Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2001
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 21, No. 2, Spring 2001, pp. 155-60.
Abstract
The summer of 2000 marked the grand opening of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument just east of Kearney, Nebraska, on Interstate 80. Costing approximately $60 million the site features exhibits on the history of the American West in the first and only "museum" to straddle an interstate highway. At the 16 July grand opening, former Nebraska Governor Frank Morrison, a spry ninety-five years, reminisced before an audience of over six hundred, including both of Nebraska's US senators and its current governor, about having realized his dream of honoring the nation's westward movement.
Coverage of the event in the state's two leading newspapers was generally positive. The Lincoln Journal Star noted that "while the design and concept of the archway have been criticized by some, supporters hope the structure entices some of an estimated 12 million motorists who cross Nebraska on I-80 each year."1 Nebraska's reputation as the drive across state or fly-over land is always a concern to the region's tourist interests. The Omaha World-Herald used the occasion to praise the city of Kearney's boosterism with a color photo of the Arch at sunset gracing its front page article, "Kearney Always Looking Ahead." A second page article, "At Arch Dedication: Honors, a Few Laughs," focused on economic development. Said a local development official and member of the board of the private foundation that built the thirty-foot high arch, "It's going to serve as a big welcome mat for the state."2 Even discounting debatable geography, Kearney being nearly halfway across Nebraska in the center of the Great Plains, entrance fees-$8.50 per adult, $7 per child 3 to 11 and seniors 65 or over-may prove to be a deterrent.
Absent from the general hoopla surrounding the opening was any substantial attention to the Monument's themes. Are the exhibits intellectually sound? Are they intelligible? How historically accurate are the presentations? Moreover, how might the Archway become a major educational site for the state's and the region's students and general public? How easily will teachers find the exhibits lending themselves to classroom use? Such queries deserve exploration before we can venture to assess the overall value of Nebraska's newest attraction.
HISTORY AT THE ARCHWAY
Rounding a bend heading west on Interstate 80 west of Gibbon just north of Fort Kearny and two miles from the one and only city of Kearney exit, one is startled by a first glimpse of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. Eight stories tall and 308 feet long, the building looks in some ways more like a stockade from seventeenth-century Massachusetts than a Great Plains fort. There is also a resemblance to a covered bridge; perhaps those of Madison County, Iowa, were factored into the design. Fort or bridge, it is a traffic stopper, this first museum monument permitted to lease air space over an interstate highway. Indeed, it has stopped so much traffic that warning signs now appear on both sides of the interstate imploring motorists to pay attention and not drive off the road or stop under penalty of fine.
Exiting Interstate 80 and following the signs to ample parking spaces, one encounters a number of psychedelic tip is situated several hundred yards from the Monument. No explanation for their appearance or placement is offered. Visitors' first impressions may be puzzlement. Billed as a place to experience history, not as South Dakota's Wall Drug or Corn Palace, the Archway needs to make up for these initial oddities quickly. It does.
Comments
Copyright 2001 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln