Another Small Town along the Way (7)

…continuing with our July road trip.  This segment of the trip continues our exploration of northern and western Nebraska with its small towns and cities.  The next town along US Hwy 20 headed west was the town of Valentine.  It was our destination for the evening.

Laurie and I had last visited Valentine about 36 or 37 years ago.  During our last visit, our only choice for a motel was an old style one level unit with parking outside the door to our room.  I believe that it was a ‘dreaded’ 2 diamond motel… Not so this time and we had a room reserved at a Comfort Inn.

It was time to eat dinner and I’d done a bit of research ahead of time.  My choice for the evening meal was the Peppermill Restaurant and E.K. Valentine Lounge.  This restaurant has been in the same family since 1986…operated by 3 generations of the same family.  No less than 6 generations of this family have lived in the Sand Hills region of Nebraska so their roots are deep!

The bar in the E.K. Valentine Lounge is built with logs and the big high table is covered with a wood slab.  The space is small and cozy.  The dining area was fairly spacious…you can’t see all of it in my photo…with plenty of spacing between tables.  No one on the stall was wearing masks to protect from Covid-19 but then again, this is western Nebraska, an area populated by folks that don’t care much for limitations.

After I had a Miller Lite ($3.50) and Laurie had a Cucumber Mint Mule ($7.00), we both had salads before our entrees arrived.  They were nicely presented and provided a good start to our meal.

Laurie didn’t want to order a big meal so she opted for the Pecan Rib Tip appetizer. ($14.00) There was a full pound of smoked rib tips accompanied by beer battered onions.  She chose the garlic parmesan dipping sauce over the sweet, spicy or bourbon sauces.  There was plenty to eat, but if I remember correctly, Laurie felt that the rib tips were a bit too dry.

For my entrée, I chose the 12 oz. Joseph Grilled Prime Rib, slow roasted and then seared on an open flame. ($25.99) It was accompanied by a baked potato and au jus for dipping.  The prime rib was medium rare as requested and it was very enjoyable.

The Peppermill Restaurant and E.K. Lounge is closed on Sunday and they only serve dinner on Saturdays.  Monday through Friday this establishment is open for both lunch and dinner.  They are located at 502 East Highway 20 in Valentine Nebraska.  Phone: 402-376-2800.  Their website is at Full-Service Restaurant and Lounge - Peppermill (peppermillvalentine.com).

After dinner it was still light out so I decided to go and look for the old Bryan Bridge…which used to bring US Hwy 20 across the Niobrara River.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places…mostly for its construction as a ‘pin-connected arch bridge’.  It was built in 1932.

Nope!!  The photo above is not the Bryan Bridge!  I had thought that I was taking a picture of the right structure…but alas…I failed by making the mistake of taking a photo of the first spectacular bridge I saw.  This is actually the quarter-mile long 148 feet high railway bridge that had been abandoned when the Chicago and North Western Railway ceased service on its “Cowboy Line” in 1992. 

The good news is that this impressive and scenic span was purchased along with the rest of the railroad’s right of way in 1993.  The entire right of way was bought by The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy for $6,200,000.  It was then donated to the State of Nebraska which developed it into a ‘rail trail’.  So that great looking bridge over the river is now part of a biking/hiking trail across much of the state…  

We liked this little memorial nook in downtown Valentine with its big red heart!  The city of Valentine was founded in 1882 and was named for a local statesman, E.K. Valentine.  No surprise if you’ve been following my string of small town posts for Nebraska… Like all of the others, it was the coming of the railroad that led to Valentine’s founding.  The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad began train service here in April of 1883.

Valentine is the County Seat for Cherry County Nebraska.  The town has a population of about 2,700 and that number has been fairly stable since at least 1950.   As for Cherry County, it has a population of around 5,800 and occupies 6,009 square miles.  The largest county in Nebraska, it is larger than the state of Connecticut or the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.  The county has less than 1 resident per square mile!

Note:

In 1920, Cherry County had 11,753 residents.  Drought and the depression drove out many small homesteaders.

No, this isn’t an historic building… However, I really liked the fanciful frieze work on the front of the Security First Bank in Valentine.  FYI, this banking group has roots that stretch back to 1898.  Security First Bank is a Nebraska-chartered, privately-held community bank with 26 branch locations and 12 insurance offices in Nebraska and South Dakota.

By early 1884, Valentine had 250 residents and that number had tripled only 2 years later.  Its quick growth and existence at the end of the rail line for a time, led to quite a bit of lawlessness.  It had the reputation of being the ‘toughest town’ in Nebraska.  After a bit of time, pistol practice in the saloons was stopped and guns were removed upon entry.  Outlaws in the area included Doc Middleton and his pony boys, Black Jack’s gang and the short lived escapades of a prolific horse thief named Kid Wade.  Vigilantes caught up to the ‘Kid’, (He was actually 25 years old), and he was found hanging by the neck, swinging from a railroad ‘whistling post’.

The Cherry County Courthouse is located at 4^th and Main Streets in Valentine.  This Romanesque-style building was constructed in 1901.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as it is considered to be ‘historically significant’ for its association with politics and local government and it serves as a good example of a county government building in Nebraska.

Cherry County is so big that it is divided between the Central Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone.  The eastern third, which includes Valentine, is in the Central Time Zone.  Weirdly enough, Valentine was literally split in two until 1967.  Prior to that time, one side of town was in the Central Time Zone and the other side was in the Mountain Time Zone.  To make things even more confusing, the local post office which was in the CTZ would ‘split the difference’ by turn back its clock by only a half hour.  Yikes!

Speaking of the U.S. Post Office in Valentine, the old post office is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Located at 348 North Main Street, it was built in 1939 as a project by the Depression era Works Progress Administration.  Most recently it has been known as the Cherry County Sawer Memorial Library Educational Service Unit 17, Media Center.  The building is also home to one of those government sponsored murals through the Interior Department’s Section of Fine Arts.  It was all part of the effort to keep people working. 

The mural was painted by Kady Faulkner, who had been an art professor at the University of Nebraska.  She was paid $700 for the mural.  A total of 12 murals were painted for post offices in Nebraska.  Kady Faulkner (1901 – 1977) was an American muralist, painter and art instructor who gained recognition in the middle of the 1900s.  Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Great Plains Art Museum and others.   

Given the town’s name, it should be no surprise that Valentine participates in an annual re-mailing program where thousands of pieces of mail flow into the new post office so they can be re-mailed with a special Valentine’s Day postmark and verse.

This striking church caught my eye despite the fact that it isn’t listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Our Savior Lutheran Church was organized back in the mid-1960s as a sister congregation of the Zion Lutheran Church in Crookston Nebraska.  Due to growth of the congregation in Valentine, it was decided to find a ‘preaching station’ in town.  In 1965, arrangements were made to rent the Women’s Improvement Club building, (the old Methodist Church) with an option for a longer lease.

This structure is one of the oldest landmarks in Valentine.  It was built from native stone cut from a quarry near town.  The first service was held in the building in October of 1888.  The tower, belfry and 86 foot tall steeple were added later.  In 1928 a basement was added, followed by the education wing in 1951.  I guess that the original lease worked out well for the Lutherans… 

The old Valentine Public School, located at 3^rd and Macomb Streets in Valentine, was built in 1897.  It is considered significant in its listing on the National Register as being a relatively rare example of a school being used for first grade all the way through high school.  With its striking Queen Anne style with touches of Romanesque Revival elements, it is an attention getter as one approaches it.  I read a commentary from a former student who commented that because of its wide multi-age use, stairs are only about 3 inches high and water fountains were just a couple of feet off the floor.  The former student also remembered that class rooms were famously hot or cold…depending on location and the time of the year.

This is the oldest standing schoolhouse in Nebraska.  It is now known as the Centennial Hall Museum.  The museum features a series of 12 themed rooms that feature exhibits on military history, fashion and education.  The museum is rumored to be haunted with some witnesses claiming to have seen items move by themselves…

Operated by the Cherry County Historical Society, this building is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day…Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  A second building and the Historical Society’s offices are located at the corner of US Hwy 20 and Main Street in Valentine.  For more information, go to https://www.sandhillswesternvacations.rocks/museums.

This is the F.M. Walcott House, a historic Classic Revival home located at 431 North Hall Street that is listed on the National Register.  Listed since 1982, the house is significant architecturally “as an example of a vernacular Neo-Classical Revival dwelling.   The home is associated with F.M. Walcott, a county attorney and judge, who had one of the largest legal practices in Nebraska.  Walcott purchased the lot for the home in 1892, paying a grand total of $137.50 for the property.  The house was also completed that year.

You would be correct if you guessed that this building isn’t listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  We noticed it as we pulled out of town after our overnight stay.  Memories!  This Vets Club is ‘registered’ in our minds as a historic memory!  When we last visited Valentine over 36 years ago, we spent a couple of hours here one evening.  We’d asked the owner of the motel where we were staying what was the best place in town for us to have dinner.  She didn’t hesitate!  The Vets Club!  Just pay a couple of bucks ‘for membership’ and there was a big buffet there that night.  What a feast…with a bunch of really friendly folks too!

The Valentine Vets Club is home to the American Legion, Sons of the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and the Vietnam Veterans Clubs…plus their related auxiliary groups.  Check it out when you visit Valentine.  They are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Social-Club/Vets-Club-491198437557814/.

Notes:

In 2007, the National Geographic Adventure Magazine included Valentine in its list of the best 100 adventure towns and cities in the USA.

In the Lakota language, Valentine is known as Oinazin or Mninahaha, meaning “station stopping place” or “water and waterfall city”.

If you’re into history, you should check out this narrative by a fellow who, with his family, moved into the area back in the late 1800s.  https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH1938CherryCo.pdf.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave