Blasts from the Past (Part 1)

…after completing our partial exploration of Missouri, we finally arrived at the family’s home in Omaha Nebraska.  But…it wasn’t long before David II, David III, Laurie and yours truly loaded into a vehicle and headed west on US Hwy I-40 until we reached NE Hwy 10 and drove 13 miles south to the town of Minden.

This little jaunt covered 179 miles one way and took 2 hours and 40 minutes.  So…what was the attraction that led to this day long road trip?

Our destination was the Pioneer Village at Minden Nebraska.  Why?  Well for one reason, I’d always wanted to visit it.  Secondly, we were in Nebraska to celebrate my birthday.  Third, and of most importance, this endangered attraction may not survive much longer due to costs of maintaining it.  Plus its semi-remote location doesn’t exactly help the situation…as it doesn’t encourage/or draw a viable number of paying visitors.

Located on US Hwy 6 in Minden, Pioneer Village was founded 70 years ago (1953) by Harold Warp (1903 – 1994) was a successful manufacturer and former resident of the town.  Pioneer Village is a complex of 28 buildings on 20 acres.  Not counting the items in storage, the collection includes over 50,000 items dating from about 1830 to recent times.

So who was Harold Warp? (I love that first photo!) He was born in a sod house on a farm near Minden and he was the youngest of 12 children.  His family had emigrated from Norway to the United States.  His father died when Harold was only 3 and his mother died when he was 11 years old.  In 1924, he and 2 of his brothers moved to Chicago with a patent for a plastic window material that he’d developed for the family’s chicken coops.  The business was successful and the product line grew to include many other related items. 

Warp Bros. is still in business and it remains under family ownership.  The company makes plastic products ranging from shelf liners to storage bags to greenhouse films, landscaping sheets and more.

Laurie and I love to collect things…most of which we don’t need but enjoy having…but Harold Warp was apparently a compulsive collector who appreciated American history, and he had the funds to support his hobby! 

By 1948, Harold was a millionaire.  He’d returned to Minden for Christmas and he learned that the old schoolhouse that he and his siblings had attended was to be sold at auction.  He bought it after ensuring that all school records would be preserved too.  Then, when the first church in town was to be disposed of, he bought it!   Then came the old Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Depot followed by the original U.S. Government Land Office, the Elm Creek/Native American Fort, the Bridgeport Pony Express Station and much, much more.  So it began!

It is important to note that Pioneer Village is not the Smithsonian with lots of viewing area, space between exhibits and polished marble floors.  It is a collection with items sometimes juxtaposed near other items that don’t seem related.  One factor is generally true.  Exhibits tend to progress from the early related items to the most recent.  The goal is to show progress.

Of course, the very first item I photographed was this 1964 Mazda “NSU Rotary Spider” was the first Wankel powered car in Wisconsin and possibly the first one in the USA.  Mazda built about 2,00o Spiders in total.  To learn more about the Wankel engines (no pistons), go to Wankel engine - Wikipedia. 

Of course, the next photo I took was of this wall of oil lamps, lightbulbs, wagons, tricycles, toys, lamps and more.  Did I mention that Harold Warp collected just about anything from 1830 on!?  Also, did you note the 2 signs in the upper right hand corner of this photo?

From the showcases shown above, we moved into a date progressive and themed area of Pioneer Village.

This ox-cart actually pre-dates most of the items on display at Pioneer Village.  It was built by Artimes Waterman in Deansboro New York back in 1822.  The wide steel wheels were designed to keep the cart from sinking into hay meadows.  Artimes’ grandson sold this 201 year old ox-cart to Harold Warp in 1954.

The museum has a number of buggies on display.  By 1840 they’d evolved from the stage coach, only smaller and lighter and pulled by a single horse.  For the first decade or so, only well-to-do families could afford them but within a decade they were in general use.  Both stage coaches and buggies have a similar shape to them and both used leather springs.  The yellow buggy in the second photo was made ca. 1840 in Sturbridge Massachusetts.

There is so much to see in a limited space!  This conveyance isn’t a buggy, but rather a carriage.  Larger families couldn’t fit into a buggy and ca. 1880, these larger carriages appeared.  They could be enclosed with curtains on the sides and had a ‘splash apron’ at the front for use during bad weather.  Over a million carriages were sold from about 1880 through 1910.

Of course, my photos aren’t in order as I just kept turning and taking pictures of what was nearby on either side of the aisle.  This handsome stage coach was used by the Walker and Frank Stagecoach Company on the route from Detroit Michigan to Chicago Illinois.  The original cost of this coach was about $1,250.00. 

Stage coaches appeared on the scene in the USA ca. 1835.  Pulled by 4 to 6 horse teams, they had a chance to outrun Native American’s attacks.  The fares were relatively expensive.  For example, the cost for a passenger to take the stage from St. Joseph Missouri to Denver Colorado was about $175.00.  Luggage weight limits aren’t a new thing.  The weight limit for luggage on many stage lines was 25 lbs. 

From 1835 to 1885, roughly 100,000 stage coaches were in use.  Stops or stations were located from 75 to 125 miles apart.  In the mid-1800s, taking a stagecoach from coast to coast would take almost 2 months…

Once again I’ve managed to learn something I didn’t know or, at this stage in my life, I’d just forgotten.  This is a Freight or Conestoga wagon.  It should not be confused with the Prairie Schooner or covered wagons used by most settlers who headed west in the 1800s. 

In 1857 Henry and Clem Studebaker built their first 100 wagons of this type.  It was used by freight companies to transport supplies across the plains.  The average box length of a Conestoga wagon was 10 feet long by 4 feet wide.  Side boards could be 4 feet high.  Wagons could carry up to 12,000 lbs. of cargo and the seams in the wagon boxes were caulked with tar to keep them from leaking when crossing rivers.  It took from 6 to 10 oxen to pull a loaded Conestoga or Freight wagon.

How important were these wagons to the nation’s growth and development?  In the 1860s, just Russell, Majors and Waddell freighting firm alone used 6,000 wagons and 75,000 oxen to move products along the Oregon Trail.

FYI…Prairie Schooners or covered wagons were lighter, less bulky and they could make a tighter turn.  Their boxes were 4 feet wide and 8 feet long and side boards were typically 2 feet high.  Covered wagons only required 2 to 6 oxen…with most needed 2 or 4.  Horses could pull the wagons too, but settlers quickly learned that Native Americans really valued horses and their use attracted unwanted attention to the ‘settlers’.

I failed to record the date or age of this “Talley-Ho” Coach.  In the United States, “tally-ho” is sometimes used to describe a large coach or light passenger vehicle that lacks a roof or sides.  They were usually used for sight-seeing. 

By way of example, in 1886 the Yellowstone Park Transportation Company had a fleet of sight-seeing coaches.  They transported visitors and their luggage from the train depot to the hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs in “Tally-Ho” stage coaches pulled by 6-horse teams.  The “Grand Loop” tour through the park used similar Yellowstone Observation Wagons with 4-horse teams.

This little locomotive is a wood-burning “Porter”.  These locomotives were used by some railroads during the 1870s and 1880s.  Wood was plentiful and coal wasn’t always available.  The Porter locomotive was designed with the water supply tank surrounding the boiler right over the engine’s drive wheels.  That provided extra traction at a time when trains went over hills rather than through them.  That flared smokestack served as a spark arrestor to minimize the danger of forest tires.  This particular Porter locomotive came from Canada.

FYI – H.K. Porter, Inc. built light-duty locomotives in the USA beginning in 1866.  They became the largest manufacturer of industrial or light-duty locomotives, building almost 8,000 of them before production ended in 1950.

This is an 1897 Milwaukee Steam Carriage built by the Milwaukee Automobile Company…one of the first ‘horseless carriages’ (automobiles).  The owner paid $765.00 for this 4 HP car and then he drove it from Milwaukee Wisconsin to his home in Hastings Nebraska.  He used it regularly until 1910 and then from time to time until 1928.  It remained in the family until Pioneer Village acquired it in 1955.

FYI - Did you know that buggy whips were carried in a socket next to the driver in early autos/horseless carriages?  They were used to chase cows off the road and to keep barking dogs away from the wheels.

FYI – Early autos used carbide lamps instead of headlights as batteries for the storage and use of electricity hadn’t been perfected yet.  Carbide lamps as simple and they burn acetylene…which is created by the reaction of calcium carbide with water.

This is a rare 1906 Model K Ford.  This big auto sported a 6-cylinder 40 HP engine and it sold for $2,800.  In the same year, Ford introduced the Model N, a 4-cylinder 15 HP auto…that sold for $500.  The idea was to determine whether ‘horseless carriages’ were just going to be a rich man’s toy or the working man’s necessity.  In 1906 and 1907, a total of 150 Model K’s were sold…while 2,500 Model N’s were sold in 1906 alone!  Decision made…and from this experiment the low cost Ford Model T was born. 

That’s enough for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave