Visitor’s Committee, other groups working to make Southwest Nebraska a destination spot

McCOOK, Neb. — Southwest Nebraska is a “birding destination” and this year’s local Prairie Chicken Dance tours will probably sell out as soon as registrations begin being accepted Feb. 1, a local tourism official told the Red Willow County Commissioners Monday.

Carol Schlegel, director of the Red Willow County Visitor’s Bureau, said two other Nebraska sites that allowed visitors to view prairie chicken mating rituals, in Calamus and Mullen, closed this year, increasing interest in sites in McCook and Dusty Trails in North Platte as birding destinations.

Schlegel was reappointed director at Monday’s meeting, with an annual salary of $42,000 or $3,500 a month.

She said local receipts from lodging taxes have improved from a decrease of 7 or 8% in 2019-20 to an 18% increase so far this year, possibly because during the pandemic, people like birders are seeking relatively safe out-of-the-way places like Southwest Nebraska to vacation.

Schlegel said she marked her 10th year as tourism director in October, working with four directors of the McCook Economic Development Corp. in that time, and will with her sixth McCook Chamber of Commerce director as soon as a replacement is found for the current one, who has announced her resignation.

She said she wouldn’t take credit for work being done by other local groups, but appreciated new community improvement efforts undertaken by the chamber, MEDC, High Plains Historical Society, McCook Community Foundation Fund and others to make McCook a destination spot.

As an example, she cited Connie Jo Disco’s work as curator at the museum, which she said is using the Holdrege museum as a model in creating a “must-see” location for visitors.

Other examples include the Norris Alley project and Indianola prisoner of war camp. Schlegel said she’s submitted an application for a grant from Nebraska Tourism to help tell the story of the POW camp, and make it part of some self-guided tours.

She said cooperation between the visitors' bureau, MEDC and chamber is continuing to improve to the point that they hope to use a grant to fund a digital coordinator’s position to help with calendars, digital marketing, video and other projects.

She said drone footage of McCook had already been shot, but the raw footage needs to be edited into a promotional video.

“So there’s a lot of moving parts to preserving our history,” Schlegel said, comparing the effort to “eating an elephant-type thing,” one bit at a time.