Blanche Brummet was from South Dakota and Reece was from Nebraska. For many years I've wanted to visit those places, and last September I finally had the opportunity. I was planning on following the Brummet trail through Indiana and all the way back to Virginia, but found out I was not as fond of travelling as I used to be and after visiting De Smet, S. Dakota, I turned around and came home. Here are a few pictures of my visit. I'll do Nebraska first.
Stapleton is about fifty miles north of North Platte and is right on the edge of the Nebraska sand hills. These hills cover about half of the state and are only suitable for grazing land. After being raised on grass, the cattle are moved to feed lots near rail lines where they are bulked up on the feed corn that is grown in more productive areas of the state. So my memories of Nebraska are of sand hills, corn fields, and endless trains trundling down the tracks. It's hard to realize the scale of the agricultural wealth of the midwestern states unless you see for yourself the fields of corn stretching as far as the eye can see, and train after train heading toward the Eastern cities.
The North Platte River comes out of the Rockies of Colorado and flows into the Missouri at Omaha and its flood plain forms some of the richest farm land in Nebraska. Alas, Stapleton was not in one of the richer areas, and today it could well serve as a location for a western movie. Many of the buildings date from the late 19th century and would have been familiar to Reece. Interesting to me is that it would be hard to tell the difference between Stapleton of today and, say Stony Plain of years gone by.
The pictures are of Stapleton and Gandy.
I regret to inform you that Lucille Olson, the daughter of Blanche's older sister Lulu, did not make it to her 100th birthday.
