STAGECOACH MUSEUM

During this season, the Stagecoach Museum hosted over 1,360 visitors from May through its
closing at the end of September. This included 107 travelers from 17 foreign countries and
representatives from every state except Rhode Island, Louisiana, Delaware, and Connecticut.
The most represented states were Wyoming, Colorado, California, and South Dakota. The doors
were kept open for these visitors thanks to incredible volunteers who spent almost 1,000 hours
staffing the museum.

In June, the museum presented a display for the American Legion conference that was held in
Lusk. It included uniforms from WWI, WWII, and Korea, caps, medals, photos, and tributes to
lives lost in war.

Also in June, the historical society, in collaboration with the Niobrara County Library, sponsored
a talk and tour titled “The Indian Wars of Northwest Nebraska”. Randy Kane, historian from
Crawford, gave talks in Lusk, Crawford, and Harrison. Then, on June 16, he led a tour of the
sites in and around Fort Robinson. Well over 100 people attended the talks and tour.
On August 4, the museum hosted U.S. congressional delegates who were touring Niobrara,
Albany, Platte, Laramie, and Goshen Counties. They toured the museum and attended talks
about the fossil resources of the county (presented by Todd Hoelmer) and the challenges of being
a small business (presented by Twila Barnette).

On September 24, the museum held a Day of History attended by over 50 people. Jim Kruse
presented the history of Taylorville and Kitchen Ranch. Leslie Stewart did a historical review of
Ronnie Brown’s Cross A ranch. Teresa Modine talked about the years she and her husband
owned the Silver Cliff Hotel. Terry Sandstrom polished stones for visitors.

The museum has reprinted another local history. In 1988, Jim Griffith printed stories of his
growing up and working life in Lusk in the booklet A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Capitol. This has now been redone in a larger format and joins other reprints of local history
available at the museum.

The stagecoach outside the museum has had a major overhaul. Last winter, the Meng family
lovingly and laboriously completely rebuilt and refurbished it. Other improvements were
completed at the Hat Creek Stage Station, including maintenance and planning the installation of
heat and electricity.