Dancing Leaf Earth Lodge, courtesy North Platte Lincoln Co. CVB
North Platte, Nebraska
As a thoroughfare for the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express and the Union Pacific railroad, North Platte, Nebraska, is steeped in Old West history.
With 1,500 guest rooms, North Platte is the largest community on Interstate 80 between Denver and Kearney, Nebraska, and is still an important stop for travelers today, said Lisa Burke, executive director of the North Platte/Lincoln County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Ruts from the emigrant trails have survived, and visitors can see some at a state rest area. Although other rut sites are on private land, the property owners “work really well with us” to show the ruts, Burke said.
Buffalo Bill Cody settled on a 4,000-acre ranch near North Platte in 1877 during the height of his Wild West Show fame. Today, tourists can visit the 16-acre Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park where Cody’s three-story Victorian house, barn and outbuildings have been preserved.
From atop the eight-story observation deck at Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center, guests can take in a 360-degree view of Union Pacific’s 2,850-acre rail yard, which is the largest in the world. Union Pacific platted North Platte as a railroad town, and the first train rolled through in 1866.
South of North Platte in Wellfleet, visitors can experience a taste of Native American history at the Dancing Leaf cultural center with a tour of the reconstructed stone medicine wheel and an earth lodge.
For something different, Burke encourages people to try “tanking.” Glidden Canoe Rental in Mullen, about 70 miles north of North Platte, will put a horse tank — one of those round, metal water tanks — in the Middle Loup River or the Dismal River, then put people in the tanks for a leisurely ride.
www.visitnorthplatte.com
Roseville, Minnesota
Visitors to Minnesota don’t have to choose between staying in either St. Paul or Minneapolis when Roseville, Minnesota, is basically like being in both.
“People love that we are perfectly positioned; we touch Minneapolis, and we touch St. Paul,” said Julie Wearn, CEO of the Roseville Visitors Association.
Roseville has about 1,200 guest rooms and is only 20 minutes from the Mall of America, which is a destination in itself, Wearn said.
The Wabasha Street Caves in downtown St. Paul were carved from sandstone on the south side of the Mississippi River in the 1840s, which, technically, makes them mines. In the 1920s and 1930s, the caves were a nightclub, a speakeasy and a notorious gangster hangout.
Saint Paul Gangster Tours takes visitors through the city’s history as a hub and haven for mobsters such as Ma Barker, John Dillinger and Babyface Nelson, and show the sites of gun battles and kidnappings.
“St. Paul has a huge gangster history,” Wearn said. “The chief of police at the time sort of said, ‘You can do all your gangster activities outside the city, then hang up your gun and come here.’”
In Minneapolis, Wearn said groups enjoy touring the Mill City Museum, which is built in the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill. The Washburn A Mill was built on the banks of the Mississippi River in 1874 but was destroyed in a flour dust explosion. The mill was rebuilt in 1880 and operated there until closing in 1965.
The mill was nearly destroyed again, this time by a fire in 1991, but the ruins were salvaged, and the Mill City Museum opened in 2003. Museum exhibits focus on Minneapolis’ founding and growth, which included flour milling and other industries that relied on hydropower from the river.
Pour Decisions Brewing Co. opened in an old Roseville carpet warehouse in fall 2012, and although the space is “pretty raw right now,” Wearn said, the brewery has a beer counter, some tables and chairs, and enough space to accommodate groups for beer tastings and bag lunches.
