We arrived in North Platte, Nebraska on Friday, May 29th. Had pretty good weather until right after we got here, then the bottom fell out. We are at the Holiday RV Park, although not to far from the interstate, the park is pretty quiet.
On the way here, we followed along the South Platte River, which is over it's banks in several places. The low lying bottom lands are flooded, as are the ditches right up along the interstate.
Yesterday we did the some of the sites here in North Platte. Our first stop was the Union Pacific's Bailey Yard. It's where east meets west on the UP line, and where 10,000 cars are handled each day on 2,850 acres of land stretching out eight miles. The visitor's center includes the Golden Spike Tower, which is 8 stories high. The 8th floor is enclosed with windows that give the viewer a 360* view, with displays and story lines giving the story behind what you are looking at from each window.
The 7th floor is an outside balcony, which faces the yards only. From the balcony you get the sites and sounds of the switching and rumbling of the trains as they move back and forth from track to track picking up the cars that are suppose to go with it when it leaves the yard.
One of the more interesting facts that I learned while visiting here is this: 'The wheels on a rail car are not connected. The rail car simply rests on the top of the axle of the wheels and the weight of the car and cargo hold it all together.' Amazing uh???
One of the displays in the Visitor's Center included information on the Orphan Trains. This is something that I knew about, only because my DAR chapter had a speaker on this subject last year. Our speaker was trying to trace her ancestor from the mid west where he arrived on the train, to New York where he was originally from. It adds another level of challenge to the researching process.
The Orphan Train was the brainchild of Charles Loring Brace, a young minister in New York City. He started the Children's Aid Society and devised a plan to give these homeless waifs a chance at finding families they could call their own. These were the "Throwaway Kids", living on the streets or in orphanages and foster homes.
Between 1854 and 1929, an estimated 200,000 children ventured forth on a journey of hope. Their destination was, for the most part, the farmlands of the mid west. Some of these children found a loving family waiting for them, some found they traded one hardship for another, where they were treated no better than farm laborers or worse yet, slaves.
From the Bailey Yard we went to visit the Buffalo Bill Cody Ranch-Scouts Rest-which is a State Historical Park.
During his colorful life he made and spent more than one fortune, working from the age of 11 as an ox team driver (at 50 cents a day), at the age of 14 he was one of the youngest Pony Express riders.
Of course, he is best known for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show which brought the wild west to the eastern states and then Europe. It was during this time that he acquired the ranch and had the house built.
He raised cattle and horses and introduced blooded stock to this area of the country, but he invested poorly and in 1911 he sold the ranch. He died in 1917 at his sisters home in Denver.
One of the old log cabins was sponsored by the local DAR chapter, they had the cabin moved to the site it sits on, refurbished the building and collected what is on display. Hat's off to you ladies!!
Phil loved the old telephone equipment, being an old telephone guy!!
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