"The only thing new is the history we don't know." Harry Truman
Museum grounds
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Inside the museum
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A.S. Wood Native American Arrowhead Collection
This
projectile point collection was gathered by E.S. "Shan" Wood beginning with
his arrival in Gering in 1888. He carefully recorded the location of each find.
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Unique items
Plastic saddle
This plastic saddle was manufactured by the All Western Plastics Company of Lusk, Wyoming, in 1949. The company made 60 saddles before they moved their business to Scottsbluff. Though impractical for most purposes, the saddles were showy and used often in parades and special events.
Simmons Crazy Quilt
if you want to view a Smithsonian-quality crazy quilt, we have one at the North Platte Valley Museum. The Mary Ann Jane Plumbly Simmons crazy quilt is one of the finest anywhere in the nation and had been invited to appear in a Smithsonian quilt exhibit in 2004.
The quilt is believed to have been made sometime in the latter quarter of the 1800s in New York and arrived in Sidney, Nebraska, by train, then by wagon to Scottsbluff, where the family settled.
Although a cherished family possession, the quilt was donated to the North Platte Valley Museum. The quilt's preservation plan included hand stitching the quilt to a frame and encasing it in Plexiglas, a task requiring hundreds of hours of work that was carried out by a dedicated group of quilters.
'Trails Across Western Nebraska' Quilt
In 1998 the Panhandle Quilt Guild created the "Trails Across Western Nebraska" quilt to commemorate the various trails and historic places in the Panhandle of Nebraska prior to 1900.Divided
into three panels representing the northern, central and southern
panhandle, the quilt was used by guild members as a way to teach the
history of the Nebraska Panhandle to school children.Small copper colored stars identify historic sites in each panel.
Four guild members and a helper from Colorado designed the quilt and about two dozen women constructed it over the course of a year.
While not in use, the quilt was stored in a sewing room on the upper floor of a 1904 two story sod house.In April 2000, a fire swept through the old soddy, destroying everything in the sewing room except the Trails Quilt, which miraculously sustained only slight damage to the backing.At the next Panhandle Quilt Guild meeting, guild members voted not to repair the quilt, therefore allowing it a history of its own.
On Jan 3, 2004, the Trails Across Western Nebraska quilt became a part of the North Platte Valley Historical Association collection.
Patriot Truck
Manufactured in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1919 by Hebbs Motor Company, this patriot truck is one of only 15 known to survive. Purchased new by the Jack Brashear family, it was donated to the museum in 1983.
The 'Murphy Tub'
This fold-down bathtub includes an integrated kerosene-powered water heater. No information about its origin is available.
North Platte Valley Museum P.O. Box 435. 900 Overland Trails Road . 11th & J . Gering, NE 69341 . 308-436-5411 . npvm@earthlink.net
Copyright 2011 North Platte Valley Historical Association. All rights reserved.
