Walt Sehnert

Days Gone By

Columns Archive

• Mr. Theros' guardian angels (5/6/19)
• Harry Strunk, water conservationist (3/18/19)
• Harry Strunk vs. Sen. Norris (3/4/19)
• Harry Strunk and the RVCA (2/25/19)
• One of McCook's best storytellers — Frank B. Morrison (2/11/19)
• The day the capital city stood still (1/28/19)
• The Blizzard of 1888 (1/21/19)
• (Dr.) Cactus Chris (12/31/18)
• A different kind of Christmas (12/17/18)
• Wade Stevens, local aviation pioneer (11/19/18)
• Jeff Kinney, from McCook! (11/12/18)
• Then along came Bob! The Gotham Bowl (10/29/18)
• Remembering Leo McKillip, one of McCook's finest (10/22/18)
• Bobby Reynolds — Mr. Touchdown (10/15/18)
• Tom 'Train Wreck' Novak (10/8/18)
• Early NU Rose Bowl memories (10/1/18)
• The Bible years, 1929-36 (9/24/18)
• Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and Ed Weir (9/17/18)
• Bummy Booth and the 1902 Cornhuskers (8/27/18)
• Remembering VJ Day after 73 years (8/20/18)
• The great upset of 1956 (8/13/18)
• The boys from Valley — Frank Zybach (7/30/18)
• The Fourth of July Cannon (7/23/18)
• The colorful history of dancing in McCook (7/9/18)
• Gale Baldwin and the killer of Wild Bill Hickok (7/2/18)
• Captain Jack Lloyd (6/25/18)
• McCook's keeper of the flags (6/18/18)
• When the general died (6/11/18)
• One of life's little lessons (6/4/18)
• The skating pond (5/14/18)
• Heeeere's Johnny! (5/7/18)
• Jerry Solomon and the NU Sports Improvement Program (4/30/18)
• The Plainview Chess Club (4/23/18)
• Brad Duke and the lottery (4/16/18)
• What would you do if you won the lottery? (4/9/18)
• Merrill's Marauders (4/2/18)
• America's first ace — Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker (3/26/18)
• 100 years ago World War I — Sgt. York (3/19/18)
• Amor Huff and the invasion of France (3/12/18)
• Jeff Kinney, from McCook! (2/26/18)
• Left for dead (2/19/18)
• McCook women on the home front in World War II (2/12/18)
• The 1918 flu pandemic (1/29/18)
• The Hindenburg disaster of 1937 (1/23/18)
• The day the capital city stood still (1/8/18)
• A Plainview Christmas Story (12/19/17)
• Introduction to football (12/11/17)
• The White House Jail (11/27/17)
• Jeff Kinney, from McCook! (11/20/17)
• Homestate football heroes (11/13/17)
• 'Mr. Football,' Bobby Reynolds (11/6/17)
• The man from Pioneer Village (10/16/17)
• A case of mistaken identity (10/2/17)
• A football practice gone horribly wrong (9/11/17)
• Lightning experiences (8/28/17)
• The 1941 Rose Bowl: More than just a game (8/21/17)
• A broken hip (8/14/17)
• All that glitters: The Great Indianola Gold Craze (8/7/17)
• Ken Martin remembers the 1935 Republican River flood (7/31/17)
• The 1935 flood and changing wedding plans (7/24/17)
• Defying the odds (7/17/17)
• The Niagara Falls death-defiers (7/10/17)
• A 1935 flood tragedy (6/20/17)
• The 1918 flu pandemic (6/5/17)
• Eddie Rickenbacker set the tone for generations of pilots to come (5/22/17)
• Gen. John 'Black Jack' Pershing (5/15/17)
• Sgt. York and the forgotten war (5/1/17)
• World War I, Plato Redfern and the Drake Relays (4/24/17)
• Left for dead — the Swantie Swanson story (4/17/17)
• Paths which crossed (4/10/17)
• Growing old with style and grace (4/3/17)
• Harry Strunk and the RVCA (3/27/17)
• Carl Curtis, Our Man in D.C. (3/20/17)
• The Bataan Death March of World War II (3/6/17)
• Walter's bird cages (2/27/17)
• Concert violinist Genevieve Maria Fodrea (2/20/17)
• Despots of World War II: Joseph Stalin (2/13/17)
• Red Willow County pioneer Gotlieb Weyeneth (2/6/17)
• Red Willow Pioneer Rebecca Jane Adams Relph (1/30/17)
• Despots of World War II -- Benito Mussolini (1/23/17)
• The great McCook cat fight of 1967 (1/16/17)
• The day the capital city stood still (1/9/17)
• The Kaiser Wilhelm Church Christmas Market (12/26/16)
• The men behind McCook's Santa Claus Lane (12/19/16)
• The Institution That Was Saturday Night (12/12/16)
• Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941: The Day That Will Live in Infamy (12/5/16)
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Korea (11/28/16)
• Generals MacArthur: Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur Jr. (11/21/16)
• Alex Gochis, American by Choice (11/14/16)
• McCook's John Batty (11/7/16)
• Father Flanagan, the man from Boys Town (10/31/16)
• The Cubs and the curse of the billy goat (10/24/16)
• Remembering the Greatest Generation (10/17/16)
• Memorable events of World War II: Coming in on a wing and a prayer (10/10/16)
• Harley Lofton and football in the 1920s (10/3/16)
• Gwen McKenzie and McCook College (9/26/16)
• MCJ Football -- The Merle Confer era (9/19/16)
• E.P. Baruth, the Tootsie Roll Kid (9/12/16)
• McCook college friend Dr. Henry Weeth (8/29/16)
• Part II -- Fort Robinson, the Canine Years (8/15/16)
• Fort Robinson Part 1 -- The changing role of Fort Robinson (8/8/16)
• Gen. George Patton, hero of Bastogne (8/1/16)
• Part II -- The Hubbard Glacier and humpback whales (7/25/16)
• Part 1 -- The Hubbard Glacier and humpbacked whales (7/18/16)
• A small-town bakery during World War II (7/11/16)
• Remembering Uncle Hugo Leisy (6/27/16)
• D-Day 1944 and Gen. Eisenhower (6/20/16)
• A life dedicated to curing others (6/13/16)
• The Tianenmen Square Massacre (6/6/16)
• Another man named Trump (5/23/16)
• Great Battles of World War II -- Bob Feller (5/16/16)
• Ex NU Coach Connie Yori (5/9/16)
• A football practice gone horribly wrong (5/2/16)
• The 1946 Nebraska Class A football champs (4/25/16)
• The remarkable Teddy Roosevelt, Part 2 (4/18/16)
• Teddy Roosevelt Part I: The early years (4/11/16)
• Doolittle's raid on Tokyo April 18, 1942 (4/4/16)
• Early manufacturing in McCook (3/28/16)
• Matthew B. Cheney at Gettysburg (3/14/16)
• Home and the Plainview Pool Hall (3/7/16)
• Nebraska through the back door (2/29/16)
• Nebraska's Fred Astaire (2/22/16)
• The great battles of World War II -- Iowa Jima (2/15/16)
• The USO turns 75 (2/8/16)
• Tom's greatest challenge (2/1/16)
• NU benefactor Johnny Carson (1/25/16)
• Brad Duke and the Powerball (1/18/16)
• The Battle of the Bulge (1/11/16)
• The McCook Army Air Base (1/4/16)
• A bump in the road to Cooperstown (12/21/15)
• Early McCook social clubs (12/7/15)
• Jerry Solomon and the NU Sports Improvement Program (12/1/15)
• The mystery of Blind Sam's violin (11/23/15)
• Unsung heroes (11/16/15)
• Civilizing early McCook -- libraries (11/2/15)
• Music in the early days of McCook (10/26/15)
• Mrs. Traphagan's tree (10/19/15)
• Willis Jones' leap of faith (10/12/15)
• Civilizing early McCook -- the churches (10/5/15)
• Ray McCarl, Watchdog of the Treasury (9/28/15)
• George bags the lame duck (9/21/15)
• Early McCook schools (9/14/15)
• Mildred Zink, McCook nurse (8/31/15)
• Remembering VJ Day after 70 years (8/18/15)
• Legal troubles in the 1920's (8/10/15)
• Mr. George and the baritone horn (8/3/15)
• An early, exacting (and exasperating) McCook attorney (7/27/15)
• The Kays of McCook and the Red Willow County Fair (7/13/15)
• Early days in McCook -- the doctors (6/29/15)
• Early leaders of McCook (6/22/15)
• McCook's Hollywood connection (6/15/15)
• The father of the Higgins Boat (6/8/15)
• Flora and the George W. Norris Foundation (6/1/15)
• A 1935 flood tragedy (5/18/15)
• Banks and money men of old McCook (5/11/15)
• Early McCook hotels (5/4/15)
• ... then along came Bob (4/27/15)
• Early McCook post offices (4/20/15)
• Seventy-five miles from Japan on VJ Day -- Pete Graff, 1923-2013 (4/13/15)
• Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal (4/6/15)
• Theodore Roosevelt in the White House (3/30/15)
• Teddy Roosevelt: Part 2, Medora (3/23/15)
• Teddy Roosevelt, Part I: The early years (3/16/15)
• Frank Buk, Bachelor Father of the Year (3/9/15)
• City's first water works, part B: Sewer (3/2/15)
• What it takes to make a town: The waterworks (2/23/15)
• McCook's Mackay Trophy winner (2/16/15)
• More railroad business from 1890s (2/2/15)
• Father Burlington -- the early years (1/19/15)
• McCook, the new Red Willow County seat (1/12/15)
• McCook becomes a 'trade center' (1/5/15)
• A visit to Cuba (12/29/14)
• The leper colony (12/15/14)
• Pearl Harbor (12/8/14)
• The Salt Line: A Thanksgiving story (11/24/14)
• Nuts! Gen. McAuliffe and the Battle of the Bulge (11/17/14)
• Nebraska's Fred Astaire (11/10/14)
• The Breeztke shaving mug (11/3/14)
• DeGroff's Super Salesman (10/27/14)
• Plato Redfern and the Drake Relays (10/20/14)
• Walter Camp, Teddy and American Football (10/6/14)
• McCook's favorite son, Sen. George W. Norris (9/29/14)
• Mata Hari: World War I beauty, courtesan or spy? (9/22/14)
• Wade Stevens: McCook aviation pioneer (9/15/14)
• Sgt. York (8/11/14)
• Black Jack Pershing (8/4/14)
• Veterans of the 'War to End All Wars' (7/28/14)
• The face in the mirror in Berlin (7/21/14)
• The Starkweather killing spree (6/30/14)
• Ben Nelson and Tiananmen Square (6/16/14)
• Amor Huff and the invasion of France 1944 (6/9/14)
• Witnessing history from 800 feet (6/2/14)
• Boomers and Sooners (5/19/14)
• St. Catherine's Hospital (5/12/14)
• Let there be light -- McCook's alley lights (5/5/14)
• Ninety years of Rotary in McCook (4/28/14)
• Father Burlington and his child, McCook (4/21/14)
• King for a Day (4/14/14)
• Nebraska becomes a state -- 1967 (4/7/14)
• All that glitters ... (3/31/14)
• The Lords of Indianola (3/24/14)
• John and Katherine Longnecker, early Red Willow County settlers, 1871 (3/17/14)
• Nebraska becomes a state in 1867 (3/10/14)
• Bakers, bullets and Bed Check Charlie (3/3/14)
• Napoleon in Korea (2/24/14)
• 1882 beyond McCook (2/17/14)
• McCook civilians in World War II (2/10/14)
• Labor troubles in McCook (2/3/14)
• Winter football -- the Gotham Bowl, 1962 (1/27/14)
• Going home (1/20/14)
• Wartime shortages (1/13/14)
• Leo McKillip: One of McCook's finest (1/6/14)
• The Walking Moai (12/30/13)
• A memorable Christmas (12/23/13)
• 1945: Potsy Clark and the Iowa game (12/16/13)
• Growing up in Haw Thorne (12/9/13)
• Remembering Pearl Harbor (12/2/13)
• Bess Furman Armstrong: Danbury's Washington connection (11/25/13)
• The (rail) road west (11/18/13)
• McCook Junior College: The Dream Season 1965 (11/11/13)
• McCook's First Band Man, 'Col.' H.P. Sutton (11/4/13)
• Train Wreck Tom Novak (10/28/13)
• Why you should move to McCook -- 1893 (10/21/13)
• The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee (10/14/13)
• Establishing McCook's early infrastructure (10/7/13)
• The Sun Dance: Pleasing Wanka Tanka (9/30/13)
• Sen. George Norris and the Unicameral (9/23/13)
• Tom Kropp -- the one who got away (9/16/13)
• The Bible years, 1929-36 (9/9/13)
• The Battle of Beecher Island (8/26/13)
• Louie Dinklage -- The National Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame (8/19/13)
• When the harness horse was king of the track (8/12/13)
• The Cambridge Cornhusker Connection in 1940: Luther (8/5/13)
• First school days (7/29/13)
• More on the Frontier County murder (7/22/13)
• The McCook Trumpet reports the news (7/15/13)
• Bill and the Duke (7/1/13)
• Changing times 1884 (6/17/13)
• Dr. John Brinkley, 1920s radio pioneer (6/10/13)
• Radio in Nebraska in the 20s and 30s (6/3/13)
• More news from spring 1884 (5/20/13)
• The Great 1,000 mile race (5/6/13)
• Growing pains: McCook 1884 (4/29/13)
• NU's Dr. John Leland Champe (4/22/13)
• Syngman Rhee, Korea's George Washington (4/8/13)
• McCook at 1 3/4 years: 1884 (4/1/13)
• Staying healthy on the prairie, 1884 (3/25/13)
• 125 years ago, the Blizzard of 1888 (3/18/13)
• The Chautauqua (3/11/13)
• More early McCook businesses (3/4/13)
• McCook, 1883: The end of year two (2/25/13)
• William Valentine, educator (2/18/13)
• Stan the (Gentle) Man Musial (2/11/13)
• McCook Tribune 1883 (2/4/13)
• The Pawnee massacre (1/28/13)
• McCook in 1943 (1/21/13)
• Culbertson growing pains in the 1880s, 1890s (1/14/13)
• Flora and George W. Norris Foundation (1/7/13)
• Trials of a new community (12/31/12)
• The Great Upset of 1956 (12/24/12)
• Howie and the Trenton Pow Wow (12/17/12)
• Original town plat, McCook (11/26/12)
• Progress in McCook, 1883 (11/19/12)
• The hick from French Lick (11/5/12)
• The record run of Old No. 2558 (10/29/12)
• Fall of 1883 in McCook (10/22/12)
• Old Ironsides (10/15/12)
• Saying so long to the governor (10/8/12)
• The Tiananmen Square Massacre (10/1/12)
• Our man in Washington (9/24/12)
• McCook, Magpie City of the West, in the fall of 1883 (9/17/12)
• Culbertson's S. E. Solomon (9/10/12)
• The flying Wallendas (8/27/12)
• The Niagara Falls death defiers (8/20/12)
• Olympics of days gone by (8/13/12)
• Bobby Reynolds -- 'Mr. Touchdown' (8/6/12)
• Troublemakers of 1880 McCook (7/30/12)
• September 1883 (7/23/12)
• Amelia Earhart (7/16/12)
• Searching for buried treasure (7/9/12)
• Early McCook hospitals (7/2/12)
• The KKK in Nebraska (6/18/12)
• Gale Baldwin and the killer of Wild Bill Hickok (6/11/12)
• The Green Beret affair (6/4/12)
• Capt. Jack Lloyd (5/21/12)
• Memories of Felling Field (5/14/12)
• Grasshopper invasion (5/7/12)
• Old Folks (4/30/12)
• Those good old days? Red Willow County in the 1870s (4/23/12)
• Old bones (4/9/12)
• Red Grange vs. the Nebraska Cornhuskers (4/2/12)
• All that glitters -- Indianola's gold 'rush' (3/26/12)
• McCook forward thinkers, 1940s (3/19/12)
• Superintendent John True (3/12/12)
• McCook's first July 4 celebration, 1882 (3/5/12)
• I'll take Manhattan (2/27/12)
• The roundup (2/20/12)
• Acquiring land in Southwest Nebraska in 1883 (2/13/12)
• Owens vs. Currence, 1883 (1/30/12)
• Indians, 1872 (1/23/12)
• More from the early days of McCook (1/16/12)
• The Fighting McCook -- Alexander McCook (1/9/12)
• Daniel McCook: Patriarch of the House of Dan (12/19/11)
• McCook: 'The Magic City of the West' 1883 (12/12/11)
• Walts of the world (12/5/11)
• Coming to Red Willow County in 1872 (11/28/11)
• NU and the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame (11/21/11)
• Houdini and Halloween (10/31/11)
• McCook's Florence Nightingale (10/24/11)
• Charlie Goodnight, Oliver Loving (10/17/11)
• Texas longhorn cattle trail (10/10/11)
• 'Trainwreck' Tom Novak (10/3/11)
• 1882 cowboys, good and bad (9/26/11)
• Walter Reed's hospital (9/19/11)
• A.J. Lewandowski, N.U.'s Mr. All-Purpose (9/12/11)
• A key McCook business, 1882, the livery stable (8/29/11)
• McCook during the war (8/22/11)
• Evert 'Mo' Mosher (8/15/11)
• Bedcheck Charlie (8/8/11)
• Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Rob (8/1/11)
• William Valentine, educator (7/25/11)
• Marine ace Joe Foss (7/18/11)
• Opening the time capsule (7/11/11)
• Ray Caffrey and the Kansas City Massacre (6/27/11)
• George the Giant Killer (6/20/11)
• Willis' 14th bombing mission (6/6/11)
• The rest of the story: The run of No. 2558 (5/23/11)
• Burlington's Ralph Budd in McCook (5/16/11)
• Benkelman's Ward Bond (5/2/11)
• Vern Meints -- A lifetime of serving others (4/25/11)
• James A. Jamison, a rebel in our midst (4/18/11)
• The Tootsie Roll Kid, E.P. Baruth (4/11/11)
• Meredith Willson, the Music Man's Music Man (4/4/11)
• The men of the Marsh agency (3/28/11)
• Wade Stevens, McCook aviation pioneer (3/21/11)
• Remembering McCook's Music Man, Floyd Hershberger (3/14/11)
• 'Swantie' Swanson, World War I veteran (3/7/11)
• Made in Nebraska -- early automobiles (2/28/11)
• Egypt's Anwar Sadat (2/21/11)
• McCook's DAR Clubhouse (2/14/11)
• McCook's aircraft industry (2/7/11)
• Custer's Last Stand (1/24/11)
• Early NU Rose Bowl memories (1/17/11)
• Will Rogers (1/10/11)
• The Bryans of Nebraska (1/3/11)
• Back when college football was fun (12/27/10)
• A different kind of Christmas (12/20/10)
• Prohibition -- When liquor was outlawed, many looked the other way (12/13/10)
• December 1969 (12/6/10)
• The Pounds of Nebraska (11/29/10)
• Those Kare-free Kiwanis Kut-ups (11/22/10)
• The 1951 Kiwanis Minstrel Show (11/15/10)
• The end of polio? (11/8/10)
• Sister Kenny and the polio epidemic (11/1/10)
• 75th anniversary of the Reconstruction Jubilee (10/25/10)
• What was it like to live in McCook in 1886 (10/18/10)
• Gen. Henry 'Hap' Arnold, American hero (10/11/10)
• Electric cars, the early years (10/4/10)
• Ray's Revolutionary War connection (9/27/10)
• McCook mayor, Dr. Frederick M. Karrer (9/20/10)
• Bummy Booth and the first Cornhuskers (9/13/10)
• Dachau (8/30/10)
• The Liberty Bell did get around (8/23/10)
• The sandwich's namesake (8/16/10)
• Remembering one of McCook's finest storytellers (8/9/10)
• What's in a name? (8/2/10)
• John Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood (7/19/10)
• McCook: The land of the free and the home of the Braves (7/12/10)
• Sky Chief of the Pawnee tribe (6/28/10)
• Early days of District 8 (6/21/10)
• 1935 Republican River Flood, Trenton (6/14/10)
• A reunion to remember (6/7/10)
• McCook Columbian Souvenir 1893: Selling Southwest Nebraska (5/24/10)
• McCook in 1893 (Part 1) (5/17/10)
• Bob Daugherty, man with a vision (5/10/10)
• Germans from Russia (5/3/10)
• The Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot (4/26/10)
• Living in the 1930s (4/19/10)
• McCook memories, Robert Rishel (4/12/10)
• Henri Christophe of Haiti (4/5/10)
• Student overcame odds to find success in short life (3/29/10)
• Mr. Sears' kit homes (3/22/10)
• Sailing on the Gulf of Cortez (3/15/10)
• The Kays of McCook (3/8/10)
• Enjoyable times in the barber shop (3/1/10)
• Paul Claus, quintessential Alaskan bush pilot (2/22/10)
• The Quigleys of Indianola -- pioneer family (2/15/10)
• The boys from Alaska (2/8/10)
• Plato Redfern and tthe Drake Relays (2/1/10)
• Trouble with the law (1/25/10)
• Alfred Nobel (1/18/10)
• Gen. McCook and the defense of Washington (1/4/10)
• The Nebraska Steihmrollers (12/28/09)
• Napoleon in Korea (12/21/09)
• Harold Sutton, McCook's 'Mr. Republican' (12/14/09)
• With the Army Nurse Corps in World War II (12/7/09)
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Part 2 (11/30/09)
• The Thanksgiving tradition (11/23/09)
• MacArthur and Inchon (11/16/09)
• Harry Strunk receives a miracle (11/9/09)
• The bowl that started it all (11/2/09)
• Part 2: Lindbergh after the flight (10/26/09)
• Lindbergh's McCook connection (10/19/09)
• Harry Strunk and the RVCA (10/5/09)
• John G. Neihardt, 20th century mystic (9/28/09)
• Honoring Chief Crazy Horse (9/21/09)
• Women in the war (9/14/09)
• Health tips from the Tarahumara (8/24/09)
• War dogs at Fort Robinson (8/17/09)
• J.E. Kelley, McCook's greatest benefactor (8/10/09)
• The remarkable Teddy Roosevelt, Part II (8/3/09)
• The remarkable Teddy Roosevelt (7/27/09)
• The coffee shop ambassador (7/20/09)
• Lime Jello with cottage cheese -- from the sky? (7/13/09)
• Charles Barnes and the Indianola ochre mine (7/6/09)
• Heeeeere's Johnny! (6/29/09)
• George Flippin, Cornhusker (6/22/09)
• Our pal Bill (6/15/09)
• McCook's man in Washington (6/8/09)
• McCook's Candy Man, Alex Gochis (6/1/09)
• The Norris House, 2009 Edition (5/18/09)
• The 1918 flu pandemic (5/11/09)
• Ford Tri-Motor; passengers take flight (5/4/09)
• Annie Cook and her evil obsession (4/27/09)
• McCook women on the home front (4/20/09)
• Howard Hughes, man of mystery (4/13/09)
• The Rapid City Flood, 1972 (4/6/09)
• The lottery: What if you won? (3/30/09)
• The Norden bombsight in World War II (3/23/09)
• McCook Air Base depended on local housing (3/16/09)
• Prisoners in our midst (3/9/09)
• The original Ponzi schemer himself (3/2/09)
• John Bratt, Frontier County pioneer (2/23/09)
• Carl Orrin of Santa Claus Lane (2/16/09)
• On the Buffalo Jones Ranch (2/9/09)
• Lincoln's journey to his first inauguration (2/2/09)
• McCook's own Leo McKillip (1/26/09)
• The Blizzard of 1888 (1/19/09)
• To the Omaha World Herald (1/12/09)
• McCook's Glen Beneda and the Flying Tigers (1/5/09)