Willa Cather is an author who grew up in South Central Nebraska, not far from where I live. When I moved to Nebraska, I heard a lot about her, and about her novels and short stories. I’d never read her books before, but started reading them, and really fell in love with her writing. I’ve now read several, and intend to keep reading them.
Red Cloud, Nebraska features the Willa Cather Foundation, several tours, and events year-round. I’ve been meaning to make the drive over to Red Cloud and visit for several years, but finally found the time to visit this summer. Mike and I participated in the 7-building tour. They also have a 3-building tour, a self-guided tour, and a country tour. I would like to do the country tour at some point, as well.
The 7-building tour kicks off with visiting Willa Cather’s childhood home. It includes period furnishings, including many of the Cather family’s own belongings, which were kept and curated by her sister. The home and the furnishings reminded me very much of visiting DeSmet, South Dakota and taking the tour of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood homes.
The next stop on the tour is the Burlington Depot, which is the building that people would come into and out of Red Cloud through when traveling by train. The building is very well-preserved and includes lots of historical information about the area, and interesting artifacts. Our tour guide also told us that the building had been moved across the railroad tracks as the railroad expanded, in order to preserve the building and its history.
Our next stop on the tour was the Juliana Falconieri Catholic Church. This place is tiny, and was part of the inspiration for several of Cather’s books.
We also visited the Miner House, which was known as the Harling House in My Antonia. Cather and her family were friends with the Miners and spent a lot of time together, during Cather’s childhood. Cather maintained her relationship with some of the Miners throughout her life. And the Miners were prototypes for characters in that novel.
This house was beautiful, and had the most beautiful Limoges dishes on the table. They are even dishes that were owned and used by the Miner family.
Our next stop was the Grace Episcopal Church, which was the Cather family church beginning in 1922. It features beautiful painted glass (not stained glass) windows, including some donated by the Cather Family.
We visited in the afternoon and thought that the light streaming in just made the windows gorgeous. Then we realized that all of the windows, on all sides of the building were equally bright. The tour guide mentioned that they were probably painted with radium paint, and that they were just as bright at midnight as they were in the middle of the afternoon.
Hearing about the radium paint reminded me of the book The Radium Girls by Kate Moore. That book is the story of several young women who work in a plant painting dials with radium paint and are poisoned by the radiation, and later have significant adverse health effects.
Our last stop before returning to and touring the Opera House, was the Farmers and Merchants Bank, previously known as the Garber Bank. The Garbers were friends of Willa Cather’s, and were used to develop characters in A Lost Lady. The bank itself is used in a couple of other short stories.
Our final stop was back at the Red Cloud Opera House. The opera house stage area is upstairs, and is a beautiful facility. It was somewhat dark though, so not conducive to picture-taking. The Opera House building also houses the museum and a bookstore. I had to take home a couple of books from the bookstore, since they have a really cool stamp in them. And we had to take a selfie with Willa herself!
All in all, we had a really good trip to Red Cloud. It was educational and entertaining. I recommend making the trip. And I’d like to go back at some point and do the Country Tour.
Have you been to Red Cloud?
by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker