North Platte Travel Guide 2023 | 11
Historic EVENTS CONT. the U.S. War Department on Dec. 19, 1943, in a depot ceremony nationally broadcast by NBC radio. Bills are pending in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to award a joint Congressional Gold Medal — Congress’ highest civilian honor — to the Canteen’s
wartime volunteers and all 125 Honor Roll communities. Besides the museum, North Platte visitors can stop at Canteen memorials at the 1918 depot’s site on East Front Street and the 20th Century Veterans Memorial at the Interstate 80-U.S. Highway 83 interchange.
The latter includes the “Canteen Lady” sculpture modeled on Rae Wilson, who died in 1986. She is buried in the North Platte Cemetery on Rodeo Road, as are such other major Canteen leaders as Helen Christ, Jessie Hutchens, Rose Loncar and Edna Neid.
LINCOLN COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM PHOTOS AT LEFT: Five of the core volunteers of North Platte’s World War II Canteen offer some of their signature food items in this photo from about 1944. From left are Helen Christ, the Canteen’s commander from 1942 to 1946; Mayme Wyman; Canteen Secretary Jessie Hutchens; Edna Neid; and Opal Smith. MIDDLE: Rae Wilson, originator of North Platte’s World War II Canteen, in 1942. AT RIGHT: The World War II Canteen operated from the dining room in the west wing of North Platte’s 1918 Union Pacific Depot, which was demolished on Nov. 1, 1973. Its entrance is shown here in 1943.
Galleries Art Classes TedLong Legacy Room - Western Art Open Studio Ceramics
308-534-5121 Prairieartscenter.org
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