(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This "Connects" program is produced in partnership with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, with support from the Nebraska Lottery.

- I'm Stephanie Arne, and we're going to take a road trip through Nebraska's State Historical Parks.

Nebraska has a lot of precious resources.

Its people, its landscape and its history reveal stories that help us understand Nebraska today.

Whether you're interested in the people, events or natural environment that influenced who we are, Nebraska's State Historical Parks are your parks.

Places to discover, to dig deeper and to connect to one another through our shared history.

Our history offers us Wild West stories, stories of struggle and loss, even stories of healing.

Some stories are difficult to look back on, but provide insights and lessons that we can learn from today.

From native peoples, to prairie travelers and soldiers, to ranchers and showmen.

Nebraska is rich with independent spirit and landscapes that are as unique and varied as the people.

So let's go!

It's time to explore Nebraska's State Historical Parks.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) I love traveling around the state of Nebraska.

It's full of so many unexpected adventures.

The State Historical Parks of Nebraska can take you on one fun-filled trip around the state or give you a bunch of weekend getaways.

(gentle music) Welcome to Fort Atkinson.

(gentle music) - [Man] Get ready.

Fire.

(cannon firing) (Stephanie laughing) - Oh my gosh.

(cannon firing) It's pretty obvious to me that you guys are extremely passionate about this entire experience, sharing this history in this way.

- I think that all of us do enjoy history and we realize it was a human experience.

But for you to really know and understand history, you have to come out and live it.

We can at least give people a taste of what the experience, what life was like here 200 years ago in eastern Nebraska.

And this was like a trip to the moon at that time.

- [Stephanie] New sites, new smells- - [Mike] Everything - The sun, the lack of trees compared to the east coast.

So there was a lot of things that we don't have to worry about today that they had to.

And I think when I came here, the moment I stepped in, I felt that.

Fort Atkinson was built in 1820, while this area was still part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Lewis and Clark met with the Otoe and Missouria people here in 1804, and actually recommended to the Army that this would be a good site for a fort.

The meeting took place on this bluff, and the council house is named in honor of this historic event.

Ford Atkinson played a significant role in the young America's goals for growth, protecting the fur trade and preserving peace in the region.

Fort Atkinson was one of the earliest US Army posts west of the Missouri.

But it also marked some other firsts for Nebraska.

It had the first school, library, saw mill, gristmill and brickyard.

- It was one of the first forts west of the Missouri River, the largest.

We had 1100 soldiers here and you got to take in consideration how many people that was, and that's not counting the civilians.

So 1100 soldiers was one quarter of the US Army stationed here.

And it was larger than a lot of the eastern community or towns at that time.

- The Missouri River originally ran right along the fort's eastern border.

This was wild country.

- Life was not easy.

There's a lot of people actually died here from different causes, from scurvy, there was shootings, things like that.

Even though it was a military Fort, you still had that Western feel to it.

We had a great relationship with our local tribes, with the Otoe and the Missouri tribes and the Pawnee also.

- [Stephanie] The nearest community was St. Louis, over 450 miles away.

The fort had to be self-sufficient.

- You had to farm, you had to do your daily job besides being a soldier to actually survive out here.

- You'll find Fort Atkinson just a short drive north of Omaha.

Now let's learn more about what everyday life was like living in a fort.

Here at Fort Atkinson, they have living history demonstrations that take you back in time so you get a really good idea of what early life was like 200 years ago in a fort.

Visitors can see fur traders, coopers, blacksmiths, they can see carpenters, weavers, and many other period trades.

Living history reenactors can bring history to life in ways that might surprise you.

- Oftentimes people come in here and say, Oh, you're the cooper you make barrels.

- [Stephanie] Uh-huh.

Barrel is actually a unit of measure.

You have a firkin, you have a kilderkin, nine gallons, 18 gallons.

You have a barrel, which is 36 gallons.

You have a hogshead, which is 54 gallons.

And that's the most common cask that you will find.

- A hogshead?

- A hogshead.

You have two hogsheads, which is 54 gallons.

You have 108 gallons or you have a butt.

So if you have a buttload of whiskey... - No.

That's where that comes from?

- You have 108 gallons.

- What?

- So if somebody goes and says, "Hey, I'm going to market, I'm gonna get a buttload of pickles."

- No, I can't even hear it over and over again.

That is so funny.

Are you serious?

- Butt is a unit of measure.

Yes.

So it's 108 gallons.

- (laughs) I'm such a child.

That's hilarious.

- You know what you do with a buttload of whiskey?

- You drink it.

- You get in a buttload of trouble.

- [Stephanie] See what I mean?

I also talked with Donna Jones.

She loves teaching people about the life of early Nebraska settlers.

- So at the time of the fort, women were actually not allowed on the fort proper, because it was the largest ammunition fort west of the Mississippi.

All the wives of the officers, the washer women, anybody that was of a craft or trade and was not a soldier lived outside the fort walls.

So all these rooms were filled with soldiers.

I really represent the pioneer woman that comes in because of the fort.

The fort was here to secure the area.

So people came in to settle.

So cool.

Isn't that such an amazing view?

And the trees, trees were so valuable to people on the prairie, which reminds me, have you ever planted a tree for Arbor Day?

If you have, you've helped celebrate the vision of J.

Sterling Morton.

My next stop is Nebraska City and J.

Sterling Morton's Arbor Lodge.

J.

Sterling Morton's home, Arbor Lodge, became the first Nebraska State Historical Park in 1923.

J.

Sterling Morton encouraged tree planting and the importance of green space over 100 years ago.

Arbor Lodge State Historical Park, all 55 encompassing acres sits within the city limits of Nebraska City, Nebraska.

And it is as much a community park as it is a state park.

It's a beautiful oasis, and the fact that these grandeur, and the trees that we have among us were all hand planted.

So it's quite an escape for everybody in the community.

And they embrace that, they love that, I'm a community member myself.

- [Stephanie] I was invited to sit down for tea in Arbor Lodge's beautiful sunroom.

- When J.

Sterling and Caroline Morton settled here in Nebraska territory, one thing that was kind of a shock to them was that this was pretty much a treeless prairie.

Well, they immediately set about beautifying their home by digging up some of those saplings along the river beds and ordering trees from back east.

So they proposed the other people start planting trees.

The first Arbor Day in 1872, it's reported over a million trees were planted on that one day in Nebraska.

The idea continued to spread and Arbor Day is now celebrated in all 50 States and many countries around the world.

- [Stephanie] Over the years, Arbor Lodge grew with details that reflected the family's love of nature, books and art.

- [Laura] Other special features in the dining room are the beautiful wallpaper that shows squirrels chasing acorns.

And that's actually a silkscreen of the original wallpaper that was in that room.

- [Stephanie] J.

Sterling Morton died in 1902.

Morton's oldest son Joy, inherited the home and continued to expand it.

- Joy proposed to the state to give Arbor Lodge and its contents to the state of Nebraska to become the first historic park (gentle music) - Arbor Lodge is all about trees.

They have a lilac walk, a tree trail and the whispering pines.

There are over 270 varieties of trees and shrubs here, even state-champion trees.

Bob, what's a champion tree.

- What is a champion tree?

That is the largest tree of that species kind in the state.

There's probably around 30 to 40 trees that they've recognized as champion trees in Nebraska.

Here at Arbor Lodge, there's four or five state-champion trees that have been identified.

- Tell me a little bit more about this champion tree.

- Well, this big Black Walnut was planted in 1871 by J.

Sterling Morton himself and his wife Caroline.

- Do you consider yourself a tree hugger?

- Oh, for sure.

- Should we go hug that tree?

- I think we should.

(Stephanie and Bob laughing) (gentle music) (Stephanie laughing) (gentle music) - J.

Sterling Morton and his wife planted the area's first apple orchard in the 1850s and eventually turn those apples into cider.

Let's go take a look.

- Hey, Brad.

- [Brad] Hey, Steph.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

So this is the thing?

This is it.

This is our antique cider press.

This press is from the 1870s, and this would have been similar to what the Mormons would have been using to make cider in their time.

So we have two apple varieties here.

We have golden delicious and gala apples and we're gonna blend those into a blended cider here.

Would you like to try?

- In this thing?

- [Brad] In this thing.

Yes.

- Right now?

- [Brad] Yes, we can make some cider right now.

J.

Sterling's son, Joy Morton in the 1920s he planted a large orchard just down the hill, called Joy Morton orchards, which is now Arbor Day Farm.

We still grow apples out there at the farm and we press cider.

We do it in a more modern way.

- Tree planting is a very important foundation of many conservation projects.

For example, we need trees for wind protection and shade for our homes.

So it helps save energy, trees help stabilize soil in erodible areas.

And of course they help cleanse the environment from pollutants like carbon monoxide and they produce air for us to breathe.

J.

Sterling Morton once said, "Nearly all holidays repose on the past, but Arbor Day proposes for the future."

- I had the chance to catch up with Jim Swenson.

Jim has a lifelong love for the State Historical Parks.

- I was exposed to being on the park landscapes at a very early age.

Traveling with mom, dad, and my brother, we'd come visit these great destinations.

Arbor Lodge especially was very special to me, because I remember the picnic lunch and traveling through the museum, the mansion, and just learning about that history.

These are the people's parks and we wanna preserve them.

The ownership that they develop and we see that oftentimes in our historical parks with the friends groups and the volunteers that come and make it all possible for us.

They're adopting that message and that mindset that they do belong to them.

Everybody's within an hour's drive of a State Park venue.

- Just two years after J.

Sterling Morton's arrival in Nebraska City, Rock Creek Station was established near present-day Fairbury, to serve travelers crossing the prairie.

(gentle music) This was a regular stop on the California-Oregon trail for pioneers, as well as stagecoaches and with a sort of colorful history one might see in an old Hollywood Western.

(gentle music) (gun firing) (gentle music) People back east often got their impressions about what was happening on the plains from sources like the dime novels and Harper's Weekly.

- For the shooting that took place here at Rock Creek Station, that article actually came back out seven years after the actual shooting.

So there was some embellishments to the story.

- [Stephanie] James Butler Hickock killed landowner David McCanles and his hired hands at Rock Creek Station in a disturbance over lease payments.

The outcome of court cases acquitted Wild Bill Hickok, but the exaggerated stories built him up as a legendary gunfighter.

(gentle music) The Pony Express, another piece of Wild West history is also part of Rock Creek Station story.

(gentle music) Kara Riggle is a fourth-generation Pony Express reenactor.

The Pony Express was started in April, 1860, by entrepreneurs, Russell, Majors and Waddell.

(gentle music) - They started it on a kind of a gamble thinking that they could get the government contract to run the mail across the United States.

And the fastest they ever got it delivered from St. Joe Missouri is where it ran to Sacramento, California and they got it delivered in 10 days.

So they had it set up in a series of home stations and swing stations.

So both your riders and horses stayed familiar with that area, allowing for more efficient travel.

- [Stephanie] The Riggle family has participated in the national Pony Express re-rides since the beginning.

They have been involved at Rock Creek Station since even before there was a State Historical Park.

(horse hooves clopping) Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like growing up in this area?

- Yeah, it was just living the history, just riding the park before the park.

And just enjoyed being out here and there wasn't anything here except grass.

- And you get to fully step back.

I mean, these buildings are built on an 1860 photo of the ranch.

I think the biggest thing for us is it's always came back to yes, history, but really the biggest is family.

It brings back memories then for dad, you know, great grandpa, what was he like?

What memories do they have out here?

And you know, it just continues on.

- [Stephanie] The California-Oregon through Rock Creek Station.

A toll bridge provided a much easier way to cross Rock Creek.

- Coming across the prairie like this, you know, this is probably an average wagon, but you know, you had all your possessions in here.

You know, you had groups of people coming, and I mean you relied on this.

It wasn't everything, your comforts that they see nowadays.

It was a long journey.

(Stephanie laughing) - Oh, this is so cool.

- And now that's what we were saying about being able to use the toll bridge rather than crossing, because something like that in a wagon like this, we would take probably a half a day to try to get the wagon down in that creek and back up the hill.

- Ah, really?

Even though it's so steep?

- Yeah, you tie other horses and mules on behind it, lower the wagon down, pull it across and then pull it back up and then you pick the team across.

- [Stephanie] Oh my Gosh.

- [Kirk] This world goes too fast.

And being able to sit beside the mules here and relate back to when my grandfathers were running the ranch in 1889, it just takes me back.

- [Stephanie] Today, you can still see the wagon ruts made by the travelers on the California-Oregon Trail, over 150 years ago.

- One of the great things about being out here at Rock Creek Station is that we get to portray the everyday person that got to work out here and live out here at Rock Creek Station.

These are the folks that are serving the people traveling down the trail that are working with the Pony Express and the stagecoach, and just trying to make life happen back then.

- [Stephanie] A station helped travelers keep going.

There were workers who put up hay that provided the fuel for the horses and livestock.

Other people worked at the station too.

Like the blacksmith who kept horses and wagons moving.

- Basically think of it as a mechanic.

Rock Creek Station essentially operated as a truck stop, no matter what, if you're stagecoach horses come in your Pony Express horses, come in, say they've lost a shoe, thrown a shoe, got one loose.

You got to keep them up and running.

- [Stephanie] When the telegraph lines across the country were completed, the Pony Express stopped running in 1861.

In the late 1860s, railroad transportation replaced the need for wagons and stagecoaches, transporting goods or people east and west.

Rock Creek Station was no longer needed.

- Rock Creek Station offers a lot of different activities and opportunities for everybody.

There's different ways that you could come out, enjoy the parks, support the parks, and support your local economy.

(gentle music) - [Stephanie] The railroad and all the overland wagon travelers followed the course of the Platte River during the late 1800s.

Fort Kearny was built near the Platte.

Nebraska State Historical Parks offer you the chance to not only learn of the history, but also feel what it must have been like.

What if it was you in that wagon behind the mules during a storm?

What if it was you riding the Pony Express route during a cold wet, windy night?

My time at Rock Creek Station gave me even more respect for everybody traveling those trails.

And I have a feeling there's more to discover here at Fort Kearny.

(gentle music) What I'm gathering is this is a pretty important spot on the California-Oregon Trail.

- The purpose of Fort Kearny started off right early with trying to accommodate the travelers of the trail.

'Cause some of them, they just didn't have what it took to get there.

And so Fort Kearny was their savior.

Basically it was the general store of the trail.

- To me, it was kind of like a beacon on the plains.

So when they knew they were getting close to Fort Kearny and they knew it was a safe place to be.

And they knew if they needed something, the fort was always there to help them out.

- Fort Kearny came into the state's possession in 1929.

The stockade, parade grounds, powder magazine, and the blacksmith shop have all been rebuilt to help us see what life was like at the fort.

(gentle music) You'll find a lot of living history here at Fort Kearny.

And guess what?

They've got cannons!

(cannons firing) - [Jerry] The cannon that we have out there sitting right now is an original 24 pound siege gun from the Civil War.

It's an original barrel and it's one of the few cannons that's still being fired in the United States.

And we fire that on Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

(gentle music) (cannon firing) For me personally, it's always been the idea of, it's a family.

You would see little kids playing.

You would see the ladies dressed in period clothes, plus no TV, no newspapers, no cell phones.

So it's really nice and quiet out here.

- And it's so interesting with working with the reenactors because they have that love of history.

The mere fact that they're here representing one aspect of Fort Kearny, it makes it feel very, very rewarding on my part that they have taken that time and effort to come up and help portray the history of Fort Kearny.

(gentle music) - My next stop is Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park, the home of William F. Cody, more famously known as Buffalo Bill.

He was both a charismatic and complicated man.

People come from around the world to visit his home, Scout's Rest Ranch in North Platte.

You might be used to seeing the adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody in action movies and an old western books, but believe it or not, this international superstar lived right here in North Platte.

That's right, Buffalo Bill's larger than life character is thanks to his amazing Wild West Shows.

And speaking of characters, look, there he is right there.

I've got to go meet him.

- My name is Bruce Richmond, but I have been portraying Buffalo Bill for nearly 20 years.

- So you've been doing it for awhile.

- I sure have.

- [Stephanie] And loving every minute of it?

- Oh my gosh, yes.

It's a joy.

I meet a lot of people from all over the country and even other countries.

This was Cody's home and there always should be someone here to continue that legend.

- He was almost single-handedly responsible for developing the myth and the fact of the Wild West.

Because of his Wild West Show, he made it accessible to people from all over the country even all over the world to know more about the west.

Now, did he always tell the truth?

No, he embellished.

Sometimes he outright lied.

But his overall popularity basically drove the idea of the west and the popularity of the west to the point where when movies came about, what were some of the first movies that were the most popular?

Westerns.

- In 1882, the mayor asked him, Cody would you help us put on a celebration for Independence Day?

- They did everything from trick roping to riding steers to roping calves.

And it basically gave Buffalo Bill the idea for his later Wild West Shows.

There and at later shows you would've seen people like Sitting Bull and you would have seen them performing not only Native American dances, traditional dances, but you would have also seen them participating in mock battles that took place throughout western history.

They were shown as worthy opponents.

And so I think that they felt that that was an honorable thing for them to do was to be a part of the show and portray their culture to other people.

(gentle music) - From the success of the Wild West exhibitions, Cody was able to build his mansion on the prairie.

The mansion and barn were at the heart of a 4,000 acre working ranch.

There is so much to see in Bill's mansion - So in the dining room, if you look at the wallpaper, that is actually something that Bill designed himself, this not the original wallpaper.

However, we did find the template of it when we were remodeling.

And so this was originally made in Germany, drawn by him.

And if you look closely at it, you'll see Annie Oakley is in there.

- and how cool to make it personalized with everybody that he cared about, that was in his show.

- And if you look, I think Annie Oakley is in there, right there.

- The Wild West was full of characters, trailblazing women like Annie Oakley were part of the west too.

And Cody paid the women equal pay to what the men made.

The audience and the press loved these women of the Wild West.

- Annie Oakley.

Everybody knows Annie Oakley.

She was fierce and she could shoot anybody under the table.

She was really good.

Now it's not just a masculine show.

Now we have the women on the frontier and boy, they must've been tough.

- Goldie Griffith Cameron was part of the Wild West Show that I found out, she was an athlete way before it was cool for women to be athletes at that time period.

And she hired on with Buffalo Bill and she was a daredevil or back in that time they referred to her as a Heller in Skirts.

Buffalo Bill really liked her, because she became a bronc rider for his show.

- From candlelit tours of the mansion to haunted Halloween and Christmas celebrations.

You never know what you may find at Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park.

and at Buffalo Bill may have done it, they'll try it here at the park.

- If you want to hop on a horse and ride down through some of Buffalo Bill's original Scout's Rest Ranch property, you can do that.

- We're having the most amazing experience right now.

Is this like something that guests can do regularly?

- Absolutely, everyday, seven days a week, year round.

This is what we do.

We ride out here all summer long, spring, winter, fall, whatever we're out here doing horseback rides.

- [Stephanie] Financial hardships forced Buffalo Bill to sell his beloved Scout's Rest Ranch in 1913.

It changed hands several times before Henry Kuhlmann bought the property in 1928.

- Well, one thing that I really remember really good, is they'd have family gatherings.

They get everybody together in that big room in the house, which is a big room.

They had a big table and I was a little kid then.

I remember having big family gatherings and lots to eat.

- The Kuhlmann family later sold the mansion barn and grounds to Nebraska Game and Parks.

The Kuhlmanns still own and ranch the surrounding acres.

- There was a fellow from Florida came and offered him on an awful lot of money.

But dad got his mind that he wanted it to be a state park, which they have developed it.

And they've done a good job keeping it up.

(indistinct chatter) - Several generations of Kuhlmanns and of current and former park employees still get together once a week for coffee.

(people laughing) - My favorite experience everyday coming into work is just the surrounding, you know.

When you walk first thing you'd see would be the side of the barn and see the mansion over here and the sun shining off of them.

And then just the ambiance of this property with this little creek running through it, those historic structures, and you can almost envision you know, Buffalo Bill still being here.

- From the early Nebraska glamor of Buffalo Bill's mansion and ranch to a place with an archeological cave and fossils.

That's right, I said it: fossils.

We're at Ash Hollow State Historical Park.

(gentle music) The significance of this area goes back thousands of years.

I had the chance to meet up with Nebraska's State Archeologist, Rob Bozell, to find out more.

Do we have dinosaurs here in Nebraska?

- Most of Nebraska during the age of dinosaurs was part of a great inland sea.

So we don't have Brontosaurus and T. Rex and Allosaurus and any of that stuff.

That was out of the ocean, like in Colorado and Montana.

The few exceptions are swimming dinosaurs.

- Like Plesiosaurus?

- Like Plesiosaurus, look at you, and Mosasaurus which are kind of big swimming reptiles.

After the dinosaurs became extinct, the age of mammals.

And Nebraska has some of the best mammal fossil record in the country, it does.

And that's mammoths, rhinos, camels, giant bison, all these you know ice age and even earlier mammals.

A great record of that, including right out here in the Ash Hollow area.

Ash Hollow Cave is a really kind of unique site in Nebraska.

We don't have very many caves or rock shelters that have the kind of occupation that this one does.

And it was occupied on and off for probably at least 2000 years, not continually, but they're all Native American people.

And that's so old that we can't even guess what tribe.

We don't know.

But later on, there was ancestors of the Pawnee, probably 1000 years old and ancestors of what became the Apaches like 300 or 400 years old.

So what's kinda neat about a thing like Ash Hollow Cave, if you could look at change through time of what people were hunting, what kind of plant foods they were gathering, what kind of tools they were making and also the pottery.

So it's kind of a really nice little record of 2000 years plus of history in one place.

- Superintendent Tamara Cooper gave me a behind the scenes look.

(gentle music) Why is the history of this park relevant?

Ash Hollow has a very long, vast history that covers thousands and thousands of years.

And we have recent history as well but by preserving our history in a place like this, it really allows us as humankind to understand where we came from, to know where we're gonna be going.

- The hollow itself is about four miles long and anywhere from one to 2000 feet wide.

So it's a very small area, but it's just beautiful.

It offered fresh water which was a big change from the Platte River water they were used to drinking.

And there was sufficient wood and shelter and grazing.

So it became an important rest spot where people could stay a couple of days if they wanted to, as they travel the Oregon and California Trails.

- From about Grand Island to Laramie, people pretty much were on the north or south side of the river.

At one spot, which is Windlass Hill in the state park, that's where they could bring their wagons down.

It still must've been terrifying, you know, like you have your team of animals and you're gonna go down this 45 degree incline.

And you know, I'm guessing everyone walked and got out of the wagons and didn't ride.

- They're cutting down to Ash Hollow.

They see an Oasis.

They see green trees in a wooded area for the first time in weeks.

They see animals.

They see spring water.

- At first, relations were pretty good between the Cheyenne and the Lakota and even the Pawnees because there is a mutual curiosity.

- The Lakota were bothered by the immigrants coming through, because they were disturbing the game.

The buffalo were leaving the Platte Valley where they regularly hunted.

The settlers were bringing disease, Cholera.

Cholera not only was bad for the immigrants coming through, but it really killed a lot of the native population that were in this area.

- [Stephanie] Near Ash Hollow is the site of the battle of Blue Water, where a series of incidents between the Army and the Lakota led to an Army attack on a Lakota encampment around Blue Water Creek.

- History is hard.

History is very hard.

History is human strife and struggle and it's conflict and it's icky and it's messy and it's hard and it's never easy to talk about.

So I think the one thing that I would impress upon anybody that comes to any historical park, is you have to know your history.

We can't cherry pick certain instances that happen and then apply them to today.

It's a personal struggle to understand it.

- [Stephanie] Many of Phil Little Thunder's ancestors were among those killed by General Harney and his troops at this place.

86 Lakota and Oglala died in the Battle of Blue Water in 1855.

Jean Jensen and Phil Little Thunder first met in 2005, when the annual Ash Hollow pageant included a presentation about the Battle of Blue Water, and invited the Little Thunder descendants to attend.

- Usually when I do a conversation or wherever I go, I start my journey with a short prayer, directionals prayer, because I want our ancestors far and wide to come here to Blue Water Creek from 1855, September 3rd.

So I want them included in this interview.

My Lakota name is [speaking Lakota].

My ancestors bones are here, and this is part of where we originate from.

Blue Water Creek.

This is the creek.

- Paul Soderman is a relative of General Harney.

And Paul has taken very seriously his role as a relative and connecting to you, Phil.

- My idea of meeting him was to shake his right hand and give him an uppercut with the left hand.

And you know to make up my ancestors that got massacred here.

So I wanted him to feel what it was like.

But it never happened that way.

We met, I shook his hand and we became brothers because he was on the same journey as I was, in a healing recovery.

I was told by my elders long ago that the easiest thing is to hold animosity towards people, anger or resentment.

That's the easiest thing a human being can do.

The hardest thing is to go up to somebody and shake their hand.

I travel around the world to share where I came from, and where I want my descendants to go later on when I'm not here to make that connection.

To honor our ancestors that are here.

Maybe not physically but spiritually they're still here.

Say your prayers sing a song, dance, to remember our ancestors.

To remember some of the cavalry guys that got killed.

(reflective music) - What is it like to have a ranch in Nebraska's Sandhills?

Well, that's find out right here at the Bowring Ranch.

The ranch was operated by Arthur and Eve Bowring and their story started out in 1927, when Arthur stopped to help Eve with a flat tire.

Well, let's take it back.

How did Eve get herself here?

- It's a history of a woman walking in steps before her time.

She found out there was a position open with Norfolk Steam Bakery, that she would have travels from Norfolk, Nebraska, clear to the Wyoming border to Crawford, Nebraska.

Phenomenal, you know?

That was a man's position.

So during her travels, her car breaks down and Arthur Bowring comes to her rescue.

That's in the fall of the year that this happens.

And then through writings and through mail, their romance ignited, and they were married in a quiet ceremony in Valentine, April of 1928.

- I have to ask about the love letters.

- It started out as "Dear Mr. Bowring" and "Dear Miss Eve".

And then a couple months down the road it was my dearest Eve and my favorite man.

I truly believe in my heart that they were deeply in love with each other.

She knew nothing about ranching when she came here.

He's got a lot of land and she has to be involved.

Arthur and Eve actually put together 12,000 acre ranch.

Phenomenal for this area during this timeframe.

After Arthur's death, Eve Bowring continued to run this ranch.

- [Stephanie] Mike McConaughey now ranches the Bar 99-branded Herefords that were first established by Arthur and Eve.

- This country, it's cattle rancher's paradise.

You have everything here.

You have wet hay meadows.

You have grass.

You have hay.

You got rolling hills for protection.

It's paradise.

When you're a Sandhiller, you're a Sandhiller.

And this is the only place that you ever want to raise cattle.

And I truly believe that when Arthur seen it, he fell in love with it.

He had to have.

Every time that we play with the Hereford cows, I think of Eve Bowring just because they're Hereford cows and stuff.

And it's one of the only Hereford cow herds that are still in the country.

That's what was raised on this ranch when she was alive.

And that's what Arthur had.

And that's what's supposed to be on this ranch.

Is Hereford cows - That's the way it's gonna be.

- That's the way its gonna be.

That's how she wanted it and that's the way it is.

(Mike and Stephanie laughing) From what I know of Eve, it's the way it was and that's the way she wanted it.

- Both Arthur and Eve were very involved in public service.

After Arthur's death in 1944, Eve maintained both the ranch and her commitment to helping the community.

Eve was the first woman to chair the Nebraska Stock Growers Association Brand Committee.

She went on to serve as Nebraska's first female United States Senator and was one of only two women in Congress at that time.

Although appointed by the Governor to fill a vacant seat, Eve declined to run for election in 1954.

She served in various federal positions under President Eisenhower.

And her home is full of her photos, reflecting her involvement in politics.

Her home also showcases her love of fine china, silver, and home furnishings.

- She started showing us stuff.

And I bet we were in here at least two hours or longer, but she had me up on step stools getting fancy silver stuff out of the cupboards And I mean, she gave the same guided tour that happens now, but it was her giving it.

So that was pretty special.

- The way you see the home is basically the way Mrs. Bowring left it.

- The way she had it when she lived here.

(footsteps tapping) - The Arthur Bowring Sandhills Ranch State Historical Park offers the unique chance to learn more about the value of Nebraska's ranching, past and present.

You can also enjoy the beauty and solitude of the Sandhills Fossils hidden in the state's geology reveal a fascinating story.

Nebraska's prehistoric past is preserved in a way you can only see at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park.

(upbeat music) Did you know creatures we think of only living in Africa and Asia, once roamed Nebraska 12 million years ago.

Ancestors of horses, rhinos and even camels lived right here.

Unfortunately this wildlife was wiped out by the fallout of the eruption of a super volcano.

(upbeat music) This rhino barn is here to protect the dig site, but it also allows visitors to see the paleontologists in action.

In fact, you can even ask them what they're working on.

(gentle music) I was very lucky to get to go where guests normally are not allowed and join the interns on the fossil digging floor.

Nick Thurber is an Ashfall intern who also has his Master's Degree in Paleontology.

What am I going to be able to do today?

- Yeah, so this right here is a half of a skeleton of a rhinoceros.

This is our most common fossil here at Ashfall and it's buried in volcanic Ash.

So that's what this gray powdery rock is covering the bones.

And that's what we're gonna be digging into today.

- You have more tools than I have.

- I have more tools, yes.

- Show me how you use them.

- Yeah.

So this is probably our most common tool, is just a trowel, if you will, a pointed trowel.

And we use this mainly for excavating kind of away from the fossils into the ash.

You just do nice, smooth strokes.

You wanna keep the ground nice and level.

So when you do come upon a fossil, you don't overly expose it or undercut it in any way.

- You just brush it?

- Yeah, do a quick brush with the brush, get away all the loose ash.

Don't try to cut too deep into it.

Paleontology is a very time consuming and a meticulous job.

You don't wanna damage these bones that have been here millions of years.

And even closer to the bones, we use things like this dentist pick, but yeah, so- - It looks very meticulous.

- It is, this whole skeleton, we've been working on this for about two years now- - [Stephanie] What?

- And it was all covered in ash when I started working on it.

- [Stephanie] Did it look like some of these blocks?

- Yeah, we all started up pretty high and you slowly work your way down using trowels.

I found most of those ribs closest to that wall.

This right here, that kind of circular sphere of a bone is actually the end of a hip bone.

And I found that about a month ago and that was kind of a big surprise.

- Oh my Gosh.

This is really, really cool.

- Yeah.

(gentle music) - This is where the Ashfall story begins.

In 1971, paleontologist Michael Voorhies was scouting for fossils in the area.

And when he walked up the gully behind us, or behind where I'm standing, he spotted the jaw bone of a rhino calf where the yellow flag is.

And after a little more excavation he realized that it wasn't just a jaw bone, the entire skeleton was buried on the hillside.

- [Stephanie] It's taken over 30 summers for paleontology interns to uncover the fossils that can currently be seen at Ashfall.

There's more work to be done, probably another 15 seasons of diligent interns, just brushing away, removing the ash and making new discoveries.

- [Victoria] So if you look here, this is actually the foot of horse right here.

- Woah!

- [Victoria] Yeah, it extends all the way underneath this rhino.

And so we know that the horses died first.

And then there's a couple inches of ash here, about four to six, and then the rhinos died right on top of them.

- This site has been called the Pompeii of prehistoric animals.

Let's find out why.

- Quite often, when we went to go somewhere and view fossils, we go to a museum, where the fossils have been taken out of the ground and put on display.

But here you're looking at the actual fossil bed.

Not only are the skeletons fully complete, they're still preserved in the round.

They're three dimensional.

I know of no other location where so many three-dimensionally preserved skeletons have been found.

- This is basically a paleontologist's dream, I would guess, right?

- It is, you know, here, the wealth of information is just incredible.

Only one species of rhino has been found here, but five different species of horses.

Five different species of horses living together at the same place at the same time.

- There is other animals as well, right?

- Three different species of camels, a little saber tooth dear, members of the musk deer family, all of the bird species that have been found here are new to science.

They had not been found at any other fossil site.

And Nebraska has a great fossil record, and it is much more than what you see here at Ashfall.

It goes back at least 100 million years and even older than that.

(gentle music) - So the next time you think about Nebraska's past, remember it started long before our traditional thoughts of the frontier, when Native Americans and pioneers traveled the Wild West.

The prehistoric fossils at Ashfall Fossil Beds show you just how far back our Nebraska history stretches.

Fort Hartsuff was unique in the way that it was constructed.

The fort's buildings were all made of limestone because there weren't many trees in the area.

The buildings provided warmth in the winter and were cooler in the hot summers.

In addition to the soldiers, there was a blacksmith, a surgeon and a hospital, laundresses plus a bakery that baked bread six days a week (orchestra music) - Ford Hartsuff was built amidst the striking vistas of the Sandhills constructed in part to protect the Pawnee from other Native American groups, this fort did not see a lot of military action.

Instead, it reflected a more tranquil side of frontier fort life.

- I consider this place an absolute jewel, and one of the reasons I consider it an absolute jewel is because it is as almost fully reconstructed and recreated as a fort or army post of this time period would be.

It's as furnished with everything you would need to actually make it come alive.

- This was a small fort, compared to some, where only one company of soldiers were stationed here at a time.

These were infantry soldiers, not cavalry like you see in the movies all the time.

But here at Fort Hartsuff we had a stable and most of the time if they went out on patrol and stuff, so they were mounted infantry.

We looked back at our records and things, and on average probably 45 to 50 soldiers would have been stationed here.

- [Stephanie] Living history reenactors really do help you feel the history of a place.

And these reenactors are dedicated.

Remember Michael and Jarrett, who we first met at Rock Creek Station?

Well, we met again at Fort Hartsuff.

This time, I found them working as the military cooks, preparing and serving old school meals for the reenactors.

There's a place for anyone who loves history to become a reenactor or a volunteer.

- Some people enjoy history and enjoy reading from the textbook, and I feel like those people would get a lot more out of it, if they actually came out here.

But also I feel like people who aren't interested in reading a textbook like me, for example, I learn more about something when I'm out here and experiencing it.

I like the simplicity of life in general, in comparison to modern life.

There's no drama, no phones, work.

There's work but different types.

- We had a little girl in here a little while ago that said, "Oh can I come over and make candles with you?"

And I thought like, yes, absolutely.

We'll get you all dressed up and you can come over and make candles with me all day long.

(gentle music) - One thing we've learned through our visits to State Historical Parks, is that the battles and conflicts that we associate with the Nebraska Plains were a real danger, but not everyday occurrences.

- So many settlers came out so rapidly that they could kind of protect themselves now.

So they sold it then to private ranchers and farmers and probably for the next 80 years or so, this was all farmed and ranched out here.

- Roye Lindsay grew up in the area.

In the 1970s, he became superintendent of Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park.

- It's pretty important to know what you're restoring.

Yes.

Pictures were not plentiful, but the main source of information was from the national archives.

The military tends to keep a lot of stuff on file.

and among them was the plan for the fort before it was constructed.

And then, in about 1878 another plan showing it after construction.

The plan of the building, every detail of the buildings, you know, the width of the windows, the floor plans, just everything about what the buildings, how they were constructed.

- This fort is probably one of the most complete forts of this time period, anywhere in the country, having all nine original buildings back here.

And we've got a good group of reenactors that come out twice a year and do the reenacting.

The public can come out and get an idea what it was like back in the 1870s, you know, what life was.

Cause they kind of bring the fort back to life.

- During the time Fort Hartsuff was active, soldiers and nearby settlers built strong community connections.

Eventually, the Army left Fort Hartsuff in 1881 when a military presence was no longer needed.

Today, the fort represents an important transition from westward travel to a time when more and more pioneers were stopping and staying, building the foundations of our Nebraska towns and cities.

Our State Historical Parks offer a window that looks into our past and shows us how Nebraska became the place it is now.

As I left Fort Hartsuff, I thought back on my early visit with Jim Swenson.

- We gain an appreciation with time.

We gain more understanding as we converse with our parents, grandparents, and others.

We learn history.

It's important for us to have a mission of preservation of these park landscapes so that people have an opportunity to come out and experience them firsthand.

If they disappear, that goes away; everything becomes a memory.

They can come back and relive memories here.

They can have fond experiences of their ancestry.

- History isn't just about the past.

Knowing our history is a way to help us better understand the present and even improve the future.

Nebraska's State Historical Parks tell stories that will intrigue you, surprise you, or even inspire you.

It might be the limestone buildings constructed at Fort Hartsuff nearly 150 years ago or the prehistoric animals buried at Ashfall Fossil Beds over 12 million years ago.

It could be the showmanship of Buffalo Bill, the forward thinking tree planting of J.

Sterling Morton, or the healing journey of Phil Little Thunder.

Our parks tell the story of our past, our people and how we have progressed up to today.

That story starts with people who lived on the land centuries ago and brings us face to face with difficult times that still challenge us.

If our trip has taught us anything it's that our history connects us all.

Learning about this history gives us insight into yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Our shared past matters.

Our State Historical Parks are here to help you connect the dots, to help you understand that collectively we belong to this history and this history belongs to all of us.

(gentle music)