Spirit Fall 2020 Edition 23
first three of the seven children of Peter and Anna Berg, who emigrated from Sweden in the early 1880s with Anna’s father, Benjamin Palm. Singne Ester died at 4 months old on July 21, 1885, followed by 3-month-old Carl Alfred on Sept. 14, 1886. Gustave Andrew, born in 1887, barely made it to his second birthday before dying on Aug. 19, 1889. All three lie side by side near the intersection of County Roads 769 and 409, their graves marked by steel crosses intricately designed by Palm, Gothenburg’s first blacksmith. They’re surrounded by the gently rolling landscape fronting a typically vast Nebraska horizon — epitomes of the vistas that change from winter bleakness to summer beauty and back again as the seasons change. Landmarks of all types Historical markers at western Nebraska’s natural Oregon- California Trail landmarks — Ash Hollow, Court House and Jail rocks, Chimney Rock — in essence state the obvious about their significance. (Scotts Bluff National Monument, strangely enough, doesn’t have a silver-and-blue state marker.) But the state’s marker program also includes lesser-known trail sites like California Hill, ascended by thousands of pioneer wagons after crossing the South Platte River at Lower California Crossing west of present-day Brule. The hill, just north and west of its marker along U.S. 30, bears deep “swale” ruts from the wagons bound for Ash Hollow. A Nebraska National Trails Museum was planned in the area in the 1990s but fizzled.
the names of future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, his wife, Mamie, and her parents.
They stayed there in August 1919 as Eisenhower, then a U.S. Army lieutenant, traveled with a West Coast-bound “Motor Transport Train” out to prove the need for good transcontinental highways. The trip inspired Eisenhower’s promotion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s. Several much less savory individuals or groups have been associated with the hotel — wrongly in two cases, correctly in a third. » Cowboy-turned-outlaw Sam Bass and his gang pulled off the most famous train robbery in Union Pacific history at Big Springs on Sept. 18, 1877. But that was eight full years before the Phelps family built the hotel. » Nearly a century later, college student Duane Earl Pope robbed the Farmers State Bank, shot three people to death and wounded a fourth on June 4, 1965. The Phelps Hotel was being operated at the time by family descendant Sarah Phelps, who died in 1968. Some have said Pope stayed at the hotel the night of June 3. But Omaha World-Herald coverage of Pope’s November 1965 trial said he registered under his own name at a motel in Ogallala, driving to Big Springs the next day. » That said, the Phelps did once host outlaws — future ones. Its 1889 register includes the names of Gratton, Emmett and Bob Dalton, who a year later would form the “Dalton Gang” with another brother and take up bank- and train-robbing farther south. Most counties represented Eighty-six of Nebraska’s 93 counties have at least one blue-and- silver state historical marker. Instructions about nominating and sponsoring a site for a marker can be found at history.nebraska. gov/visit/nebraska-historical-marker-program. If your town or county doesn’t boast a marker, that doesn’t mean it’s been overlooked — merely that you’ve likely got a notable story somewhere that has yet to be told. In any case, 569 pieces of gold for your next Nebraska “staycation” are just a few clicks away. The 1885 Phelps Hotel, which graces downtown Big Springs about one mile north of Interstate 80 Exit 107, has played host during its life to future President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1919) and three brothers who later gave their names to the outlaw Dalton Gang (1889). Todd von Kampen/The North Platte Telegraph
California Hill, which sits behind (north of) this Nebraska historical marker and left (west) of the nearby road was traversed by thousands of Oregon-California Trail migrants after crossing the South Platte River en route to Ash Hollow near present-day Lewellen. The marker sits along U.S. Highway 30 about five miles west of Brule. Todd von Kampen/The North Platte Telegraph
And, of course, many markers pay tribute to dozens of human- built landmarks. One in nearby Big Springs has had its share of notable visitors — though its VIP list has gotten tangled with other historical events. The downtown Phelps Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been a handsome point of local pride since its opening in 1885. A functioning lodging site until recent times, its register includes
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