<– Day 41-43 – May 22nd-24th: Omaha-Bound  | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 45 – Tue. May 26th: South Park –>

Ann in trouble, again.

After spending the weekend celebrating Ann’s son’s high school graduation, we left Omaha on Monday bound for Colorado. However, we decided to make one stop on the way at a place called Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska.

Today we drove from Omaha, Nebraska, to Golden, Colorado, with a stop at the Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska.

If you have ever driven through the middle of Nebraska on I-80 you’ve probably seen worn signs in dire need of paint advertising the Pioneer Village. The signage is unimpressive and left us with the impression that they might be relics of a place that no longer exists. However, after seeing a couple signs, we looked up the place and discovered that, indeed, it still exists. Even better, the reviews were generally positive.

We arrived to find a dated brick building. In the front windows paper letters ‘welcomed’ us. There weren’t many vehicles parked nearby, so we parked right in front of the entrance door. There wasn’t much to give us confidence. However, once we paid the entry fee and walked into the first large space, we could tell it would be a cool experience. There were cars and planes everywhere.

When we exited the first building, we walked into a large outdoor area with buildings set up around a circle. The represented the ‘old village’ part of Pioneer Village.

Some of the old buildings moved to the village.

Ann conducting a train.

One of the many buildings housing farm equipment.

At the back of the Village were two story buildings full of farm equipment, tractors, trucks, and cars. Many look like they were low mileage cars that were parked and forgotten.

This is one of the many deep buildings.

I estimated there were 50 cars per floor (25 on each side) and two floors per building. Yes, a lot of cars!

There were two jeeps, a GPW and a CJ-3A (with no associated placard to identify it). The GPW, incorrectly marked a Willys Jeep, was in the worst shape of any vehicle I saw in the entire collection.

Note the truncated front bumper on an otherwise nice CJ-3A.

The interior of this GPW was a mess.

It took us about 3 1/2 hours to go through everything and we went pretty quickly. We enjoyed many of the exhibits. Despite the dated appearance of the facilities, it’s worth a detour if you are traveling through Nebraska and can spare the time.

We spent the rest of Monday driving to Golden, Colorado, where we spent the night.

<– Day 41-43 – May 22nd-24th: Omaha-Bound  | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 45 – Tue. May 26th: South Park –>