Life on a Ranch

A few years ago, I was in the fifth grade. The big hype of fifth grade at McCall-Donnelly Elementary was the “state project”. Each of us got to pick a state and learn everything we could about all the things that made that state unique. We made big poster boards with pictures and included all the facts we could find about our respective states. At the end of the project, we presented what we’d learned to the rest of the class. It was the kind of project that gets hyped up enough that you looked forward to fifth grade just for that particular project. And there was angst over whether or not you’d get the state you wanted because no two students could pick the same state. Well, that wasn’t a problem for me. Because while other students were picking states like Hawaii and Colorado and Texas and Alaska, my mom encouraged me to pick the state of our family heritage- Nebraska. Several generations back, my great great grandparents had homesteaded there. I knew the name Clarissa Palmer, a grandma from way back. She headed west by herself, at 22 years old, to homestead. She found a plot in Nebraska and she met the man who would become her husband, Dwight Griswold when he helped her build the sod hut she needed to formally homestead. As a kid, I knew she handmade a crazy quilt with embroidered wildflowers from the prairie. And I knew it was owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society and was in a museum in Lincoln because my mom talked about it. From there, I didn’t know much about Nebraska. So, I went along with her suggestion and without competition from any other fifth grader, I was given Nebraska as my state. Mind you, the Encyclopedia was our main source of research, and we also wrote letters to the chambers of commerce in various towns throughout our states, asking for information. Several of us received flyers and informational pamphlets from around the country, some more exciting than others. Well, this might come as a shock, but I was pretty disappointed with the information I gathered. While the Husker Harvest Days sounds interesting to me now, it didn’t compare to the exciting events going on in the states of other students. Known as the largest working farm show in the world, I recall cutting a picture of a tractor out of a magazine and slapping it on my poster. “I guess they have a big tractor show every year in September,” I unenthusiastically told my classmates. A friend who chose Alaska showcased the highest peak, Denali, sitting over 20,000 feet elevation. Meanwhile, the tallest place in Nebraska is called a “point” and not a “peak”. As it turned out, “Panorama Point” wasn’t even as high as the elevation of my hometown. If I’m honest, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about Nebraska since I came home from presentation day, where I expressed utter disappointment to my mom, the instigator of my project. That is, until a few months ago, when Lucy said she wanted to look at colleges in Nebraska. I mentioned it to Callie, who, being from Eastern Montana, is more familiar with the Midwest than I am. Knowing Lucy is interested in pre-vet studies, Callie suggested she check out Chadron State College in Northwest Nebraska. Turns out there are a lot of good things about Chadron State, their pre-vet pathway included. After looking into it, Lucy applied, got accepted, and we planned a trip to go see it in person for a visitation day. During the process, we recalled that Buck’s cousin, Tammy’s daughter, Halley, got married this spring and she and her husband live in Nebraska. Curious if we’d be close enough to visit, we asked her Grandma (Buck’s aunt, Ramona), if we’d be close. Turns out, Halley lives about 20 minutes from the college. And not only would they be done with corn harvest by the time we got there, but Tammy was scheduled to be there for a visit on the same dates we planned! Lucy and I booked our trip. Then…. we ended up with a cancelled flight, a rescheduled flight, and finally, a delayed longer-thanwe-had-time-to-wait-for flight. Neither of us wanted to cancel the trip, knowing it could be a while before we’d be able to do it again, so we hit the open road and drove 13 hours from Boise to Chadron. We made it down through a corner of Utah and up into Wyoming with a bright full moon showing only the silhouettes of the mountains we passed. Lucy was the real champ and drove the longest and hardest stretches through the late hours of the night and the wee hours of the morning. The sun came up right as we hit the Nebraska state line. The most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen welcomed us not only into the state, but right through Harrison, along the very same road where my great great grandparents homesteaded. I might not have cared about Nebraska too much when I was in fifth grade, but I felt a new level of appreciation and marveled at the irony of Lucy choosing to look at a college in the very place her ancestors chose to put down their roots. I suppose our girl might have come by some •How does corn wish you a Merry Christmas? With kernels of joy! •Why can't farmers take their pigs to the Christmas party? Because they hog all the presents! of her independent spirit from a great great Clarissa who, not much older than Lucy, set out on her own independent path some 150 years ago. Not too much farther down the road we found ourselves in Chadron. The sun continued to come up as we drove and I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the area- prairie grasslands, trees, rolling hills; it was beautiful! We saw cows (of which I took pictures and sent them immediately to Buck, “Look! Lots of cows here!”). I can only imagine how gorgeous it is in the spring when the prairie is green, and the wildflowers are showing off in all their glory. Anyway, we checked into our hotel and freshened up in time to get over to the school to sign in for “Eagle Days”. We learned more about the school, talked to professors, met students, asked questions and took a tour. We really liked the campus and the size (not too big, not too small), as well as the people we met and the feel of the campus and community. It felt good to see it all in person. Needless to say, by the time our heads hit our pillows that evening, we were exhausted. After a good night’s sleep, we met up with Tammy and Halley. Halley had been archery hunting earlier in the morning and, while she didn’t get a buck that day, she did just a couple days later. We thoroughly enjoyed catching up with both of them and we learned about the farm Halley runs with her husband, Mark. While the college felt like a good fit, it felt extra reassuring knowing we have family close by. After lunch, we headed north to Rapid City, South Dakota with a drive through Custer State Park and a stop at Mt. Rushmore along the way. We flew to Boise the next day and drove home before dark. As we drove around the last corner of Pyles Canyon, where you can look out at the Grande Ronde Valley, Lucy said, “Nebraska was pretty, but there really isn’t anywhere that compares to home.” She’s ready to set sail on her own adventures, but I love knowing that Lucy cherishes this place, and I can trust that no matter where she goes, she’ll always find her way back home to Union County. ~Chelsea