My nephew and his family live near Accident, Maryland. They stopped by North Central Kansas this week for a brief visit with relatives including his grandmother, parents, aunt and uncle. The Blauvelts met Garrett and family in Osborne about 11 a.m. Saturday. The Maryland residents left by 5 p.m. headed to Limon, Colorado, where they planned to stay the night. One of their goals on this trip is to visit the Four Corners Monument area. The monument, marks the only spot in the United States where four states (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) come together. There it is possible to plant your foot so that you are standing in four states. Paul Bunyan has nothing over a person visiting the Four Corners.
Their mother had tried unsuccessfully to cool the youngsters’ desire to visit the four corners. She had been there and said there was nothing special about it. However, her youngsters, ranging in age from grade 8 to grade 3, were certain she was wrong.
Sunday she shared pictures of the youngsters “Surfing” on the Colorado Sand Dunes, which is something I would much rather do than visit the Four Corners.
I remember many years ago when my parents tried to take my grandparents to visit Mammoth Cave. It was a place Grandfather had dreamed of visiting since his childhood. The trip was planned for October when we could see the fall colors in the Ozarks. I was in grade school and worked ahead to gain permission to miss school. When the time came, we all loaded up in the family’s 1957 Rambler automobile and struck out for Tennessee and Mammoth Cave. We were past Louisville, Kentucky, less than 90 miles from Mammoth Cafe National Park when Grandmother got sick. We had to turn around and rush her back to St. Louis where my grandparents boarded a train for Kansas City and a visit with her doctor.
For a few days, I got to roam around in the Ozarks with my parents but when Grandmother was well enough to return home, we picked my grandparents up in Kansas City and returned to Superior.
It was the last trip my grandparents got to take and Grandfather died without fulfilling his childhood dream of visiting Mammoth Cave.
We have places within 10 miles of Superior that could, with proper promotion, be destinations.
The first I think of is the stateline marker erected to mark the end of two railroad lines. The marker is located on private property and I can’t vouch for it still being there as I haven’t been there for many years, but it may be. When I was in high school, I thought it would be a neat place to picture some of the students who crossed the stateline each day to attend school in Superior.
Without doubt some would view it as a ho-hum sort of thing. It is a cement post with an engraving proclaiming the Kansas-Nebraska State Line. The post signified more than the state line for it was at the junction of two railroads. The rails in Nebraska were owned by the Chicago & North Western. The Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe owned the rails in Kansas. With the shut down of the C&NW line about 50 years ago, the post may have been removed.
Another interesting spot I told my nephew’s youngsters about was the county road crossing southwest of Hardy.
I was once called there by a Nebraska Highway Patrol officer. He asked me to take pictures of a car-train accident he had been called to investigate. The officer wanted to include my pictures in his investigation report. But upon arriving, he asked if I thought he had jurisdiction. After looking over the situation, he correctly questioned if he had jurisdiction and called for a Jewell County officer. When the Jewell County officer, arrived and got out of his cruiser, he asked if I thought he had jurisdiction. For the second time that morning I had to say no.
As I looked over the accident scene, it was apparent the accident happened in Republic County, the automobile was pushed by the train across a portion of Jewell County and dropped off alongside the tracks in Nuckolls County.
It was a three-county, two-state accident. At that location, the now abandoned Missouri Pacific rail line crossed into Nebraska near not only the state line but by the county line dividing Jewell and Republic counties.
The accident has made for an interesting story but there wasn’t then or now anything special to see at the intersection for it looks much like many other country road intersections where visibility is often obscured by growing crops.
A more frightening intersection is near land my grandfather owned in Jewell County. For drivers coming from the east, the embankments on either side of the road totally obscure visibility of vehicles traveling the north-south road. I shudder every time I enter that intersection and slow my vehicle to a creep for fear another vehicle will suddenly pop into the intersection.
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Last week government offices were closed in recognition of Juneteenth, a new holiday many area residents can not explain.
This week those offices have missed an opportunity to celebrate another important holiday. Earlier this year, the governor of Nebraska issued a proclamation and the Nebraska Legislature adopted Resolution 87 making June 26 to 30 the first ever Community Newspaper Week in Nebraska.
While I don’t expect any fireworks nor do I suspect any businesses to close because of the declaration, it is nice to know the folks at the Capitol recognize the importance of weekly newspapers.
In his proclamation, Gov. Pillen said, “Nebraska’s newspapers are the first draft of history for the communities they serve through news coverage of local people, issues, events, schools, churches, civic organizations, business community, personal achievements and milestones, births deaths and weddings. Newspapers foster local debate on issues at the local, state and national level which serve as foundations for our democracy.
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