Knight Museum & Sandhills Center - Alliance 

 

This is a really nice pioneer museum.  It certainly ranks as one of Nebraska's best on early life in the state.  The range of topics is quite varied; natural history, famous people, ordinary households, Indians and more.  Everyone who visits Alliance owes it to themselves to stop in at this museum.  Us old folks will go down memory lane and the youngsters will wonder how any of us survived.

Just take a look at some of the rocks found in Nebraska. The state is a "gold mine" for petrified wood.  There's also fossilized bones or other evidence of ancient life that can be found just about everywhere.  When I was in college, I was to find some poor soil and bring it to a soils class for testing and examination.  I stopped at a road cut in a hill and scooped up a small bucket of soil from about 10' below the surface.  When we looked over what I brought in, we were all surprised at a number of snail shells in the sample.

Just imagine working in this kitchen compared with today.  But in it's day, this is what they had and used.  Can you sew your own clothes?  Everyday dresses and men's clothes sometimes appeared so fancy to me when I see photos of how pioneers dressed.  

Does anyone remember seeing a cream separator work?  I do but ours used an electric motor.

The Homestead Act of 1862 was of special interest in Nebraska with the first claim made by Daniel Freeman near Beatrice NE.  The Kinkaid Act was especially for western Nebraska.  It was determined that 160 acres wasn't enough out here so 640 acres became the new claim.

There are many photographs of western life, as well.  

Of course, we all know how important railroads were to our state.  Almost everyone has a relative or friend who has or is now working for a railroad.  In Nebraska, we have around 10,200+ railroad employees.  This has decreased very significantly over the years as technology has improved.

Here's a display what was very interesting to me.  Look at how the Ogallala Aquifer has changed, or not!  I've read for years how the aquifer is drying out in various places so I was surprised that such vast areas have remained unchanged.  If you drive through the Sandhills on highway 2 you may be surprised at how mane lakes are visible from the highway.  Imagine how many more must be in the area you can't see from the road.