One of the challenges of a vacation is finding interesting stuff to see/do. And if you're trying to hold costs down and stay in your home state, the challenge increases. But Nebraska is home to some pretty amazing historical spots.
This summer, Mom and I are checking out some spots in Nebraska that we haven't seen before. Yesterday, we headed down to Beatrice and Fairbury to see the Homestead National Monument and Rock Creek Station. Homestead is dedicated to the settlers who took advantage of the Homestead Act, accepting the challenge of carving out a home in an unfamiliar and unsettled land. I didn't realize that over half who tried to win the free land failed and went back east. Three of my ancestors gave it a shot, and all three succeeded.
One of the attractions of the monument is the handful of computers where you can look up homestead records. Mom and I looked up P.O. Avery (my great-great-grandfather who homesteaded to land where Mom's family still lives) and Thomas Hanson Croston and James F. Hunter, who homesteaded in central Nebraska and from whom my dad is descended. The files contain a variety of paperwork from the homestead application to testimony from witnesses. They were really interesting to see.
Rock Creek Station is out in the country near Fairbury and was a way station for pioneers heading west and an exchange point for the Pony Express. You can see and even walk in ruts from the wagons - awesome! I didn't know that Rock Creek was where James Butler Hickok, a.k.a. Wild Bill, got his start. Apparently he was a stablehand at the station and shot a man in what all the information calls a "fracas." Mom suggested calling it a kerfuffle instead, but whatever you want to call it, two men died.
Both are very interesting and well done and definitely worth the time. If you haven't been to either, you really should go. You might just learn something. Even on vacation.
