Lookin' at North Platte
by
Dick Prosapio © 2003
Whenever we're on-the-road I tend to collect a few
of those glossy handouts from the racks set up in restaurant and
motel foyers. It's always the "quirky" ones that attract me, those
that seem incongruous or laughable given the reality of the
territory. It's not that most of these places aren't worth seeing,
it's just that many of them are a bit less than "awesome"... even by
the notoriously low standards used by teenagers to give value to
just about everything.
Some of these things are just a single 4" x 9"
sheet, usually printed on both sides. One-sided flyers are hardly
worth picking up. I have one from Liberal, Kansas that says, "Oz-Some
Airplanes!" It's about the "Mid-American Air Museum" in Liberal which,
as it turned out, really is worth seeing, the tortured reference to
Dorothy's home base notwithstanding.
Some of these things get pretty hefty; the one
touting Abilene, Kansas goes on for twenty-one pages. One page is
devoted to the Russell Stover Factory Outlet. This seems a little out
of place in a travel brochure.but then again; tourists do tend to
indulge themselves more while on vacation so why not? But if you're
not up to ten-pound boxes of mixed chocolates, how about, "The
Greyhound Hall of Fame"? You'd stop for that right? Or, "The Museum of
Independent Telephony". (That's what it says here.) What could they
possibly have in their vast collection? They feature ""extended hours
in the summer in case you get lost while exploring.
By the way, Abilene has a museum dedicated to Dwight
Eisenhower who was born there. It's small and has an odd collection
including a typical staff car from WW ll. It even features the
measurements of the car mounted behind it. I never figured out why
anyone would care to know what the wheelbase or bumper-to-bumper
dimensions of a 1940 Dodge four door might be..but in case you do, you
can get the details there.
The Wisconsin State Park System hand out is nicely
done with lists of all the state parks, forests and recreational areas
in the state. What they don't tell you in this one is that if you want
to camp there you'd better call ahead..about a year ahead. It's
totally useless as a last minute camping guide for the traveler.
I also collect these things with the idea in mind
that if or when we come back we will be better prepared to see more of
what there is to offer. Take North Platte for example, the folks there
put out quite a piece of work. It's nineteen pages full of information
about things you wouldn't know about North Platte even if you bothered
to get off Interstate 80. Everything is located well back in the town.
There's the "Buffalo Bill State Historical Park", "Cody Park", which
has a railroad museum and Wild West Memorial. There's the "Golden
Spike Tower and Visitor Center" which allows one to oversee the
"worlds largest and busiest railyard" "Every 24 hours (the yard)
handles 10,000 railroad cars." And they replace "10,000 pairs of
wheels yearly" in the repair shops there.
Now com'on, you didn't know that did you?
There's "Dancing Leaf Cultural Center" which is set
up to show how the indigenous people of the area lived 1500 years ago.
These people were ancestors to the Pawnee.
So, North Platte is has some stuff to see, if you
just happen to be in the area and are longing to kill time.
By the way, North Platte is famous for something
that isn't talked about in this brochure or anywhere else for that
matter. During WW ll., the citizens of North Platte and the
surrounding territory set up a canteen for the troop trains that
passed through there. The people dug in to their own pockets and made
up meals; coffee, cakes, sandwiches, donated magazines and books, even
held a short dance session for the guys who were going through day
after day on the trains. This went on for the four-year duration of
the war and ended with it as well. Even the station is gone.
I usually keep these brochures till the next road
trip and then, for some strange reason find that I've gotten rid of
them in some kind of clear-the-clutter campaign prior to departing,
then I have to start all over again.
We were motel shopping one late afternoon somewhere
in Nebraska as I recall and stopped at a rather large motel located in
a very small town. Another couple was just going out the door as I
approached and I heard from the man, "That's an outrageous room price
for such a dinky little town!" The clerk suddenly got a spark in her
eyes and replied, "We don't think of ourselves as a 'dinky little
town' sir."
"Well that's what you are. A dinky little town!" he
shouted back as the door closed.
He was right of course, but it was cruel of him to
point it out I thought. After all, every little town needs to have
some kind of claim to fame and thus not be totally forgotten as
the Interstate rushes people from one spectacular kind of town to
another. I'm sure that town must have had at least a town character
that everyone talked about. If they did I didn't find a brochure about
them anywhere though.
Just now in this little pile I've found the flyer
for the "Sternberg Museum" located in Hays, Kansas. It says, "For a
Rip-Roarin' Good Time!" and then goes on to talk about the great
fossil collection they have there. That's the only brochure I found on
Hays, which some might classify as "dinky"..but the next time I'm in
the vicinity I just might check out the Sternberg. I'm a big fan of
underdogs and small towns.
Dick Prosapio ©2003, All Rights
Reserved
