Chappell, Nebraska; Creekside RV Park and Pawnee State Recreation Area, Lincoln, Nebraska June 10-17, 2013

Chappell is a little town of 902 people, and its claim to fame was the 3.6 million bushel grain elevator built in 1914, which in its hey-day, was the largest in the area. The grain elevator is still busy day and night, attested to by the many trains and trucks that stop throughout the day and night. campground was conveniently located behind the elevator and next to the train tracks, on which about 75 trains traveled, night and day. Making the ambiance over the top, there was a road crossing the tracks about 200 yards, which ensured that each train gave two longs, a short, and a long whistle as they approached the crossing. Some engineers were long-winded (I think they were always the ones on the night shift) and the whistles seemed to go on forever. Many of the trains were long (200 plus cars) and sometimes had as many as five engines. In spite of the noise of the trains, our stay in Chappell was great fun. The little town was neatly kept and a friendly place, most of the stores in the five-block area were occupied, the RV Park was beautifully maintained, and we blundered into a delightful annual pageant at a nearby park.

The second night we were there we had a storm move through – radar was showing yellow, orange, red, and pink – and as in Coleman, TX, the cloud-to-cloud lightning was spectacular. Hail had been predicted though thankfully absent, but the wind was ferocious – even Rich looked startled a couple of times, when it was hitting us broadside and rocking the RV as though it were a boat. The storm passed after a couple of hours and the morning dawned clean and bright.

Cabela's Flagship Store

We went to Sidney to grocery shop in the morning and found a huge new Cabela’s (hunting and fishing outfitter) store. It is the home office of the chain and in Chappell there are several Cabela stores which are run by brothers of the sporting goods owner.

While we were wandering around Chappell, we noticed a sign in an insurance office window that advertised the 21st Annual Ash Hollow Historical Pageant, which celebrates the pioneering spirit of those who traveled West on the Oregon Trail. Rich went inside and talked with the agent who gave him all the info, and we decided to go.

Old Stone Schoolhouse built in 1903 in Ash Hollow

We headed out to the Ash Hollow State Park around 3, drove about 20 miles through flat farmland and a huge feedlot (we’d smelled it at the campground when the wind was wrong, but up close and personal - it was overwhelming). As we got closer to the park the terrain changed to hilly and a lush green, with limestone outcroppings, canyons, juniper and yucca. It reminded us of a combination of New Mexico and Texas, but with rain.

Archaeological excavations in Ash Hollow indicated that early man used the area as much as 6,000 years ago, and a cave near the visitor’s center was used by Plains Indians for about 3,000years. The small museum at the visitor’s center boasts bones of prehistoric rhinoceros, mammoths, and

mastodons as well as pioneer history displays.

View from the top of Windlass Hill

The part of the park I was especially interested in was the history of the westward-bound pioneers. The California-Oregon Trail runs through the area and we saw a small rock schoolhouse, a sod house, and climbed Windlass Hill (not for the faint of heart) the spot on the California-Oregon Trail where the wagon trains had to carefully creep down a very steep hill to get from the high table lands to the south into the Ash Hollow area and the North Platte River valley. Folklore has it that a windlass was used to slowly lower the wagons down, but historians have not found anything to substantiate the claim. Some folks did tie ropes to the back of their wagons and used people-power to slow them; others used their oxen, and still others locked the wheels to make them slide, thus slowing them down. No matter how they chose to slow their descent, the settlers had a difficult time getting down the hill in one piece. We climbed most of the way to the top and even on the paved trail that zig-zagged up the hill, it was hard work. Rich did some calculations and concluded that the grade is 30 or 35% - some places more, some less. I found the steepness of the trail unnerving, and couldn’t even begin to imagine how the pioneers must have felt.

The valley and spring near Windlass Hill

 

After the treacherous descent, the emigrants had a difficult though fairly short haul through a sandy trail to the main campground for the night. They were rewarded by a beautiful valley with a sweet, fresh spring which supplied all the water they needed. In fact, the spring at Ash Hollow was listed in guide books of the day as the best water on the trail. It must have been a nice change from the muddy and otherwise polluted river water they and their animals had been drinking.

The celebration was held in the same valley and spring area the emigrants spent time making repairs

to their wagons. After the difficulty of the descent, then the hard pull through the sandy terrain, the lush valley and pure spring must have been a blessing indeed. It is a beautiful and peaceful area and as I stood in line for our “chuck wagon” dinner, I imagined the women lighting fires on which they would be cooking and washing clothes; the men repairing wagons and tack, and perhaps doctoring the horses or oxen; and the children filling the water barrels, collecting wood for the fires, and feeding the animals. A part of me wishes I could have been there during that time, but a bigger part is very happy that our team of oxen is a diesel truck and our prairie schooner is an air conditioned travel trailer!

The “chuck wagon” dinner consisted of large roasts of beef, slow-cooked on big B-B-Que units with constantly turning spits. Once the beef was done, it was removed from the spit and pulled apart, then served with fry bread and honey, beans (similar to the churro beans we had in New Mexico rather than the baked beans we think of), and a delicious cole slaw with tomatos, corn, peppers, cucumbers, red and green cabbage, and carrots in a wonderfully tangy dressing. The meal was $10 each (well worth the price) and we had a number of delightful locals join us at our table, two of whom took part in the program  another of our table mates, told us her grandmother came to the area via a wagon train with her family when she was nine, camped in the same area the celebration was held, and the family settled in Llwewllyn instead of moving on with the rest of the train.

Sunset on the way back from Ash Hollow

which began after dinner. Sherilynn,

The program was taken from diaries of pioneers and explorers of the time and the cast was dressed in costumes of the period, with songs of the period thrown in. All-in-all, it was a delightful time.

We stayed six nights at Chappell (it took four before the trains stopped waking me up at night) and then headed out for our one-night stand at Pawnee State Recreation Area near Lincoln on our way to Iowa to see our friends, Sue and Jim. Sue worked at QTP when I first started at the university. 

Pawnee SRA was a beautiful spot, but the sites were close together and small. It worked for a short time but doubt that we’ll be back for a long stay.