McCook Daily Gazette: Columns: Walt Sehnert

More news from spring 1884 (05/20/13)
From H.P. Waite's collection of early McCook Tribune Stories Immigrants: May 15, 1884: Seventy-five families of Hungarians have settled on Beaver Creek in the vicinity of Herndon this Spring. Ugh! May 15, 1883: the alleys of McCook are encumbered with the carcasses of dead animals, tin cans, waste water, and other stench-emitting and disease producing offal...

The Great 1,000 mile race (05/06/13)
Recently we came across an article, which noted that the running of ultra-marathon races (endurance races of 50, 100, even 150 miles) was the fastest growing outdoor sport in America. McCook has at least two dedicated ultra-marathoners, who do credit to their sport. This brought to mind a race that originated in Nebraska some 120 years ago, a super race that tested the mettle of both man and beast, and in so doing set the standard for endurance horse races to today...

Growing pains: McCook 1884 (04/29/13)
From the H.P. Waite Collection of McCook Tribune Stories March 20, 1884: The streets and alleys present a wretched appearance. The space around the town pump is the favorite resort for hogs -- which, in spite of the ordinances prohibiting the running of animals at large, still have free range of the streets. ...

NU's Dr. John Leland Champe (04/22/13)
To those of us who grew up in Northeast Nebraska in the 1930s ancient history was pretty much knowing about someone's grandparents. But occasionally we got a chance to look further into the past, when we got to view a collection of Indian Arrow Heads, or a cracked piece of Indian pottery, which the owner invariably referred to as something "really old." We had to take his word for the age of the artifact...

Syngman Rhee, Korea's George Washington (04/08/13)
Today, we read and hear a great deal about North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un (Dennis Rodman's buddy), pontificating, and brandishing nuclear bomb threats against the West, while the North Korean people struggle to find enough to eat. Electricity is on in the cities for just a few hours each day -- in rural areas perhaps not at all -- and there are stories of forced labor camps. It is difficult for us in the United States to understand a fellow like this...

McCook at 1 3/4 years: 1884 (04/01/13)
In March, 1884, Frank Kimmel of the Tribune felt compelled to offer an update on the progress of McCook, which at that time was still three months shy of celebrating its second birthday. Almost from the beginning of McCook, the Tribune's Editor and the Editor of the Indianola newspaper had been trading almost weekly pot shots at one another. ...

Staying healthy on the prairie, 1884 (03/25/13)
The wife of a ranchman living northwest of here in Hayes County, was thrown from a wagon a few days ago, and suffered a broken arm. She lived more than 40 miles from the nearest surgeon. The weather and roads made it impossible for her to reach his office. She, with the assistance of her brother, who has no knowledge at all of surgery, set the fractured bone, and it is reported she is getting along nicely...

125 years ago, the Blizzard of 1888 (03/18/13)
The Eastern Seaboard of the United States has recently been hit with a severe blizzard, as has the Eastern portion of Nebraska. Such storms bring about great hardships and even deaths. These days, most of the troubles connected with the storms revolve around automobile traffic, especially on the Interstates, where automobile pileups can reach epic proportions. These recent storms, while bad, pale when compared with the some of the storms of yesteryear...

The Chautauqua (03/11/13)
For many many years, before there was television, one very popular forms of entertainment in communities across the land was the traveling tent show. These productions set up in vacant lots in cities and small towns for a day or two, to as much as a week, providing live entertainment for young and old alike. ...

More early McCook businesses (03/04/13)
From H.P. Waites Collection of McCook Tribune Stories In 1883 McCook was still in its infancy as a frontier community, yet those early settlers were filled with optimism, energy and foresight, making the new little city of McCook the fastest growing town in the state, which was attracting more settlers every day...

McCook, 1883: The end of year two (02/25/13)
From H.P. Waite's Collection of McCook Tribune Stories McCook Tribune December 5, 1883: McCook is to have a place other than the Church and the Band Hall where public meeting can be held. The Church serves the purpose when the gatherings are of such a character that they can properly be held there. The Band Hall is suitable for all sorts of public meeting, but its capacity is limited. Dances are usually held in the dining room of one of the hotels...

William Valentine, educator (02/18/13)
Note: These days, when one travels on East 5th and 6th Streets, and views the former East Ward School grounds, halted now in the midst of its transformation to apartments and duplexes, he cannot help but think of that structure, when it was the proud center of learning for so many years. ...

Stan the (Gentle) Man Musial (02/11/13)
In mid-January 2013, we were saddened by the news that Stan Musial, the perennial all-star slugger for the St. Louis Cardinals had passed away quietly at his home in Ladue, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. The accolades for this Hall of Fame baseball player have been lavish in their praise, and richly deserved, but his death brought back the one personal encounter I had with Stan the Man, a long long time ago, in 1953...

McCook Tribune 1883 (02/04/13)
From the collection of old McCook papers of H.P. Waite

The Pawnee massacre (01/28/13)
(Note: 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Massacre Canyon Battle of 1873. From time to time this year we will take a look at some of the various aspects of this great Battle, between the Pawnee and the Sioux, the last great Indian battle in Nebraska.)...

McCook in 1943 (01/21/13)
In 1943, McCook, along with the rest of the nation, was consumed by "The War." That was the foremost topic of every conversation and indeed, affected everything we did during that period. In the time between the First World War, which ended in 1918, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. ...

Culbertson growing pains in the 1880s, 1890s (01/14/13)
After the American Civil War, the Texas cattle industry really began to take off. In Texas, cattle were selling for about $4 per head, but it didn't take long for the cattlemen to discover that they could get as much as $40 per head for those cattle in the eastern markets...

Flora and George W. Norris Foundation (01/07/13)
NOTE: On Friday, Jan. 11, "A Norris Summit" will be held at the new Keystone Center in McCook, This meeting will bring together four local organizations who are interested in preserving the memory of, and honoring the achievements of McCook's favorite son, George W. ...

Trials of a new community (12/31/12)
From H.P. Waite's Collection of McCook Tribune Papers June 1882: The editor of the Indianola Courier in his issue of June 8, reports what he calls a case of "scammage" in our town, which is considerably bedaubed with the venom and malignity sweltering in his own veins and vials. The young man accused, he calls "a brute in human form."...

The Great Upset of 1956 (12/24/12)
Probably the greatest feeling a high school football player can have is to be a member of a championship team, undefeated, even unchallenged during the season. But perhaps an even sweeter sensation is to be a member of the team that cuts down the team that everyone has already predicted as the championship team -- against long odds. This is the position in which the McCook Bison footballers found themselves at the end of the 1956 season...

Howie and the Trenton Pow Wow (12/17/12)
During the summer of '48 I joined a crew of student and professional Anthropologists from the University of Nebraska who were unearthing an Upper Republican Indian site on Prairie Dog Creek, east of Alma. We were hurrying to complete work on that ancient village before the lake covered that site. Our crew was distinguished by interesting and colorful characters -- none more so than a senior student, Jim (Howie) Howard...

Original town plat, McCook (11/26/12)
Thanks to efforts of one local historian, the Red Willow County Clerk's office will soon have a fine new, large, easy to read, black on white copy of the Lincoln Land Company's first plat of the Original Town of McCook, supplementing the fragile, white on black, hard to read plat of Original McCook that is presently available for study at the Red Willow County Clerk's office...

Progress in McCook, 1883 (11/19/12)
(More of H.P. Waite's stories gleaned from the McCook Tribune) The long awaited-bridge across the Republican River, discussed since before McCook was incorporated was finally being built. Nov. 11, 1883: The lumber is in place on the spot for the new bridge. ...

The hick from French Lick (11/05/12)
Sometimes legendary athletes are forever linked with their teammates, like Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees, or Tinker to Evers to Chance, the famous double play combo of the Chicago Cubs, but sometimes that association is defined by their adversaries---such as boxers, Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier, golfers, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, and basketball's, Larry Bird and "Magic" Johnson...

The record run of Old No. 2558 (10/29/12)
EDITOR'S NOTE: In a recent story in the Gazette it was announced that a train on the Amtrak Line from Chicago to St. Louis would attempt to hit a top speed of 110 mph. While speed records have been achieved (and implemented) in other forms of transportation, in the U.S. it seems that we have not progressed that far in railroad travel in the last 100 plus years. A look back at some speed runs through McCook...

Fall of 1883 in McCook (10/22/12)
From the pages of the McCook Tribune -- collected by H.P. Waite (Note: For the first time the name of E.M. Kimmel, appear as editor and publisher of the Tribune, replacing Mr. Israel who started the Tribune in 1882. No other announcement of the change in management appears.)...

Old Ironsides (10/15/12)
In August of 2012, the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy, The USS Constitution, lovingly referred to as "Old Ironsides," set sail (under her own power) for only the second time in 130 years. The occasion, in Boston Harbor, was to commemorate the Constitution's victories during the War of 1812. ...

Saying so long to the governor (10/08/12)
In November, of 1998, after the election, a number of former McCook residents, who either worked with Governor Nelson, or were closely associated with him, decided that it would be a good idea to have a party at the Governor's Mansion. This party would be in the way of saying thanks to the Governor for his service to the State of Nebraska, and also would be a chance to get together with old friends to see the improvements to the Mansion, which Mrs. ...

The Tiananmen Square Massacre (10/01/12)
Note: Part #2 of 3. Since Senator Nelson is leaving Washington after this term, we are revisiting a few of the columns we have written about him over the years, ahead of the retirement party McCook is hosting for "Our Ben" on Oct. 13. Ben Nelson, as a boy in McCook, had always been interested in China, so when he got the chance to join a trade mission to the Orient, he jumped at the opportunity. ...

Our man in Washington (09/24/12)
(Note: Since Senator Nelson is leaving Washington after this term, it would seem like a good idea to revisit a few of the columns we have written about him over the years, ahead of the retirement party McCook is hosting for "Our Ben" on Oct. 13.)...

McCook, Magpie City of the West, in the fall of 1883 (09/17/12)
In September 1883, McCook had been a town for some 15 months. An article in the Tribune took note of the fact that businessmen of McCook were advancing the incorporation of their new little city. "The advantages of incorporation are many. The County Commissioners will be holding a meeting in Indianola on Oct. 6th, and a petition, asking for incorporation of the village of McCook will be presented at that time."...

Culbertson's S. E. Solomon (09/10/12)
Samuel Edward Solomon (1859-1941) was born in Pennsylvania. His family had come from Werra, Germany, in the shadow of the ancient castle of Wartburg, where Martin Luther had been concealed while he translated the Bible into the common language of the German people...

The flying Wallendas (08/27/12)
In June 2012 Nik Wallenda, the grandson of Karl Wallenda astounded the world with an ABC TV airing of his spectacular crossing of Niagara Falls from New York State to Canada, via a tightrope (actually a metal cable). This crossing of the Falls was the first of this type in 116 years. ...

The Niagara Falls death defiers (08/20/12)
Part 1

Olympics of days gone by (08/13/12)
It has been an enjoyable couple of weeks, in which we have been privileged to sit in our living rooms and watch the planet's most gifted athletes compete at the 2012 London Olympic Games---thanks to the wonders of TV coverage. The Olympics go back a long, very long way, to at least 776 B.C., in Olympia, Greece. ...

Bobby Reynolds -- 'Mr. Touchdown' (08/06/12)
... And he came upon the (College football) world, bursting like a comet in a long, very dark night, and the people (Nebraskans) were filled with awe and wonderment. Almost as quickly as he had appeared he was gone. The people were sad, but at the same time were filled with hope and dared dream of better times ahead...

Troublemakers of 1880 McCook (07/30/12)
In September the editor of the Tribune was still complaining about the cowboys, among others. "Sept 17, 1883. The cowboy is not an outlaw. On the contrary, he is often superior, both mentally and physically, to the average man. Many of the cowboys in this country come from Texas, having followed the herds, which for a number of years have been driven through this country to the northern ranges. ...

September 1883 (07/23/12)
(From Ed Waite's McCook Tribune Clippings) For the past days, weather has been the "hot" topic that everyone talks about. In 2012 it is certainly bad, and we suffer, even with our air conditioners and fans. 1883 was another bad year, and we can only imagine what our forefathers went through. One pioneer poet put his thoughts on paper:...

Amelia Earhart (07/16/12)
July, 2012 marks the 75th year of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, at the time, the world's foremost woman in aviation in 1937. Ms. Earhart, who was already the holder of most of the records for women in aviation, was attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in an airplane. ...

Searching for buried treasure (07/09/12)
In a good many families there is at least one relative who marches to the beat of a different drummer. These people can be very exasperating. Sometimes the rest of the family is embarrassed by their behavior and would like to pretend that the fellow is no relation at all. But those folks certainly do add zest to life, and provide the other members with a wealth of interesting stories at family reunions. In our family this member would have to be my Uncle Joe...

Early McCook hospitals (07/02/12)
This past weekend, we were privileged to tour the magnificent newly renovated McCook Hospital and marveled at all the technological advances that the new hospital offers. Surely, this is a far cry from the valiant, though crude, attempts that were made by the early McCook doctors in bringing quality health care to people in our area. It seems like a good time to look back at some of McCook early hospitals, to see how far we've come since 1882...

The KKK in Nebraska (06/18/12)
When we think of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) we usually think of the organization, which was formed in the South, after the Civil War. At that time it was considered a fraternal organization, made of up of white aristocrats from the Old South, who were disenchanted with the North's implementation of Reconstruction. ...

Gale Baldwin and the killer of Wild Bill Hickok (06/11/12)
In 1923 Gale Baldwin sat down to write his recollections of the early days of Southwest Nebraska for the Hitchcock County paper. At that time, Mr. Baldwin was 76 years of age and had a good deal to say about his adventures in the "good old days." Baldwin had first come to the region from Iowa in 1871, with his wife and two small children. They came in a covered wagon drawn by two mules. Gale was on a hunting expedition -- to shoot buffalo, but more importantly, to find a "home."...

The Green Beret affair (06/04/12)
Each year the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival brings interesting, highly talented storytellers and musicians to McCook. This year is no different, with speakers who will tell stories covering a wide spectrum of interests. One of this year's speakers is Steve Berry, who presently practices law in Lincoln, Nebraska...

Capt. Jack Lloyd (05/21/12)
In August of 1945, a grizzled old frontiersman visited our city. His name was Capt. Jack Lloyd. He made an appearance at the old Temple Theater and held his audience entranced, as he described how in his own lifetime he had bridged the time between the really "Wild West" and the world as it was then, at the end of World War II...

Memories of Felling Field (05/14/12)
For many years, the summer season of Little League baseball began with a parade of mite sized ball players marching from the park on Norris Avenue, east along D street, to Felling Field, at East D and 7th Street. The route passed our home and it was always fun to watch the kids, so proud in their new baseball uniforms marching exuberantly along, ready to do battle in what, I'm sure, became memorable baseball games for those boys...

Grasshopper invasion (05/07/12)
In the 1870s, from 1873 to 1877, Nebraska, along with a wide section of middle America, from Canada to Texas was hit, and hit hard, by yearly invasions of the Rocky Mountain Locusts (grasshoppers). Mary Loomis McDonald, an early settler in our area wrote about the scourge of hoppers hitting Red Willow County Nebraska, particularly the year 1874...

Old Folks (04/30/12)
When one joins an army unit (or any other organization for that matter) he always meets interesting, even unusual personalities. I think this was even more the case when I joined the 130th Bakery Co. in Korea, during the Korean War. I was one of 12 white soldiers, which integrated (up to that time), an all-black company. We were northerners, while those already there were southerners, making for regional differences as well as blacks and whites...

Those good old days? Red Willow County in the 1870s (04/23/12)
Today, there is considerable talk of hard times, and great concern for the "Poor," by the government and private agencies. These measures are beneficial, for 2012, however our standard of living in this age, for people in every economic class, is infinitely higher than it was for the early white settlers in Red Willow County...

Old bones (04/09/12)
The American Bison, or Buffalo, has been called the most important wild animal in the development of North America. It was the greatest source of food (and most other necessities -- clothing, shelter, tools) of the Plains Indians, and it served the same function for the early white explorers...

Red Grange vs. the Nebraska Cornhuskers (04/02/12)
The 1920s have been called the Golden Age of American Sports. Jack Dempsey in boxing, Bobby Jones in golf, Bill Tilden in tennis, Babe Ruth in baseball -- each dominated his sport and in the process they became folk heroes, and eventually legends in the sports world. ...

All that glitters -- Indianola's gold 'rush' (03/26/12)
In the 1930s the United States was in the depths of the Great Depression. Farmers were hard-pressed to produce a crop, and even then prices were so low that corn was being used for heating fuel in many localities, as it was cheaper to burn corn for heat than buy coal...

McCook forward thinkers, 1940s (03/19/12)
Officials have to strike a balancing act when it comes to scheduling Nebraska Severe Weather Awareness Week. On the one hand, they want to schedule the observance close enough to stormy summer weather so we have the lessons in mind when the actual storms strike...

Superintendent John True (03/12/12)
In the first full week of March 2012 the McCook College Indians played their last competitive game of basketball at McCook's True Hall. Next year the MCC cagers will be playing their games in a brand new, state-of-the-art sports complex. Much will be written about the new sports complex in the coming months, but we thought it might be interesting to look back on the man who gave his name to the building, which was built in 1939...

McCook's first July 4 celebration, 1882 (03/05/12)
In early June1882 nothing existed on McCook's town site to prevent an unobstructed view, nothing more than an occasional cacti and a few blades of sparsely grown grass. Looking north, from the river, not a tree or a bush could be seen looking across the land but the sloping hill upon which McCook now stands. ...

I'll take Manhattan (02/27/12)
In every family there are stories of long lost relatives who have accomplished great things, or attained high places, or at the other extreme, have committed foul deeds, and have gotten themselves in serious trouble. We tend to not talk about those folks. ...

The roundup (02/20/12)
From the McCook Tribune Summer 1883 The whole country, north, south and west of McCook is one vase cattle range, occupied by cattlemen. Except for the cattlemen, this region is unsettled. They came before the public land in this part of the country was surveyed. ...

Acquiring land in Southwest Nebraska in 1883 (02/13/12)
(From the McCook Tribune) In the first years of McCook's existence the United States Land Office was one of the busiest places in town. Settlers were flocking into the new territory, lured by the prospects of free land, in a country that had been touted as being "A Land of Milk and Honey."...

Owens vs. Currence, 1883 (01/30/12)
Most of the people who settled Southwestern Nebraska were hard working, honest folk who had come to make a better life than the one they left back east. But there were always some, the adventurers, that thought that might discover an easy path to riches by taking advantage of folks who were weaker, or not as smart as they were -- the gamblers, the professional gun men and rustlers...

Indians, 1872 (01/23/12)
Between 1860 and 1878 there were some 15 million buffalo that roamed the Great Plains. The territory between the Platte and Republican rivers was said to be the best buffalo hunting country in the world. To the Plains Indians the buffalo was truly "the staff of life," and they prided themselves on the fact that they killed only as many buffalo as they needed to live. ...

More from the early days of McCook (01/16/12)
McCook is a typical frontier town -- a hundred wooden buildings, cheaply built, small, many unpainted ... not the slightest pretensions of architectural symmetry ... on the north side of the railroad track. Not a vestige of shade protects them from the sun ... with temperatures this summer many days over 100 degrees, one day 108 degrees...

The Fighting McCook -- Alexander McCook (01/09/12)
Alexander McCook, our town's namesake, was a very interesting historical figure. Nine months after the war began he became the youngest Brigadier General in the Union Army. Some called him the Union's the most colorful General. To others, he was the most controversial...

Daniel McCook: Patriarch of the House of Dan (12/19/11)
Note: McCook, Nebraska takes its name from Alexander McDowell McCook, a friend of one of McCook's founding fathers. Alexander, however, was just one son of a very famous family of Civil War fighters. Seventeen McCooks fought for the North in the Civil War. ...

McCook: 'The Magic City of the West' 1883 (12/12/11)
On May 25, 1883, McCook celebrated its first anniversary. The town had been platted just one year before. In that year it had grown from a population of near zero to nearly 1000 citizens. "It could boast fine new machine shops and a 15 stall roundhouse on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line, and the designation of Division Point between Lincoln, the Capital City of Nebraska and Denver, the Capital City of Colorado...

Walts of the world (12/05/11)
Recently I received the following letter from an old friend: Dear Walter, I continue to be dismayed about failing to name any of my four children Walter, or my children failing to name any of their children Walter. I spoke about it to our daughter, Sara, the nurse, and she reported that she is aware of the problem and is working on it. ...

Coming to Red Willow County in 1872 (11/28/11)
Though there was little or no fighting by Union and Confederate troops in Nebraska during the Civil War, this territory played an important part in the political climate of the nation at that time. There was great debate in Congress over the merits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, under which new states coming into the Union from the Kansas-Nebraska Territory were to decide by popular vote whether or not slavery would be permitted...

NU and the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame (11/21/11)
"Outlined against a blue, gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. "In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction, and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone, before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon, as 55,000 spectators peered down on the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below." This paragraph, penned by Grantland Rice, of the New York Herald-Tribune, on the occasion of the Notre Dame's victory over Army, 13-7, on Oct. ...

Houdini and Halloween (10/31/11)
Each year, on Halloween, members of the Professional Magicians' Fraternity conduct a s�ance in New York City, with the goal of connecting with the spirit of Harry Houdini, who died in 1926. To date, each year they have come away disappointed. Harry Houdini, born Erich Weiss in 1874, is generally regarded as one of the all-time great magicians, world-wide. ...

McCook's Florence Nightingale (10/24/11)
One of McCook's most beloved citizens in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s was Miss Sallie Hawkins, who served as the school nurse for all of the ward schools, as well as the McCook Junior High and High schools. She was variously referred to as "McCook's Florence Nightingale, and as a "selfless humanitarian, one of those rare individuals who never consider self when there is anyone in need of help."...

Charlie Goodnight, Oliver Loving (10/17/11)
When cowboy traits are discussed -- loyalty, resourcefulness, bravery, and independent nature -- the real-life person those traits describe are those of one, Charles Goodnight, who provided the inspiration for the movies and western literature, to the present day. Goodnight was a rancher/cowman, "the father of the Texas Panhandle cattle industry." Historian. Frank Dobie said, "Goodnight approached greatness more than any cowman in history."...

Texas longhorn cattle trail (10/10/11)
In 2011, because of the severe drought in Texas and the Southwest, there has been a huge influx of Texas cattle into the (relatively) greener pastures of Nebraska, a movement not seen, perhaps, since the great cattle drives in the last quarter of the 19th Century...

'Trainwreck' Tom Novak (10/03/11)
Each year, at the Outland Trophy Dinner, a Nebraska Cornhusker football player is presented with the "Tom Novak Award," an honor which best exemplifies the courage and determination despite all odds in the manner of NU's great All-American Fullback, Linebacker, Center (or as one sportswriter described it, "The Toughest Son of a Gun on the team")...

1882 cowboys, good and bad (09/26/11)
In 1882 working cowboys were a common sight in McCook. A McCook Tribune writer told about some of these cowboys. A Cowboy has qualities that many men, who have the veneer of civilization, do not possess. He is courageous, else he could not follow his hazardous vocation. He is courteous to women. He will make any sacrifice, undergo any discomfort, suffer any privation to help another in distress, be that other man friend or stranger. This when he is sober...

Walter Reed's hospital (09/19/11)
In August 2011 the Walter Reed Army Medical Center is the subject of much news coverage. After more than 100 years, this venerable institution, hospital of choice for the President and our elected officials in Washington, healing place for our wounded military men and women since the Spanish American War, and the laboratory of so much military related medical research, is to be closed in favor of other medical facilities in the Washington area...

A.J. Lewandowski, N.U.'s Mr. All-Purpose (09/12/11)
During World War II Americans were asked to help with the war effort in many many ways, often calling for skills that were outside their comfort zone, and even foreign to work that they had done in the past. In high schools across the country retired teachers were called back to service. Sometimes this was good, but sometimes those teachers had been retired too long and were beyond their capabilities...

A key McCook business, 1882, the livery stable (08/29/11)
In retirement, in the 1930s, H.P. Waite of McCook wrote an extensive, and highly entertaining history of our town. Mr. Waite was quite a man. He had been a school teacher in Iowa, but was overcome with the longing for adventure and quit the teaching profession and came west with his brother, Ed, in 1879 -- first to a claim they filed near Wilsonville. The brothers were apparently nothing if not optimistic -- their capital stock consisted of three horses, a covered wagon, and $14...

McCook during the war (08/22/11)
It has been said that citizens were united, as never before, or since, during World War II. Everyone felt that winning the war was the nation's most important job. We felt that there was a real threat to America from the German Nazis and the Japanese. Those of us who remained home accepted as fact that we needed to do all we could to support our boys in uniform who were locked in mortal combat with our enemies in far-flung battle fronts around the world...

Evert 'Mo' Mosher (08/15/11)
McCook lost a familiar face recently, with the passing of Evert "Mo" Mosher. He was a fellow who delighted in bringing a smile to everyone he met, whether it was in bringing garden produce to friends and acquaintances in town, or delivering his home-crafted novelties -- such as his "tax' shelters and "stool samples," or showing pictures of his "Pride and Joy." His was a welcome presence everywhere he went. ...

Bedcheck Charlie (08/08/11)
I was a late comer to the Korean War. I was through with the University in 1949. My roommate, a Naval aviator in World War II, had resigned from the Naval Reserve in early June 1950, and was certain that he would be called back when the war began on June 25, 1950, but he never was, and went on to have a fine career with the Caterpillar Corp...

Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Rob (08/01/11)
In all of America's wars there have been black soldiers. In the Revolutionary War it is estimated that there were some 25,000 black soldiers, who saw the war as an opportunity to gain their freedom from slavery. Most saw the British as their best hope, and 20,000 blacks served as Black Loyalists to the British invaders, while only 5,000 served in Washington's Army...

William Valentine, educator (07/25/11)
Note: These days, when one travels on East 5th and 6th Streets, and views the former East Ward School, halted now in the midst of its transformation to apartment dwellings, he cannot help but think of that structure, when it was the proud center of learning for so many years. ...

Marine ace Joe Foss (07/18/11)
Recently my wife, Jean and I were privileged to attend the induction of my cousin, Gordon Garnos, into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. The reception for the new inductees took place in the lovely new Hall Headquarters Building alongside Interstate 90, between Chamberlin and Oacoma, in central South Dakota...

Opening the time capsule (07/11/11)
Recently we were fortunate to make a trip to Plainview, my home town. There was a lot going on there. For me, there was the All-Class Reunion. My high school class was celebrating its 65th anniversary. A number of my old (and I do mean old) classmates returned and it was fun to reconnect with these friends and relive some of those special times that we shared at PHS. But the Reunion was just a small part of the celebration for the town...

Ray Caffrey and the Kansas City Massacre (06/27/11)
The years of the 1920s have been called "The Lawless Years," coinciding with the years of Prohibition, when gangs operated on a national scale, but the forces that attempted to control these crimes were largely local in their authority. At that time, the FBI organization was just the Bureau of Investigation. Officers were not well trained; they carried arms only in very restricted circumstances, and information was not shared between local police forces and the Bureau...

George the Giant Killer (06/20/11)
George Norris was born in Ohio in 1861, the first year of America's great Civil War. By the time he was three years old his father and only brother had died, and George was raised in a household of women. At a young age he was fascinated by politics and the workings of the law. He was an avid reader, first following the campaign of Rutherford B. Hayes in the newspaper, and observing trials at the local court house whenever he got the chance...

Willis' 14th bombing mission (06/06/11)
Willis Jones, a member of the 96th (B-17 Flying Fortress) Bomb Group in World War II, suffered through great adversities during the war, including being shot down (on his 26th mission) over Augsburg, Germany, and surviving 13 months in a German POW (Stalag). As bad as being shot down and being a POW was, his 14th mission was worse...

The rest of the story: The run of No. 2558 (05/23/11)
Last week, we told the story of the Burlington Zephyr, Mark Twain's record speed run from McCook to Oxford in 1935, as part of the Flood Reclamation Celebration. This was indeed a memorable day in McCook's history, and the people of Southwest Nebraska were understandably proud of that speed record. But, as the late Paul Harvey would say, "Now for the rest of the story!"...

Burlington's Ralph Budd in McCook (05/16/11)
By October 1935, life in McCook and Southwest Nebraska had begun to return to normal after the ravages of the Memorial Day flood, which had killed more than 100 people, swept away thousands of farm animals, laid ruin to farm buildings and thousands of acres of prime farm land in the Republican Valley, downed hundreds of miles of telephone and power lines, and destroyed miles of railroad bed and tracks of the Burlington Railroad, which skirted the banks of the Republican River through the entire length of the Valley. ...

Benkelman's Ward Bond (05/02/11)
Beginning in 1957, with the TV success, Wagon Train, Ward Bond, the star Wagonmaster of the show, became the poster boy of the American cowboy/pioneer of the post Civil War era -- brave, resourceful -- a veritable "knight of the old west." He certainly had the credentials to play such a part...

Vern Meints -- A lifetime of serving others (04/25/11)
Vern Meints was born in rural Culbertson, Nebraska, in 1925 and graduated from Culbertson High School, where he was a standout athlete, especially in baseball. There was even the dream of a major league career. That dream (like the dreams of so many American youths of that era) was dampened during a World War II hitch with the U.S. Marines...

James A. Jamison, a rebel in our midst (04/18/11)
The year 2011 marks the 150th Anniversary of the start of America's Civil War. Each day there are interesting stories in the newspapers and on television dealing with the Civil War generally and how the Civil War affected folks in Nebraska. There were a number of Civil War Vets in McCook. Most had fought for the North, but not all --...

The Tootsie Roll Kid, E.P. Baruth (04/11/11)
With the coming of spring, and the announcement by the Knights of Columbus of their Annual Tootsie Roll Drive to aid "The Arc" (the Association for Retarded Citizens) and the local SWATS (Southwest Area Training Services) workshop, thoughts of E.P. Baruth, a great humanitarian and sports legend, came flooding back -- McCook's original "Tootsie Roll Kid."...

Meredith Willson, the Music Man's Music Man (04/04/11)
Recently, McCook was treated to a Community Theater production of "The Music Man" at the high school auditorium. This was at least the third time since we came to McCook in 1957 that "The Music Man" has been presented, each time to delighted audiences. It seemed like a good idea to take a look at the fellow, Meredith Willson, who conceived the idea of this classic American musical and brought it to life...

The men of the Marsh agency (03/28/11)
For many years the Marsh Insurance and Real Estate Agency was a familiar landmark in McCook. The four generations of the Marsh men who ran that agency were also some of the leading figures of our town, playing a conspicuous part in the business and social organizations of the town...

Wade Stevens, McCook aviation pioneer (03/21/11)
During World War I there were a number of young men from Southwest Nebraska who volunteered to fight the Central Powers (Germany) in France. A number of these young men chose to join the Army Signal Corps, the branch of service that included the Flying Service. ...

Remembering McCook's Music Man, Floyd Hershberger (03/14/11)
In early March, 2011, the McCook Community Theater Association is busy with rehearsals for the Spring Musical, "The Music Man." At this same time we are saying goodbye to Floyd Hershberger, who has truly been McCook's Music Man for more than 50 years. ...

'Swantie' Swanson, World War I veteran (03/07/11)
There were some 65 million combatants on both sides in World War I, a war that claimed 9 million military lives. The last member of the Central Powers army (German) to die was Franz Kunstler, who passed away in 2008. In February 2011, the last American veteran of World War I, Frank Woodruff Buckles, passed away at the age of 110. ...

Made in Nebraska -- early automobiles (02/28/11)
We do not often think of Nebraska as the hotbed of automobile manufacture, but in the early days of the automobile (1890-1912) more than a few automobiles were manufactured at a number of varied locations throughout the state (as in most states). Needless to say, these early ventures did not rival Detroit as the Capital of Auto manufacture, but they did serve to fuel the dreams of these early Henry Ford wannabes...

Egypt's Anwar Sadat (02/21/11)
In 2011 mass demonstrations in Cairo, Egypt have attracted much attention worldwide, and have apparently sparked similar demonstrations throughout the Middle East. For some, these demonstrations have evoked memories of the late 1970s, when Anwar Sadat, Egypt's Premier shocked the Arab world by instigating a peace process with Egypt's longtime enemy, Israel -- a gesture, which gained worldwide admiration and respect and earned for Sadat the coveted Nobel Peace Prize in 1978...

McCook's DAR Clubhouse (02/14/11)
In 1890 the United States was going through a period of increased interest in the nation's history, and very intense and visible demonstrations of pride in the USA. Differences between the North and the South had begun to blur after the Civil War and patriotism for the united country were strong and frequently demonstrated publicly...

Walt Sehnert
Days Gone By

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