original highway went right through these trees in Duncan.

An original section, bypassed by later alignments, that is still passable is the Gardiner Section just west of Duncan.  After stopping to read a historical marker that described the one-room school that was once nearby, I crossed a100-year old bridge.  I had already met two pickups that had crossed it, so I figured it was safe.

The little town of Clarks, also north of the tracks, has a great mural of Nebraska that I believe I read was painted by local high school students.  Note the brick pavement; I don't know if it's original or if it was just part of beautifying the town.

Spent the night in Grand Island, Nebraska.