A Cave for Robbers (and children and others) in Lincoln, Nebraska

It's that time again.  Time to head back to the Pacific NorthWest.  We're leaving a little earlier this year because Bruce made an early doctor's appointment.  That's okay.  I need to get up there and get started on my appointments to try to prepare for my next big adventure. My doctor had some tests run at the Gulf Coast VA based on symptoms I experienced in Antarctica and Patagonia, and now I need to visit the specialists that can help me with them.  So, after sliding in to see family in the area one last time for the season, we headed west.  This time, we decided to take a different route.  We crossed into the Ohio River Valley around Owensboro.  Soon after crossing the Ohio River, which I have traveled many times in my younger days, I learned it had been designated as a Scenic Byway.  I always thought it was beautiful growing up in the area around Maysville, KY/Aberdeen, OH, and traveling the roads along the Ohio River to go to Cincinnati, Evansville, and other points in the area.  It took me by surprise to find that what I had always thought was an ordinary beauty has actually been designated as an extraordinary beauty.  The Ohio River Scenic Byway is apparently a National Scenic Byway and follows the river across the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.  We only got to see the tail end of it this time, but it was still as lovely as ever.

The old lock and dam building in Newburgh, IN

We got detoured off the interstate system because of a horrendous crash just outside of St. Louis and ended up spending the night in a little town called Macon City, Missouri.  The interesting thing about this town is that it appears to have been settled for no reason other than to have a place for the farmers to come in to eat at a restaurant.  A tiny little town with about 10 restaurants!  We chose a little diner and were quite satisfied.  For some reason, I didn't take a single picture here.

Our first scheduled stop was Lincoln, Nebraska.  We got there nice and early so went straight to Pioneer Park.  Pioneer Park has a small Nature Center with a herd of bison in a pen.  The nature center was closed, but the bison were close enough to see well.  They had some shadow bison with information about them, too.  I loved the carving on the welcome sign!

Driving through the park, we also saw a statue of a Native American called "Smoke Signals".  This statue was approved by the local tribes before it was erected and blessed by them during the unveiling.  It is supposed to show that unity was hard achieved between the white man and the Native Americans, but that it has, in fact, been achieved.  The brave has his back to town, and the signals he is making are supposed to be as a warning that the white man is coming.  Someone has broken off the feather in the brave's hair.

After driving around the park, we finally found what we were searching for - the columns from the US Treasury Building in DC!  According to the plaque, the columns stand at the park entrance, but they are, in fact, back along some of the hiking trails and a bit difficult to see from the road unless you are specifically searching for them.  They are made of sandstone and were quarried in Virginia before being used in the US Treasury Building when it was erected by President Jackson.  When President Lincoln reviewed the troops during the Civil War, he apparently stood in front of the Treasury Building between these columns.  Because of that, when the Treasury Building was remodeled, and these columns were removed, a dude decided to buy them and give them to the City of Lincoln, Nebraska.  The city now kind of hides them in this park.  Two of the four have broken over the years.  They're kind of neat.  I'm looking forward to getting to the doctor, though.  I was terribly out of breath just from climbing the little hill from the road to the columns and back.  I've continued to walk and keep my exercises up, but hills just kill me, and they don't have to be steep hills!  I need to be able to trek uphill to see those mountain gorillas in the fall!

After the park, we got checked into our hotel because the next attraction was underground, and Bruce doesn't do underground.  The front desk of our hotel suggested a little diner that was in a gas station.  So we headed there for late lunch/early dinner.  The food was delicious and the decor was very old-timey with old time vehicles, gas pumps, fire engine, ice cream vendor, and more.  We had plenty of food to take back to the room for actual dinner.  We went back for breakfast, which wasn't bad, but did not live up to our expectations after dinner the night before!

After eating, I dropped Bruce and the leftovers at the hotel and headed out to Robber's Cave.  This cave has a sordid and active history.  At different times, it has functioned as a daycare, a speakeasy, a hangout for Jesse James and other bandits, a shooting range, and many other things, including just a place where kids hung out, carved things on the wall, and generally trashed the place.  It is a sandstone cave, so not a cave with the stalagtites, stalagmites, and other limestone or other mineral cave formations.  In fact, if you scrap away the darker top layers of sand, you have light sand.  It's close to white sand, but doesn't get sunlight for bleaching.  The guide is really good.  He has studied the cave's history and written a book about it.  A group from Knoxville has shot a documentary about it which should be coming out on Netflix before long.  I'm looking forward to seeing it.  If you ever find yourself in Lincoln, Nebraska, you should check out the Robber's Cave.  This was one of the activities that made me glad I chose the route this year to go through Nebraska.

This is the first room downstairs.  The curved door is the entrance to the cave area.

One of many shots of the carvings.  The guide made comparisons between social media and cave drawings, past and present.  Cave etchings or vandalism?  You decide!

Scraping away the top layer of sand

A mineral seam runs through the cave, but you can see the various hues along the walls.

This was an area where picnic tables used to sit.  The green and red are from the netting, not the cave.  There is an opening in this area, and bats like to nest her.  The netting is to keep the bats from bothering people or people bothering bats.

I had to have some help getting through a few areas.  Some of these steps had really high rises!

There used to be a fire pole here.  Too many people got hurt sliding down it and onto the previous person!

You can see the marks where the cave was extended by hand using a pickaxe.

According to those who would know, that lower shelf is the perfect height for a drummer in a band with a trap set!

I was surprised at all of the things to do in Nebraska.  It's not a South Dakota (which I'm still trying to see more things in!), but don't write it off like I have done for so many years!