Last Day – Omaha Bound!

Our overnight stay in Nebraska City Nebraska was our last overnighter before arriving at our son’s home in Omaha.  Even so, we tried to check out a few more ‘sites’ and ‘sights’ on our way to our family’s home…

This is Main Street in downtown Plattsmouth Nebraska.  The Plattsmouth Main Street Historic District itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The District includes 45 late 19^th and early 20^th century buildings located along this street.  The district is primarily composed of 2-story masonry buildings of commercial Italianate design as well as several exceptional examples of government related architecture.

Laurie really liked this decorative balcony with the wrought iron and beautiful architectural detailing over the windows, the door and along the roof line.

The city of Plattsmouth, which was incorporated in 1855, has one of the oldest commercial streets in the entire state.  A significant number of the buildings within the Historic District were built in 1885 or earlier.  I noted that one building displays a date showing that it was built in 1870…

This is the Cass County Courthouse at 4^th and Main Streets in Plattsmouth Nebraska.  This impressive Romanesque County Capitol Style structure was completed in 1892. 

I’ve discovered that a struggle over the location of the County Seat was quite common.  There was money and prestige for the towns that could claim the title!  Because of its early establishment and prosperity Plattsmouth was initially named as the county seat.  However, by the late 1880s, increased settlement throughout the county brought calls for a more centrally located county seat.  Plattsmouth supporters countered opposition efforts by securing passage of a bond issue for a new courthouse.  They hoped a new and costly courthouse would lessen the chance that the county seat would be moved.  The result was this courthouse…and the gambit worked!

The early history of Plattsmouth was shaped by the Missouri River. By 1848 a ferry operated between Iowa and the mouth of the Platte River on the Nebraska side of the river.  This ferry carried a great many of the Mormons to the start of the South Platte or Mormon Trail.  In 1852 Samuel Martin erected a 2-story log house called the Old Barracks near what is now the east end of Main Street.  This opened as Martin’s Trading Post.  Later the same year a second building was built near the “Barracks” and the town of Plattsmouth was born… 

The Joseph and Mary Cook log cabin was built near Mynard in Cass County Nebraska back in 1868.  It’s maintained by the Cass County Historical Society.  That group also operates a museum and maintains an old caboose and a one-room school house.  To learn more about the Cass County Historical Society and the museum, just go to http://www.casscountynemuseum.org/.

The Cook/Koch family celebrated its 100^th reunion here in Cass County back in 2013.  Their Facebook site includes a photo of a barn that Joseph Cook built near Mynard back in 1886.  Mynard, which is 4 or 5 miles southwest of Plattsmouth, is an unincorporated community in Cass County Nebraska.  A post office had been established there in 1894 but it was closed in 1939…

The Fitzgerald House is on top of a very large and steep hill in Louisville Tennessee.  It was built in 1914.  The house is a good example of a Craftsman bungalow although it is larger than was typical and it has a rare built-in basement-level garage.  It was hard to get a good photo as this property is a bit overgrown…

The southern California firm of Greene and Greene were the most renowned practitioners of the original American Craftsman Style.  The arts and crafts movement was kicked off with the first American Arts and Crafts Exhibition in April 1897 at Copley Hall in Boston.  It featured over 1000 objects made by 160 craftsmen and women.  In homes, the most common architectural features include: low-pitched roof lines, gabled or hipped roof; deeply overhanging eaves; exposed rafters or decorative brackets under eaves; a front porch beneath extension of main roof; tapered, square columns supporting the roof, and; 4-over-1 or 6-over-1 double-hung windows. 

We found this rather dilapidated former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad combination passenger and freight depot in South Bend Nebraska.  I could not determine when this depot was built but I did learn that it had been moved to its current location on this site beside Nebraska Hwy. 66. 

South Bend is a village of less than 100 people that is perhaps best known for the nearby pedestrian bridge across the Platte River which leads to Schramm Park State Recreation Area.  That bridge was built in 2004 on the pillars of the abandoned Rock Island Railroad Bridge.  While there are no tracks still running by this depot, 35 trains a day…most of them coal trains…pass through South Bend on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway mainline.

We got lost trying to find that depot and then again when we started running very low on gas.  In our wanderings, we came across these signs and I must admit they captured our attention!  This isn’t something you see advertised every day…

The annual Testicle Festival at Round the Bend Steakhouse near Ashland Nebraska, a 2-day event, has been going strong for over 20 years.  The owner orders over a ton of testicles and about 3,000 guests show up for the ‘feast’.  The steakhouse can accommodate up to 180 people at a time in the dining room, plus 80 in the bar, and another 450 in its “Ball Room”.  As per the owner, if you’ve never tried beef testicles, they are often compared to chicken nuggets… I’ll just take his word for it!

Round the Bend Steakhouse is located at 30801 East Park Highway in Ashland.  Their Website can be found at: http://www.roundthebendsteakhouse.com/ordereze/default.aspx.

Part of this adventure was just how close we came to running out of gas!  Note the gauge above!  We should have had plenty of fuel but our GPS directed us to a couple of locations where there might have been a gas station at one time or another…but no longer!  Have you ever noticed that when you’re looking for something that you commonly see on drives and along the road, you can’t find one?  This was a little too close for comfort but we found a gas station just about in the nick of time!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! 

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave