By Jane Schuchardt
Special to The Elgin Review
There is treasure in Antelope County, down the road north from Elgin, just waiting for you and your’s to discover this summer.
Did you know that the Antelope County Museum (ACM) complex, located along Highway 275 going through Neligh, is packed with everything Antelope County? This is your museum, Elgin, along with all the other towns in the county – Neligh, part of Tilden Brunswick, Clearwater, Oakdale, and Orchard.
Mark your calendar for the July 4th weekend events sponsored by the Antelope County Historical Society (ACHS). The board is responsible for maintaining the ACM’s 7,480 square-foot main building at 410 L Street and the rest of the ACM complex which is an is an easy walk on the pedestrian crosswalk across the highway. There you’ll find the historic church, formerly St. Peter’s Episcopal which is on the National Registry of Historic Places; a reproduction log cabin, plus the fully restored District 70 one-room country schoolhouse complete with outhouse. Though located adjacent to the historic church, the Pierson Wildlife Museum and Learning Center isn’t part of the ACM complex.
Vice President of the ACHS Board of Directors, Cindy Hild, a half-century resident of Neligh and active with the museum for about a fifth of that time, said each year there is an ‘Evening at the Museum’ event. Elgin was featured in 2021. Elgin’s Lynell Morgan filmed and produced the video highlighting our town. See Elgin Evening at the Museum on YouTube. Libby Evans, Elgin, illustrated a detailed walking tour map showing high points of Elgin’s history.
This year, Brunswick, along with the unincorporated town of Copenhagen, will be in the spotlight on Saturday, July 3rd from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at the main museum building. You won’t want to miss Nebraska storyteller and author Dick Haskin, appearing in vintage attire, who will make history come alive at this event.
Additional events this year organized by the museum board honor the 250th year of our Nation. A Quilts of Valor display will be at the church from 10 am to 7 p.m., Saturday, July 3. ACHS President Rick Schuchardt, Elgin, is especially proud of the sparkling new paint job on the church and encourages you to have a look outside before appreciating the fine needlework by local residents inside.
On Saturday, July 4, at 10:45 a.m., before the Noon siren starts the parade, there will be a patriotic sing-along on the Antelope County courthouse west lawn. Bring your lawn chair. Schuchardt will pull the museum’s antique John Deere wagon with his 1937B John Deere tractor in the parade.
In addition to participating in these events, make summer plans to come on by to discover the artifacts on display in the museum complex buildings. Hild said, “I believe that a visual is much more important than reading about it; it becomes alive in your mind, such as visualizing living in a log cabin. Well-known city museums tell the stories of our country, but our Antelope County museum tells a story of us that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Research your family tree. Find out how students were taught without electronic devices. See artifacts from pioneer farm homes, churches, Native Americans, war veterans, agriculture, framed art using curled human hair, and many other items you’d be hard-pressed to find on display anywhere else.
You can rent a well-appointed meeting room in the back for gatherings and meetings. Or, round up your class or club to reserve time for your back-in-the-day learning experience in the one-room schoolhouse. Or, take a moment to sit on a pew in the pioneer church and appreciate the stained-glass windows.
Efforts by the ACHS are funded by Antelope County government, private donations, and entry fees. Annual membership which includes unlimited admission to the museum, historic church, log cabin, and one-room schoolhouse is $25 for a family and $15 for an individual. Business memberships are available for $150 a year with a sustaining category at $100. Members get a quarterly newsletter highlighting efforts underway at the museum complex. Without membership, the entry fee is $5 for adults. Children under 12 years old are free.
When you visit the museum this summer, open 1:00 – 5:00 pm Tuesday through Saturday, be sure to check progress on the grounds immediately north of the main museum building. An effort expected to take about three years is underway to establish native grasses and wildflowers to complement the windmill, cows, and child on horseback.
The wall painting next to the greenspace on the backside of the building Hild owns was funded by her. The painting depicts the Nebraska open plains. Appreciate the goldenrod, Nebraska’s state flower, and find the antelope. Antelope County, established in 1871, was named for the pronghorn antelope early settlers found roaming the plains.
The ACHS was established in 1886. It maintains an extensive document and photographic collection including genealogical records, historic newspapers, maps, court records, and high school yearbooks. According to the ACHS website at https://ww.antelopecountymuseum.org, the active board of directors and staff “educate people to encourage even greater efforts to chronicle our unique place in Nebraska’s narrative, a story of people and landscape intertwined.”
The ACHS website has been recently updated with fascinating details about White Buffalo Girl, inspired by the late LeVern Hauptmann, a long-time ACHS board member and avid historian. White Buffalo Girl died in Neligh in 1877 at 18 months old while her Ponca tribe was forcibly enroute, called the Trail of Tears, from their home in northeast Nebraska to what is now Oklahoma. She is buried at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Neligh and is consistently honored and remembered (with appreciation by Ponca Native Americans) to this day.
For questions or comments, please call the museum at 402-887-5010 or email antelopecountymuseum@gmail.com. Sitting among priceless relics in the museum, Hild wrapped up with this observation, “. . . young adults often aren’t interested in the old stuff, but later, as it becomes important to them, their best link, their older relatives, are gone.”
The Antelope County Museum has displays from all over the county and can help fill that gap.
