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Pioneer VillageMinden, NebraskaPicture the year 1873. Mom and Dad Warp have just immigrated to America from Norway and decided to homestead on the Nebraska Prairies. They have 12 kids, Harold, the youngest, is born in 1903. Now jump to the 1960s. A lot has happened in the intervening years. The inventions, the progress, the improvements. Pioneer Village is all about the chronological order of these improvements. When Harold was growing up a bare-footed farm boy herding cows around, he became fascinated with inventions. Things like the automobiles, tractors, phonographs and radios, all sorts of things grabbed his attention. He became an inventor himself, in the field of plastic.
Opened in 1953, Pioneer Village is Harold’s tribute to man’s development through the decades.
He chose to start with 1830 when man learned to roll steel, draw wire and hold steam under pressure. And speaking of steam, you just have to ride the steam powered MERRY-GO-ROUND. Rides are still only a nickel! How can you beat that? Ask if you can blow the whistle. Cooooool!!!! There’s all sorts of exhibits showing the progress of America’s growth. Take the living room, for instance. See its stages from the 1830s to the 1960s. Or the kitchen.
See 350 antique cars in their order of development. See a real live Pony Express Station (that’s where Buffalo Bill’s saddle can be viewed).
There’s a firehouse where you can see the development of fire-fighting equipment from the handcart to the modern fire truck.
There’s a main building filled with 10,000 things. They show the development of transportation, lighting, guns, money, and other things in chronological order. Things things things.
Photos courtesy roundamerica.com There’s tons of things to see at Pioneer Village. That’s why your second day there is free. You’ll never be able to take in all the exhibits in one day. Over 50,000 things in 26 buildings on 20 acres? No way. Two days at least! And, yippeeee and yahoooo! in true tacky tourist trap tradition, they have a smashed penny machine. It is located outside of the gift shop.
Photo courtesy pennycollector.com
Pioneer Village is at 138 E. Hwy 6, Minden, NE. Take I-80 Exit 279. Go south 12 miles on Harold Warp Memorial Drive (NE Hwy 10).
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With the fortune he made from his Flex-O-Glass invention, an inexpensive plastic used for poultry house windows and winter protection on house doors and windows, Harold bought up all sorts of things: cars, dolls, helicopters, a sod house, hat pins, Buffalo Bill’s saddle, and much much more. Way too many things to list here. Over 50,000 things.
