O/T Kearney (NE) Arch...........

Guess it's actually the Platte River Road Arch.

Went under it today on the way out, and again on the way back. Got to wondering if any of ya'll ever went through it.

My wife, daughter, and I went through it a coupla years ago, and I was kinda underwhelmed. Hate to denigrate my own state, but to me it looked a lot like a manufactured tourist trap. More hype than what they come through with, and a souvenir shop with overpriced junk.

Their online pages says they have a 1914 Model T Ford. It's actually about a '25 or '26. Model T's did evolve over the years.

Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the place. Guess if you were stopped in Kearney anyway and didn't mind backtracking a few miles, it would be an interesting diversion, but I certainly wouldn't consider it a destination in itself.

The day we were there, we went back to Minden and spent the rest of the day at Pioneer Village. A whole lot more meaningful. Also, a few miles west of Kearney at the Elk Creek exit there's Chevyland with scads of antique and valuable Chevies. Last time I was there, the showpiece was a '57 Bel Air convertible, turquoise with a white top, facory chrome fender skirts, factory Continental kit, factory fuel injection, etc., restored to showroom condition. That sucker has to be worth a ton of money.

Tourist trap?

You have NO idea what a tourist trap is 'til you've taken a family vacation to Medora!
WHAT a bunch of (STUFF)!
Tourist trap

I'm boycotting it because they sold it to the public with a giant cowboy on one tower and an Indian on the other tower. The PC crowd didn't like that so now there is the artsy-f_rtsy winged things up there.

Most of the folks I know that have been there liked it. Of course it is a trap! It is getting its own exit on I-80 too.

The folks that built that arch tried to sell one to the city of Hillsboro, Tx to sit ovr I-35. Luckily the city council had enough sense to reject it.

Say that golf course has some serious rough.

Think I'd enjoy the featured Medora much more than Medora, KS. They have a produce stand and an antique store, a church, and some houses. Unincorporated I believe.

We went through that arch shortly after it opened. We were on our way to Utah, so we were going right past it anyway. Sure glad we didn't make a special trip just to see it.

Pioneer Village down in Minden is a whole different story. Well worth the time it took to get there.

You guys are ALL WRONG about what a TOURIEST TRAP
is ! WISCONSIN DELLS is the worlds largest ! !

If you are going to Minden to see Pioneer Village pack a lunch and take a tent to see it good 2 days.

actually, the dells has very nice and educational boat tours as well as shows and water parks.My idea of a tourist trap is a place that hooks you in on the way by. The dells is too big of a destination to fit that mold in my opnion. My vote for the worlds largest torrist trap has to go to Wall Drug

I went through it with my kids on a grade school field trip about 6 years ago. I thought that although, yeah, the gift shop etc did give it a "tourist trap" feel, there was still enough there to at least be kinda neat to see, especially for schoolkids and people not acquainted with the history of the area. I think the kids got as much out of that as they did thier trips to, for example, Chimney Rock, where they had to look at it from a half mile away...

I haven't been to Pioneer Village in Minden since I was a gradeschool kid myself(early 70's). I tried like heck every year at our local schoolboard meetings to get that to be a field trip destination for my own kids and thier classmates, but never got it done. One of these days, my kids(highschoolers now) and I are going to go so we can see it- my kids are interested in history and old things almost as much as I am.

I built most of the interior displays,everything but the rock and the grass!