A steeple converted to look like an African hunter's lookout tower is the first hint that a wild animal exhibit has replaced congregants at the former New Abundant Life Church, Neligh, Neb.

Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday, noon - 4 pm
Closed Mondays and major holidays*
Hours may change for special exhibitions.

Beautiful architecture blends with memories of a time gone by at the historic Durham Western Heritage Museum. Opened in 1931, Union Station was built by the Union Pacific Railroad as a showpiece in the city of their headquarters. Considered one of Omaha's most unique treasures, the renovated art deco building offers an exquisite look at Omaha's history.

The Durham Western Heritage Museum offers unique, hands-on learning for people of all ages. Explore Omaha's history, discover something new in our temporary exhibits and remember the past through our special collections. Explore Omaha of years past as you learn through today's technology. Throughout the museum, you'll find exhibits that teach you about Omaha's neighborhoods, notable citizens and interesting historical sites.

Location:

Durham Western Heritage Museum is located in Omaha's Historic Old Market at 801 South 10th Street.

Located on the 10th Street bridge, the Museum can be accessed from both 10th Street and Leavenworth Street. The Museum has a two level parking deck that is FREE to all visitors.

Hours:

El Museum Latino- Omaha

El Museo Latino opened its doors in the historic Livestock Exchange Building on May 5,1993 as the first Latino art & History museum and cultural center in the Midwest. In 1997, the museum moved to its present brick and red tile roof building. The original construction of 1887 was a school and was reconstructed in the 1930s. Today, El Museo Latino is one of only eleven Latino museums in the United States.

In conjunction to the exhibits, El Museo Latino develops educational programs that include lectures, slide presentations, films, art classes, workshops, demonstrations, art history classes, gallery talks, guided visits, and dance classes. Some of the programs are age specific for K-12, some for post secondary students, and others are for an adult audience. In addition, El Museo Latino is a resource and a center for Latino studies in the Midwest.

El Museo Latino organizes and presents special events during the year highlighting the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration in May and Hispanic Heritage Month in September. May features the annual Almuerzo (brunch) while September features the Hispanic Heritage celebration Banquet. During the year, Family Day celebrations are also scheduled as well as special dance performances by the museum's dance company, "CHOMARI" Ballet Folklorico Mexicano, and by visiting artists.

Location: 4701 South 25 Street Omaha, NE 68107

Hours: M-W-F  10AM-5PM  T-TH   1PM-5PM   SAT  10AM-2PM

General Crook House Museum - Omaha

The Museum is the authentically restored home of General George Crook. It was constructed in 1879 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

General Crook was a Civil War and National Indian Wars hero and was considered the "greatest Indian fighter in the history of the United States.’’ At the landmark 1879 trial of the Ponca Chief Standing Bear, General Crook testified in defense of Standing Bear. He was the Commander of the Department of the Platte from 1875 to 1882 and again from 1886 to 1888.

The house is an Italianate style, which represented the no-nonsense grandeur of the military frontier. The furnishings are from the 1880 Victorian period.

Collections at this living history museum include decorative arts, costumes, art & crafts and period furnishings. Classes and a reference collection on the history and appreciation of antiques are available.

Adjoining the Museum is the Crook House Victorian Heirloom Garden, which overlooks the majestic parade ground and historic buildings of Historic Fort Omaha. Many of the more than 110 varieties of heirloom flowers, trees and shrubs are native to Nebraska. Some plants were originally carried here on wagon trains or were available by mail order catalog in the 1880s. Perennials surround four central "carpet beds" of annuals, patterned like an Oriental rug to create an outside parlor where many hours would have been spent to capture the cool breezes.

Hours: Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

The Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball - St. Paul

The Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball is dedicated to illustrating the careers of over 140 men with Nebraska ties who have made it to the Major Leagues of American Baseball. The museum contains artifacts and information on native Nebraskan's and those with Nebraska roots or ties.

Major displays on the Hall of Fame players illustrate their baseball careers including trading cards, pictures, and artifacts. Additional displays are being developed for the "Nebraska's Top 25 Roster" including Les Nunamaker of Malcom, Johnny Hopp of Hastings, Rex Barney of Omaha, Billy Southworth of Harvard, Adolph Liska of Dwight, Tim Burke of Omaha, and Clarence Mitchell of Aurora.

The Museum is located in the Historic Downtown District of St. Paul Nebraska at 619 Howard Avenue. This is approximately 5½ blocks west of U.S. Highway 281. (Turn west on Howard Avenue at the Pizza Hut). St. Paul is located in central Nebraska 30 minutes north of Interstate 80.

This beautiful estate in Nebraska City was home to J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day. From its beginning in 1855 as a four-room frame house, the magnificent mansion grew to 52 rooms through several remodelings. Authentic furnishings grace the rooms, and displays capture the life and times of this exceptional man.

A collection of antique carriages and wagons are displayed in the carriage house, and a stroll through the beautifully landscaped grounds, formal rose garden and arboretum is a must. Picnicking is permitted on the area. Cider pressing and other old-time crafts are staged here on last two Sunday afternoons of September and the first two Sundays in October.

Carriage House: Built in 1901 for about $10 000 this structure housed the Morton coaches, carriages, and carriage horses On display are a Stanhope phaeton, a Vail phaeton, a rockaway, a sidebar runabout, the traditional surrey, and a Brougham used by President Grover Cleveland The collection also includes an Overland stage, purchased by Carl Morton.

Italian Terraced Garden: Part of Joy's 1903 addition, the garden was designed by a noted Boston architect named Manning. Gently curving brick walks guide the visitor along both levels of the cool, shaded rose garden Highlights include numerous flower and rose beds, as well as a sundial and pergola. Monument Square: Set in the east part of the park near the entrance is a bronze casting of the author of Arbor Day", J. Sterling Morton It was erected in 1905 and dedicated by President Cleveland. Standing in the foreground is a smaller bronze of the Greek goddess Daphne, who according to legend was turned into a laurel tree by her father to save her from the pursuit of Apollo.

Log Cabin: Just across the drive from Monument Square is a log house, built on October 2 2, 1890, as a memorial to the old settlers of the community by J. Sterling Morton and other members of the old Seniors Association It is typical of the early homes used by territorial settlers. Pine Grove: Originally planted by Morton in 1891 to prove to Governor Furnas that white pines would, indeed, grow in Nebraska, the stand was replanted in 1937 after the great drouth. The dense carpet of needles and cool shade make it a favorite area with visitors.

Tree Trail: A one-half mile tree trail winds through the original arboretum area planted by the Mortons The wood-chipped path, cool shaded benches, and labeled trees offer visitors both a pleasant and interesting experience The arboretum, which encompasses the entire 65 acres of the park, features over 250 varieties of trees and shrubs.

Family Plot: (Wyuka Cemetery)-Historic Wyuka Cemetery, site of the Morton family plot, is located at 19th Street and 6th CorSo, about 1 1/2 miles southeast of the park entrance The plot is easily recognized by its 20-foot, hand-hewn rock shaft, shaped like a tree trunk broken at the top.

Contact Information:
Arbor Lodge SHP
PO Box 15
Nebraska City, NE 68410-0015
Phone: (402) 873-7222

The Museum of the Fur Trade - Chadron

Along the frigid fringes of Civilization, before the era of Thinsulate™ and two-zone heating, native peoples and pioneers knew how to stay warm. They "borrowed" the hides and fur of cold-weather mammals, and what they didn't need for themselves, they traded and bartered to others. The Museum of the Fur Trade celebrates and chronicles North America's first continent-wide economy -- the business of furs, involving trappers, fur traders, and Indians.

The museum is on the site of a trading post and warehouse built along the Bordeauz Creek in 1833, surrounded by the only hilly, forested region in Nebraska. The post was operated until 1876, when it was shut down after US soldiers confiscated ammunition being sold to the Indians.

The museum opened adjacent to the site in 1949 -- the only museum for a hundred miles. The old trading post site was excavated in 1955, the buildings reconstructed a year later. The trading post, a sod and wood hut buried in the ground -- near a teepee and Indian garden -- is too tiny to house the artifacts in the museum's collection. The museum is in long, one-story building, and with a $1.7 million plan to expand over the next few years, should be the undisputed fur trade museum of the world.

The collection includes all the trappings of the fur trade lifestyle -- weapons, clothing, the goods and materials traded in establishments like this across the continent. There are William Clark fabric samples, Greer Garson's bells, the earliest "point blanket." Kit Carson's shotgun is a highlight, but nearly lost in a rack of other guns and weapons. The displays are a sometimes confusing mix for those of us who like our history unconfused -- there are Indian ceremonial garments fashioned from British buttons and cloth from Europe.

A few unusual exhibits stand out, such as the Buffalo Tongue, a northern plains delicacy back in pioneer days. Also of note: a parka made from seal intestines.

But there are things to learn here. The first white man to cross the North American continent? Not Lewis or Clark, but Alexander Mackenzie, a Canadian fur trader.

Today the fur trade continues around the world, albeit at a much smaller scale and without the naked exploitation of the natives. Every year, about three busloads of Italians visit the museum, and others come from the wolfy regions of Romania and Bulgaria.

The gift shop is subdued -- no need for furverts to detour here. But visitors can buy pelts: raccoon - $40., bobcat $200, wolverine $500. "It’s a world market," the curator said. "The price is set all over the place."

The Museum of the Fur Trade takes itself somewhat seriously -- its scholarly journal, Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly, presents articles on the importance of ostrich plumes to fur trade feather merchants, or the market for a good ice chisel north of the 50th parallel. The Museum of the Fur Trade Story notes: "It may surprise you to learn that no animal has ever become extinct due to being overhunted for its fur."

From "Roadside America"

6321 Hwy. 20, P.O. Box 1276, Chadron, NE 69337 
Daily 8-5, Memorial Day-September; or by appointment.