OCTOBER 2014 • NEBRASKAland 11
Bring your family, bring your friends and
make plans to visit the Nebraska Prairie
Museum in Holdrege. See the 16' wide
buffalo mural, a life-size buffalo, a two-bearded wild turkey and a sandhill
crane. For more information about visiting the museum and the
interactive museum map of our exhibits, check out our website.
Hours: Mon-Fri: 9 am-5 pm | Sat-Sun: 1-5 pm
nebraskaprairie.org
308-995-5015
N. Hwy 183 Holdrege
)LQGXVRQ
)DFHERRN
corners, places that for that day belonged to them,
horizon to horizon. Today we think of the parks in terms
of their accommodations, roads, lodging, tours, and the
like. For Ed and Maggie, the best place was farthest
from that. As with their first Nebraska road trip, they
memorialized their experiences in photographs and words.
When Ed died Maggie mostly quit traveling. She
lived nearly another 40 years, some spent working at
University of Nebraska library surrounded by words.
In her later years she organized the thousands of
photographs into albums, each image mounted on a black
paper page and labeled in white ink.
But for whom was she doing all this work? The photos
and travel journals had been intended for only two
people, Ed and Maggie. As Maggie closed her ninetieth
year, that audience was small indeed.
In 1976, two years before Maggie died, a friend boxed
up the volumes of
material and donated
them to the Nebraska
State Historical
Society. It was either
there or the trash. We
can forever be grateful
that the materials were
preserved. In the 1990s
NSHS staff member
Jill Koelling began
seriously investigating
and writing about this
collection. In 2009 the
Gehrkes became the
voice of the American
visitor in Ken Burns's
documentary film,
The National Parks:
America's Best Idea.
Ed and Maggie
were not collecting
these materials for us
today. They'd probably
be surprised that we
look at it. But theirs
is the voice of every
American who claims
their birthright in our
wild places. ■
facebook.com/pages/Nebraska-State-Historical-Society
$29/year – Includes 4 issues
of Nebraska History and
4 of Nebraska History News
www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine
402-471-3270
EXPLORE NEBRASKA'S PAST
RG849-0-0-10
1916 - A Thousand Mile Motor Trip - Western Nebraska: "At
Last!" (sign: to Brewster)
