Caril Ann Fugate

Caril Ann Fugate was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on July 31, 1943. She was the 14 year old girlfriend of Charlie Starkweather. On January 21, 1958, Fugate later claimed to have come home to find that Starkweather had shot and killed Marion Bartlett, her stepfather, and her mother Velda. Starkweather then choked and stabbed her baby half-sister Betty Jean to death.

The two then went on a killing spree. This brief period of time was terrifying for the people in southeast Nebraska. I was only 22 months old and have no memory of it, but my parents do.

Caril claimed unsuccessfully that she was his hostage and not responsible for any of the killings. Starkweather was executed on June 25, 1959. This is very fast compared to the length of time today before all appeals are finished in any death penalty case. I'm not sure that Caril wouldn't be acquitted today. The trials were held very quickly and we have a different understanding of hostages and the Stockholm syndrome. She has always maintained her innocence. She was released from prison in 1976.

She is clearly a famous Nebraskan but not in a good way. She is a member of Nebraska Nellie's Hall of Shame. Today she turns 67.

Nebraska Nellie

Happy Birthday, Hilary Swank!

Hilary Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on July 30, 1974. I had no idea she had any Nebraska connection until she did Million Dollar Baby. I am no fan of Clint Eastwood--except from his Rawhide days, but went to this movie because of her. Loved it. There was an article in the Lincoln Journal Star around that time that said she was born here and lived on Portia Street until she was about 3 years old when her mother moved to Bellingham, Washington.

It's my understanding that her Nebraska connection is why she wanted to play Brandon Teena in Boy's Don't Cry for which she won her first Oscar for best actress. She won a second one fof Million Dollar Baby.

She is truly a marvelous actress. Happy birthday to her and many more.

Nebraska Nellie

Carhenge

Carhenge is one of the stops on the scenic byway. It's near Alliance. The cars are supposed to replicate Stonehenge in their proportions.

Nebraska Nellie

Welcome to Scotts Bluff

On July 5, 2010, I traveled to a number of places on my way home. At Chadron State Park, we got a Nebraska Scenic Byways Passport. The idea is to get stamps at 27 places around Nebraska on the byways for a variety of prizes--depending how many stamps you acquire. Starting at Chadron State Park, then the Fur Traders Museum, and back to Fort Robinson on the 4th of July. On the 5th, we got Carhenge, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Sidney, Ogallala, and The Golden Spike. I would like to get all 27 by September 30 if I can.

Nebraska Nellie

Special Olympics 2010

Today the Special Olympics start here in Lincoln, Nebraska. Special Olympics was the dream of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. I heard that they asked for 8000 volunteers and that 11,000 volunteered. Many special athletes are arriving at our airport today. KFOR said it was the busiest airport in the country today. Many pilots volunteered to fly in the athletes.

Good luck to all of you. Have fun in Lincoln. I hope it cools off for you.

Nebraska Nellie

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford, our former president, was born as Leslie King in Omaha, Nebraska at 3202 Woolworth on July 14, 1913. I miscalendared it and consequently I am late in celebrating his birthday. In December, 1913, his mother divorced his father because he was abusive. She later married Gerald Ford in Michigan and Leslie began going by Gerald Ford, Jr. He was never formally adopted but did change his name legally in 1935.

Although he was made fun of for being clumsy, but he was very athletic. He became vice president to Richard Nixon and later pardoned Nixon after he resigned after Watergate. Ford pardoned him to get the country past a very rough time. Ford was our 38th President.

Ford died in 2006. He was a one term president, most likely due to the pardon.

Happy birthday to you, President Ford.

Nebraska Nellie

Chief Crazy Horse

This is the place at Fort Robinson that Chief Crazy Horse was killed after being betrayed by the US government. Lots of bad lessons to learn from the history there.

Nebraska Nellie

Another rock at Toadstool Park

Nebraska Nellie

Toadstool Park

Nebraska Nellie

Toadstool Park

Nebraska Nellie

Toadstool Park--Is this really in Nebraska?

Within the National Grasslands lies Toadstool Park. I had never even heard of this park until a few weeks ago. Where have I been? You have to drive even further from the bison kill site to find Toadstool Park. There are no park rangers or any staff at the park. There are about 6 spots to camp in if you want.

The idea is that you can follow the path into the park to see the rock formations. Unfortunately for someone like me who is not in shape for rock climbing, there are no warnings how difficult it becomes. There is a little pamphlet at the beginning that tells you there are 9 markers to get through the path.

No problem getting through one and two. That's where I should have stopped, but no, we trudged on. At first the rocks were rough but you could climb over them. I was carrying my good camera and I was afraid of slipping. By the time we got to marker number 5, it was getting scary for me. Being short, made it difficult to get up to the next level at times. My friend was most helpful to me and my camera. We made it through the steep cliffs warning the travelers to be careful.

We made it past marker number 7 and then were were stumped. We could see the next marker but no path to it on the top of the high rocks. I will show several more views of the park so you can see what I am talking about. We referred to the pamphlet and then it said the next thing to do was to "scramble up the rock". It was a hot sunny day in the middle of the afternoon. I thought I might need to be helicoptered out of there, but knew there was no cell phone service. My friend (who probably could have made it) said we should turn back. Even that scared me, but there was no alternative.

We had a long exhausting day by the time we made it back to the park. We had been to Fort Robinson, the bison kill site, and now rock climbing. My legs ached the next two days and have no plans to ever do that again, but and it's a big but, I'm pretty proud that we made it past 7 of 9 markers. I knew I wasn't up to scrambling the next rock. Either my camera or I or both would never have made that one. However, I am very sorry that I didn't get a photo of the rock we were supposed scramble. If I did that much exercise every day, I would get in shape or die.

Nebraska Nellie

Tanning a buffalo hide the old fashioned way

These women are at the bison kill site. The one in the back is the director of the site. She is tanning a buffalo hide the Sioux Indian way. First they have to clean off most of the meat and then spread warmed buffalo brain on the hide. This puts collagen into the hide which will keep the leather soft. The women were still scraping off the last of the meat. This is very hard work. They offered to let us help. I passed.

Nebraska Nellie

Wild flowers

These wild flowers were at the bison kill site. There were lots of wild flowers and pussy willows.

Nebraska Nellie

Next stop--Hudson Meng bison kill site

This site is managed by the federal government. In a small area in a former pasture, there are hundreds of dead bison piled on top of each other. It is unclear what killed them and why did they all die on one place? This is a spot that is definitely off the beaten path. You have to drive for miles on a dirt road to find it. There is a $5.00 charge to see the bison bones. There are students inside carefully clearing the dirt from the bones.

It is interesting but hard to get to.

Nebraska Nellie

Burros in the grassland

Do you think these burros were telling us something?

Nebraska Nellie

Nebraska National Grasslands

After a light lunch at the Fort Robinson lodge, I headed out to see more of the surrounding area. This photo was taken in the national grasslands. Again I was so amazed at how the land looked. All the interesting shapes popping out of the ground. I also came to appreciate our hard surface roads. I drove on a lot of roads that were either dirt or rock. I would have liked to be driving a jeep myself.

Nebraska Nellie

Wild flower at Fort Robinson

Nebraska Nellie

Cactus flower at Fort Robinson

Nebraska Nellie

View from the top of the butte at Fort Robinson

Nebraska Nellie

Dall sheep at Fort Robinson

When our tour guide told us these were dall sheep, I remembered the dall sheep I saw in Alaska sitting on a patch of snow on a mountain. There were two mama sheep nursing their babies in the top of this butte.

Nebraska Nellie

Lone tree on the trail........

Fort Robinson

Driving to Fort Robinson from Chadron was beautiful. The highway is the Bridge to the Buttes scenic highway. It looks so different with the buttes just coming out of the ground. At the Fort, there are a number of ways to tour the fort. There are horses to ride, even long trips into the buttes. I'm not a horse woman, although it sounds like fun. There are stage coach rides or hayrack rides. We went on the jeep ride up to the top of a butte. The jeep seats 6 adults in the open jeep around the sides and back.

We rode up a very rough trail to the top of the butte. He showed us where the Cheyenne Indians hid from the troops. We all bounced around in the jeep as we hit various bumps in the road.

I'll post some of the other pictures after this post as we rode along.

Nebraska Nellie

Fiddler on the Roof Update

Mark Thornburg, former Beatrician, won the Fonda McGuire Award for the outstanding male performance of the year at the Omaha Community Playhouse. He was terrific.

My parents enjoyed the play so much. I'm not sure any play will ever measure up to this one for them. I'm so glad I didn't miss it and I plan to go to all his future plays. I'm a fan.

Nebraska Nellie

Fort Robinson

I can't believe that I have never been to Fort Robinson or Chadron, Nebraska before. What was I waiting for? This part of the state is so different from our flat eastern part of the state. I drove from Lincoln to Chadron after work on July 2. I drove on I 80 to Grand Island then northwest on Highway 2. It was beautiful but unfortunately, it got dark around the time that I got to the Nebraska National Forest. I'll have to do that another time.

The next morning, I went to Fort Robinson. There is so much history there. It was a major fort in our country's expansion to the west. Many bad things happened to our native Americans. Many buffalo were killed for there furs.

Fort Robinson has much to see and do. You can stay in the lodge or the cabins at the fort. Unfortunately, I planned this trip at the last minute and was not able to stay there or in the cabins at Chadron State Park. I learned that if you want to stay at these cabins, you have to make a reservation a year in advance. That is generally not my style to plan a trip a year in advance, so I stayed at a Super 8 in Chadron. This was centrally located to many things in the area so it worked out well.

The day started out with a big breakfast in Crawford at the Frontier Bar. The food was very good and the prices were more than reasonable. The waitresses were very friendly in this small town.

Nebraska Nellie

Lots to catch up on.........

I'm woefully behind on my blogging. I've been too busy with my real job, but I've done some fun things, too. There are lots of famous Nebraskan's birthdays this month. Stay tuned.

Nebraska Nellie