Changes in the works at Homestead
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BY CARA PESEK / Lincoln Journal Star
There are some things that Homestead National Monument of America just doesn’t have a place for right now. Like a full-sized windmill. And assorted vintage farm implements. And a sword once owned by the original homesteader, Daniel Freeman.
“Legend has it that he was involved with the Civil War,” Park Superintendent Mark Engler explained.
A little less than a year from now, that will change.
Construction is in the works on the monument’s new Heritage Center.
And then there will be a place for the windmill, implements and sword, as well as a whole lot of other stuff.
The new center is scheduled to open in May — the same day the Homestead Act turns 145 years old.
The new center will tell the stories of homesteaders in Nebraska and elsewhere, including those who settled in Alaska as recently as the 1980s.
It will have more modern, interactive exhibits, said Homestead spokeswoman Susan Cook.
It will feature a view of the prairie that the existing visitor’s center lacks. It will have a parking lot exactly an acre in size.
“Often we’re asked how big is an acre, and we’ll be able to say, ‘It’s as big as that parking lot,’” Engler said.
But the construction is just one of many things happening at the monument.
The director of the National Parks Service was to visit the monument on Saturday.
The monument’s annual Homestead Days event is in its final day. Activities were to include building a wall of a sod house, Cook said.
And earlier this month, the Gage County Board of Supervisors gave developer Troy Stevens the go-ahead to convert a home into a bed and breakfast near the monument, though the board rejected plans for an RV park.
“I think that it’s something that will provide an added service to those people who visit the monument,” Engler said of the bed and breakfast.
Construction of the Heritage Center hasn’t interfered with the park’s busy summer season, Engler said, except that about 10 artifacts that were once on display have been shipped away for conservation work.
The new center will be up on a hill, Cook said, across the park from the visitor’s center.
Its location, overlooking the prairie, is just as important as all the things that will be inside, she said.
“The visitors will get a real good idea of what the pioneers were seeing.”
Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.
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