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Thomas Marwood's Native American Artifacts

How old is it?  In 1965, a grouping of Native American artifacts belonging to Thomas Marwood was donated to the Antelope County Museum by his family. According to museum records, Thomas’s parents moved to Clearwater area in 1869 where they built a log cabin and began farming. Thomas spent the rest of his life in the area and amassed a sizable collection of stone artifacts collected around the Clearwater area. The size, condition, and variety of the artifacts are impressive, but what is even more interesting about the collection is the vast difference in age of some of the stone projectile points. The attached picture shows a grouping of points covering a several thousand year time period. While it is impossible to assign a definitive date to a specific projectile point without further evidence to go on, it is possible to look at the physical characteristic of a point and assign it to a certain culture which can give a rough idea of its age. Simply put, certain groups of people made t
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The Beginning of Clearwater

"The Railroad opened the West" This Friday night, the Antelope County Museum will celebrate their annual Night at the Museum. This year we will showcasing the village of Clearwater!  Clearwater Depot built in 1880 Clearwater was named for the pure, sparkling, and clear water found in the creek that flows south and east of the town. It was founded in 1881 as a railroad stop for the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad-- known as the Clearwater Station. The land was previously owned by Francis M. Snider.  By 1879 the railroad had built their line to the Norfolk area, and people in the Elkhorn valley were anxious to keep the railroad moving west. Various petitions and grants allowed the railroad to continue moving westward. on May 31st, 1881 the first passenger train passed through the Clearwater Station on its way to O'Neill. The track workers and early settlers stayed in tents until they later built homes and businesses in the area.  Clearwater was first settled

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Memorial Day is a federal holiday that honors the men and women who died serving in the U. S. Military. Originally it was known as Decoration Day, first celebrated by decorating the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers of the Civil War. While many cities claim to be the birthplace of Memorial day (Columbus, Mississippi; Macon, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, and Carbondale, Illinois), President Lyndon B. Johnson and the federal government declared Waterloo, New York the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo, NY was chosen because this town honored Memorial Day by closing businesses doors while residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. https://www.heroesdental.com/memorial-day-poppies-and-smiles-for-freedom/ In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday and has since then been celebrated on the last  Monday in May. Today, we continue the tradition of honoring deceased soldiers, and family members vi

A Night at the County Fair

Antelope County Fair  A county fair is a celebration of agriculture, competition, and education. Today, county fairs provide educational activities to help today's consumers understand the importance of agriculture, livestock, and horticulture. County fairs have given rural communities the chance to celebrate their hard work and achievements.   The Antelope County Fair has gathered people in celebration for over a hundred and thirty-five years as the first fair was held in 1883, two miles east of Neligh, Nebraska. There has not been much information regarding the early years of the fair recorded, only that financial and economic issues caused the fair to discontinue in the late 1890s.  County Fair in 1928 However in 1914, the fair was held again. This time at Riverside Park. Memberships for the fair were sold for $2 a piece. In the 1920's more activities that we recognize today were added to the celebration. For example community involvement began with a concer

Antelope County's First Shelterbelt

Shelterbelts Saved the County As settlers adventured out West seeking land and profit, they soon discovered their new homes were often victims to broken sod, droughts, and dust storms. To protect the citizen's land from erosion the U. S. passed various acts, such as the Timber Culture Act of 1873 and the Clark-McNary Act of 1924, to encourage people to plant trees. In 1935, the Plains Shelterbelt Project was created by the Forest Service, which was called the "Prairie States Forestry Project" and ran until 1942.  The Shelterbelt Program began planting trees along borders of farmland extending from Canada to Texas. Mary Rice shelterbelt, east of Orchard Photo taken by Carl A. Taylor Primarily ten or eleven species of trees were planted throughout the Great Plains: Cottonwood, Chinese Elm, Boxelder, Green Ash, Western Red Cedar, Hackberry, Bur Oak, American Elm, Honey Locust, Russian Olive, and Walnut. Trees were seen as a beneficial way to protect the land, and pe