17 Sep 2022 - Dobbys Frontier Town Fall Festival, Carhenge, Runza for Lunch!

 17 Sep

This morning we started exploring Alliance NE.  While doing our homework we discovered this weekend happens to be the fall festival at Dobby's Frontier Town!  How about that!  So we made that our first stop today.

Dobby's Frontier Town started out as an effort to preserve history of Western Nebraska before it was gone.  "Dobby", Mr. Kenneth Dobby Lee. passed away in 2009, but his efforts remain, including 19 buildings and the contents plus hundreds of other historic items such as farm equipment.  Visiting Dobby's Frontier Town is like stepping back in time.  He started with an old milk house building and transforming it into a replica of the first Alliance /Grand Lake Post Office.  As time went on he acquired other buildings such as the Texaco gas station building which was one of the first filling stations in the area.  Another example is the 1912 Evangelical Lutheran Church that was relocated here and restored.  Overall he spent 28 creating the Frontier Town.  We spoke with several folks here today who actually  assisted Dobby in his efforts.  Such an interesting place. Luckily Dobby's family and others have carried on his tradition and preserved his dream.  I took 112 pictures and will try to trim this down... 

But first, I can tell you I was not equipped appropriately for a day at "frontier town" in Alliance NE.  We are "out west", and we saw quite a few folks exercising their right to openly carry their six-shooter.  And these were not props!

So here goes:

The entrance

The dentist office in the Medical building

The doctor's office, fully equipped

Inside the 1912 Evangelical Lutheran Church

The soda shoppe

A barracks from the Alliance Army Air Corps base.  This is a work in progress and they are basically gathering items to display.  The front of the building is used as their workshop.

A portable ice cream machine creating frozen treats that we will sample later!

Inside the still building.  An actual whiskey still (back wall), spigots, various jugs and containers

Cow chips burned in the stove that heats the General Store.

Inside the General Store

Locals brought their crafts and creations to sell

The Texaco filling station from here in Alliance

Inside the Texaco station, full of parts

This next one is Robert Anderson's log cabin.  Robert was a slave from Kentucky who joined the Union Army during the Civil War.  After the war he moved to Iowa, then to Nebraska and homesteaded land given by the Government.  This is his house, relocated here from Hemingford NE

Inside Robert Anderson's sod house

A schoolhouse

Inside the schoolhouse

Inside the saloon, complete with spittoon on the floor.  You could buy a shot of  Sarsaparilla for $0.25 

or a bottle of root beer for $2.00, which we did!

Upstairs from the saloon was the bordello, complete with bed, bathtub, etc!

The working blacksmith shop

Inside the jail.  Notice the glass bottles protruding through the wall providing light inside.

Doreen checking out the newspaper printing office.  Her grandfather worked for the newspaper here around 1925.  We plan to visit the current newspaper office to see if there are any records of him remaining.

We each got a cup of homemade ice cream!

Inside the quilt shop

Inside the bank

An old Wells Fargo coach

Inside the leather shop, complete with machines and tools

The furniture store made furniture and caskets.

In the back room of the furniture store is the undertaker shop 

with actual tools of the trade and supplies such as make-up

A final look down main street

We really had a good time at Dobby's Frontier Town Fall Festival.  It was so interesting and informative.  Everyone was so nice!

From the frontier town we headed north of Alliance to "Carhenge", which is the creation of   Jim Reinders, the property owner.  Jim worked in England and when he returned back to Alliance he had this grand idea to create a Stonehenge replica out of automobiles.  So he pressed ahead with this actually during a family reunion and "planted" the original 25 cars in six days and dedicated it on the summer solstice in 1987!  For Doreen and I, it was a test of recognition of auto body styles, grilles, tail lights, etc!  We had a lot of fun!  How many can you recognize?

They have asked everyone to refrain on graffiti except on this one car.

There are a couple time capsules buried in vehicles.

We stopped in their gift shop and dropped a donation - there is no charge here.  I bought a koozie and Doreen bought the picture that identifies the cars by make and year

They have a license plate from every state and province on display.  When Doreen and I were first married and I was in the Air Force, we used to see cars with Iowa plates and we would test each other on what the county was (based on the number on the left side of the plate) and what the county seat was.  99 counties in alphabetical order.   

Calhoun County (13)

The first state we lived in after being married.

We finished up at Carhenge and drove back into town towards the campground.  It was after lunch, and we had been given a heads-up on a primarily Nebraska food that we needed to try called a "Runza". 

Runza's are German origin and made of yeast dough bread pocket filled with ground beef, cabbage (or sauerkraut), onions and spices.  The first Runza restaurant opened in Lincoln NE back in 1949 and since then they have opened about 80 locations in the Midwest.

There happens to be a Runza restaurant very close to our campground so we stopped.  I ordered an "original" Runza and Doreen ordered their  "Philly style" Runza.  Our food was ready in no time at all and it was piping hot!

That was delicious.  We may even stop by here again before we leave!  Well, that is about it for today.  We got back to the campground and the Cubs game had yet to start,  The Iowa Hawkeyes were playing later on the Big 10 network.  We grilled some burgers and pork chops for the next couple days.

Tomorrow we will visit Sallow's Military Museum and their Alliance Knight Museum.  The plan is on Monday to drive to Scotts Bluff NE and visit the National Monument there, then drive to Chimney Rock and the museum there.