This Is What It Looks Like at the Center of America

Daughter Jill Miller first alerted us last December about a wonderful collection of online photographs of the American heartland.  New York-based photographer Andrew Moore did a splendid job of capturing these images for an exhibit dubbed "Dirt Meridian," which opened last month (January 2014) at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City.  We viewed the photos, appreciated them a bit, then promptly forgot about them -- until friend Mike Smith reminded us again this week, not only of the photos, but about the story that accompanied them online.

The Murray House in Sheridan County, Nebraska (2013) - New York Times Magazine

The collection contains numerous images that were taken in the area along the 100th Meridian in Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.  Most were captured west of the meridian, and all of them are truly remarkable.  A portion of photographs included in the exhibit can be found at this link to the New York Times Magazine, which begins with a photo of an 1890 Sheridan County homestead.  And there are plenty of Dawes County shots, too.

We've also linked to the story that accompanied the photos.  It was written by Inara Verzemnieks of Iowa City, Iowa, and is entitled "Life Along the 100th Meridian."  

And thanks Jill and Mike for the heads up on the photos!

A few notes about Chadron newspaperman Don Huls

by Larry Miller

Those of us who are a bit more fickle about the weather than most folks sometimes find it desirable to escape southward during winter -- for at least a few weeks.

So when Karen and I packed for Arizona in late December, I grabbed a stack of old Chadron Record newspapers to read the "breaking news" from the 20th century -- some of them from 1959 when our town was battling with Frontier Airlines over their twice daily flights in to DCI (my favorite moniker for Dawes County International just west of Chadron.)

It's likely the November 20th front page story "State Seeks Early Hearing on Airline" was written by Don Huls, Editor and Publisher of the twice-weekly paper, for which subscribers paid 15 cents each.  A yearly subscription would set you back $3.50.  While there were lots of outstanding reporters who worked for the paper during those years -- including folks like Ted Turpin, Bob Bishop, John DeHaes and Con Marshall -- the abiding column that remains indelibly imprinted in my mind was "The Dude," in which Huls would ruminate about everything from the weather and local politics to social affairs and sporting events.  

I chuckled when I read about the November 1960 Chadron High-Crawford High football game at which "The Dude" (always a third-person guy) saw something "...that he hasn't seen in many years. After Crawford scored its touchdown in the second period, a Crawford player by the name of Dick Smith dropped back for the extra point attempt and durned if he didn't drop-kick that ball right between the uprights for the extra point."  Huls reminisced that, as a youngster, he saw the legendary Jim Thorpe drop-kick a football from one end of the field to the other as a half-time demonstration at the old Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas.

A young Don Huls at KU

Lawrence was Don Huls' hometown.  And it was there that he began his love-affair with journalism, pledging the SDX (Sigma Delta Chi) journalism society while reporting and selling ads for the University of Kansas school paper.  He was a good-looking "Dude," too, as evidenced by this photo. 

I first knew of Don Huls when his family moved from Ottawa, Kansas to Chadron in 1957, when he took over operation of the Chadron Record. His wife, Frances, was co-publisher, and would also teach social studies at Chadron High School.  Their children were F.D., Cyndi, and David.  

Although I don't remember for which class it was, I do recall Don Huls coming to Chadron High School one day in the late 1950's to share his experiences as a Naval Intelligence officer in World War II. He had witnessed the aftermath and the horrific consequences of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 

Huls remained a staunch fan of Kansas University and was known to attempt recruiting a few area football players to try their hands at being Jayhawks.

All of these memories, and a few others that have blurred over time, came rushing back when I saw the online story that the Chadron Record is celebrating 130 years during 2014.  The Record and its predecessors date back to 1884, when Ed Egan settled along Chadron Creek and began his modest newspaper named the Sioux County Journal.  Later known as the Dawes County Journal (our apologies for lifting that old name for this web site) and later the Chadron Journal.

Those were the years when Egan was at odds with the remarkable Fannie O'Linn, who fought hard to maintain the name "O'Linn" as the official name of the town -- even persuading the postal service to adopt the name for the official post office.  Egan, however, "continued to publish his newspaper from 'Chadron,' which met with vigorous opposition from the good Mrs. O'Linn."  And we know who eventually won the fracas.

That's one of the many stories recounted in the Chadron, Nebraska Centennial History (1885-1985), and we suspect that Don Huls -- as one of its authors -- had a hand in that story, too. 

Read Chadron Record celebrating 130 years by  editor Kerri Rempp.

Learning the meaning of friendship…in Chadron

Friendship comes in many forms, and it’s been a topic of philosophers and poets for centuries.

Two rather modern quotes are among our favorites.

Mark Twain once opined that "Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience:  this is the ideal life."

But we particularly like the pronouncement made by that sage of the ring, Muhammed Ali, who said, “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

Good buddies Lynn Bilyeu and Bob Zeman

In these modern migratory times, travel has become so much easier, and having life-long friends seems to have become increasingly rare.  But one friendship jumped out and caught our attention recently, when Con Marshall told us a story about two long-time Chadron residents who grew up in the 1930's, became school chums, and enjoyed a friendship that transcended several decades, doggedly surviving the unrelenting passage of time.

This is the rather remarkable story about Bob Zeman and Lynn Bilyeu, who became friends while attending East Ward Elementary School during the Great Depression.

Our first memories of Bob Zeman reach back to the late 1940’s, a few years after the Zeman family moved in to the house at 223 Ann Street.  We neighborhood kids would often see Bob visiting his parents, Joe and Ella.

Lynn Bilyeu first came onto our radar screen a few years later while attending a meeting of the "Pine Ridge Amateur Radio Club" at Lynn's home in the Henkens Heights neighborhood in about 1959 or 1960. A retired telegrapher and dispatcher with the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, Lynn was -- and continues to be -- an avid “ham” operator.  

The life-long friendship between Lynn Bilyeu and Bob Zeman is a fascinating story – and is told no better than in this article crafted by Con Marshall for the Chadron Record on March 28, 2012.  Our thanks to Con for allowing us to reprint it here.  We've also posted some additional photos in our Dawes County Journal Gallery.

Read Con Marshall's story:   An 80-year friendship

Tale of a "Tiger" - CSC honors Jerry Bauman

When Jerry Bauman graduated from Chadron High School in 1964, few could have predicted the enormous accomplishments he would realize in later life -- and the litany of positive contributions that he and his wife, Cheryl (Hamilton) would give back to their communities over the years.

Good friend Con Marshall has shared with us a story he wrote this fall about Jerry and Cheryl Jo, and we're pleased to publish it here.  The story was spurred by the awarding of the Chadron State College Distinguished Alumni Award to Jerry in October.  As you read Con's story, you'll understand why Jerry was selected for this singular recognition.

We best remember "Tiger" Bauman from our high school years, when he served as a student manager for the Chadron High School basketball team.  Small in stature but determined to do a good job, we should've foreseen his commitment to getting good things done!  He grew in many ways.

I recall crossing paths with Jerry only once in adult life, when he and I were passing through the Tulsa airport in the early 1980's.  I must confess that I would never have recognized Jerry, since I'm certain that he was at least a foot taller than I had remembered him from high school!   He spotted me, we had a fun -- if brief -- conversation.  I believe he and Cheryl were living in Tulsa; Karen and I were living in nearby Jenks.  However, it was shortly thereafter that Karen and I departed Oklahoma and lost any prospect of forging a new relationship with an old high school friend.

Read:  Bauman Receives CSC Alumni Honor 

Tea Room brought a bit of class to 1950's Chadron

by Larry Miller

When the November edition of the Golden Age Courier arrived last week, we immediately recognized the subject featured on the front:  Doell Tea Room.

Located at 376 Bordeaux Street (northeast corner of Fourth and Bordeaux), the Doell Tea Room was a large two-story home.  In the 1950's, the Northwestern Bell Telephone Office was situated across the street to the west.  The newer brick telephone office building reflected a revitalized and seemingly modern commercial activity.  The Doell home was more sedate, identified by a simple sign in the front yard announcing the Doell Tea Room.  Without the sign, it was another large and well-groomed house, but there was little else to distinguish it from other old and elegant homes in Chadron.

For those of us who were younger, the "Tea Room" sign was a bit of a puzzlement.  "What exactly is a tea room" I'm sure many of us wondered.  Alas, some of us would have to wait half a century to find out.

And as it happens, the Doell Tea Room was quite special. 

Its story was told by two of the Doell daughters, Carol and Ann.  Although the youngest of the three Doell girls, Ann has been able to provide considerable information about the business, which seems today something of an anachronism.

A 1950 wedding at Doell Tea Room in Chadron 

Carl and Emma Doell came to Chadron from eastern Nebraska.  The name "Doell" had long been associated with a grocery store in Norfolk operated by Doell relatives.  Daughter Ann said the move to Chadron came after Carl and Emma lost their small grocery store in Fremont during the Great Depression.  

Ann told us that her mother was a very outgoing person, and it wasn't long after arriving in Chadron that Emma -- in the 1940's -- opened a cafe on the east side of Second and Main, just a few doors north of the current post office.  Old-timers will remember it as being adjacent to the Newsy Nook on the south and O'Neill Photo on the north.

Emma Doell ran the Doell Tea Room

"Mom's sister and husband, Ann and Mark Patterson, were already living in Chadron with their son, Merrill," wrote Ann.  "I believe it was like a working man's cafe with a long counter only and daily specials.  Not sure how long she was at this location."

Some will remember the "Sandwich Shop" in this vicinity during the 1950s, and that may very well have been the same business once operated by Emma Doell.

"They were renting a small house from Ann and Mark on Maple St., and then they bought the big house on Bordeaux."

That larger house at 4th and Bordeaux was known as the "Richert" house, and Doells bought it from Mr. and Mrs. Harry Jolly in 1946. "Doell Tea Room" would host wedding receptions, sorority and fraternity dinners, bridge parties, monthly gatherings of the Business and Professional Women, and once in a while even poker parties!  Ann noted that "people would call and set a date with information on the number of people and then pick a menu."  She and her younger brother, Bob, were too young to remember a lot about the Tea Room, "but I do remember they had us out of the way in the kitchen with coloring books and story time on the radio," she said, recounting programs like Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, and others.

"Mom worked hard making all the dinners from scratch, and it was always good.  The kitchen always smelled good!  Her clover leaf rolls and pies were the best!  The steaks were grilled on the big wood stove in the kitchen.  The iron top would get sooooo hot!  We would all get to seating and would open doors and windows, no matter the weather."

"The hard times for her were when more people came than expected and she was expected to make things 'stretch.'  Not like now days with freezers and extra to pull things together."

"I asked mom once 'why the name Tea Room?'   She just say 'Why not?'   I guess then it was a common name, while now it would conjure up a women's club, cucumber sandwiches and such."

Installation of officers for the Chadron Business
and Professional Women (BPW)  -  April 1954

Ann's older sister, Carol Doell Brookins recalls that they had a big mangle machine in the kitchen, used for pressing the table cloths and napkins.  "Mom didn't let me do the table cloths, but I did get to do the napkins while I was studying school books."

She remembered, too, that the kitchen and dining room were connected with a swinging door.  The living room was also large and had a piano, which came in handy for the various programs.  The front hal, she said, had all the extra folding chairs, tables and coat racks.

"Back then," Carol recalled, "the house had only one bathroom.  Unfortunately for many, it was upstairs, which made it a real trek for bad knees."  

She noted that most of the gatherings were of women who played bridge and usually ate a salad and desert, or warm creamed chicken over home-made biscuits with fruit and a cookie.

"The wedding receptions were great!  Emma always made the mints in their colors, with mixed nuts, coffee and tea or punch.  They sometimes had champagne," said Carol.

Gov. Val Peterson (1947-53)

"One of the parties was for then Nebraska Governor Val Peterson.  A bunch of business and professional men met for a meeting.  I just heard a lot of talking and laughing.  When my sister Margery and I would enter the room, it would get quiet, and when we left they would maybe finish a joke.  They smoked big fat cigars and told jokes -- no liquor!  They had big thick steaks, baked potatoes, home-made pie and ice cream.  They were on happy bunch of men!"

"A couple of weeks later, my sister and I received a very nice letter from the Governor thanking us for everything.  I saw him a few years later and asked him about the dinner.  He said he remembered the steaks and the young girls who served the dinner."

The older Doell sisters, Carol and Margery, graduated from Chadron Prep in the 1950s.  Ann graduated from Chadron High School in 1962, and Bob graduated from CHS in 1963.  Emma Doell died in 1998.   The children are scattered across the country; Carol lives in Iowa, Margery in Virginia, Ann is in New Mexico, and Bob lives in Oregon. 

During the 1950's, the Doell Tea Room was an special meeting place for numerous organizations.  Daughter Carol says she doesn't remember exactly when or why the Tea Room closed its doors, but people continued to make requests for dinner tools, pies, and mints. 

"People really were wanting her to stay open."

Finishing First: memories of Joe American Horse

Many visitors to this website will likely remember Joe American Horse, the outstanding track star who ran for Gordon High School back in the 1950's. He was often seen leading the pack in distance races at Chadron State College and other track venues around northwest Nebraska.  

This photograph shows Joe winning the Mile Run in the Nebraska High School State Track Meet in Lincoln in 1956 -- his third straight year of winning the event.  His winning time was 4:28.1, fast enough to leave his nearest rival nearly 50 yards behind, setting a Nebraska Class "B" record.  Joe was inducted into the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame in 1990, the only Native American so honored thus far.  

Thanks to Joe American Horse, Con Marshall, and the good folks at Chadron State College for sharing this photograph from a Gordon High School yearbook.

Ex-Chadronite reflects on broadcasting career

By CON MARSHALL

Charley Rook says he was “very, very lucky” during his career as a radio and television news director and anchorman.  But he also credits his upbringing in Chadron with helping him make the most of the opportunities that were afforded to him.

                Rook is a 1954 graduate of Chadron Prep.  He was back “home” during Fur Trade Days in July, renewing acquaintances with friends and also taking stock of the town that he said he’s come to appreciate more and more while working and living in much larger cities.

                “A lot can be said for growing up in a place like Chadron,” Rook said while sipping on iced tea at the Country Kitchen. “This is a place where God and Country are important, where honesty and fairness are appreciated and where a strong work ethic is learned and carried out.  I tried to live by those values because I really never knew any other way.”

                Charley and his brother Johnny were born in Ohio, but their family moved to Chadron when they were in junior high. Their father, Gordon, was a Chadron native who was a diesel locomotive-electrician for the Chicago and North Western Railroad.  Their mother, Della, was a native of Kentucky. Johnny graduated from Prep in 1955, one year after Charley.

                Charley notes that he wasn’t a good enough basketball player to get much playing time on any of the three Class C state championship teams that Archie Conn coached during the 1950s, but he liked football and believes he received all-Northwest Nebraska Conference honors as an end on the Junior Eagles’ football team his senior year. 

                Both brothers made it big in broadcasting—Johnny in radio while Charley switched to television and was an anchorman at major stations in both Chicago and Los Angeles before spending 20 years at a station in Spokane-Coeur d' Alene, where he is now retired.

Early in their careers, both worked at KOBH Radio in Hot Springs where they “did about everything.”  While Charley made his mark as a radio and TV news anchor, Johnny had a knack for picking hot tunes before they were hits and he became a renowned radio programmer and station consultant.  Wikipedia has three pages on Johnny’s career. He lives in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, only about 20 miles from Spokane. (See separate story).

                Charley has no regrets about how things turned out for him, and while he was being  interviewed, mentioned two things that he feels helped put him on the  road to success.

                One, he said, was at the District 6 Declamatory and One-Act Play Contest that Chadron State College hosted when he was a junior at Chadron Prep.  The competition included radio newscasting and Charley won first place, sparking his interest in broadcasting and boosting his confidence. 

                The second was being able to work for his uncle Claude (Bud) Rook, the founder and owner of ABC Electric in Chadron during the summers and at other times when an extra helper was needed.

                “I’m sure there are some people in Chadron who remember him,” Charley said. “He was a good mentor for me. He was a taskmaster who had that work ethic which I so much admire to this day. Bud also believed if you worked harder than the competition  you could succeed in America, the greatest country the world has ever seen.

“Quite a bit of this rubbed off on me and I still believe it, even though things about this country have really changed over the years and in my estimation, not always for the better.  The nanny state and political correctness come to mind."

                Charley said some of “Uncle Bud’s training” helped him excel while he spent four years in the Navy immediately after graduating from Prep.  First of all, because of his experience as an electrician in the ABC Electric shop, Charley became a shipboard electrician on destroyer escorts in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. By the time he was discharged, he had an E-6 rating, something few sailors accomplish during a four-year hitch.

                “I made E-6 because I studied hard for the tests that we took.  I was told that if I stayed in the Navy I could probably become an officer. It was tempting, but I decided if I could do well in the Navy, I could probably also do well in the outside world so I got out.”

                After his discharge, Charley enrolled at Chadron State College in the fall of 1958, but stayed just one semester and part of the spring term. Johnny was working at KOBH and the Hot Springs station needed a weekend announcer.  Charley took the job and was soon hooked on radio broadcasting.

                Since the name Johnny Rook was already well-known to KOBH listeners when Charley went to work there, it was decided he should use a different last name.  Thus during the rest of his career—nearly 50 years—he was Charles Rowe to his listeners and viewers.   

                After only a few months at KOBH, he accepted a radio position  in Cheyenne. He said he definitely got lots of experience there.  He put the station on the air in the mornings, was often still there to give the noon news and then spent the afternoons selling spots, or ads.

                His stint in Cheyenne was cut short when some "high rollers" from San Francisco hired him to help build and set up programming for four new Northwest radio stations in Boise, Idaho, and Salem, Eugene and Medford, Ore.

                His next stop, still in the early-1960s, was at KYMN, a 50,000-watt station in Portland, Ore., where he was strictly a newsman. He was there a couple of years and enjoyed his work but realized television people were making more money.

                    Rook took a chance and in 1966 accepted a newscaster job at a tiny TV station in Coos Bay, Ore.  Within six months, he was promoted to the company's flagship station in Eugene as news director and anchor.

                Then just a few months later in 1967, he received a big break in his career.  He was offered a news anchor and capitol correspondent position at KXTV in Sacramento. That was shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California. 

“It was my pleasure to interview him three times in the two years I was at that station,” Charlie said. “He was great to interview and I was one of his admirers long before he became president.”

                Charley said he was not planning to leave Sacramento, but he went to Chicago in 1969 to visit his brother and his mother, who had moved with Johnny to the Windy City.

                “By then, Johnny was programming WLS Radio, a top Chicago station, and really making a name for himself.  While I was there, he lined up an interview for me with WLS-TV, which was owned by ABC. They offered me the job of anchoring their first-ever weekend newscast and filling in for their weekday anchors.  The pay was very good, so I left Sacramento and moved to Chicago.”

                Charley remained at WLS-TV for four years.  During two of those years, he also wrote and delivered three newscasts a day for the ABC radio network nationwide.

                One of his most memorable experiences in Chicago was working in the same office area as Paul Harvey, one of the nation’s preeminent newscasters for nearly five decades.

                “He would sometimes walk by my glass door, see me inside, open it and say ‘Hi Charles’ as he was leaving from work. 

“Sometimes, I’d go down the hall and watch him do his newscasts. He had the darnedest system. He had papers scattered all over his desk and would randomly pick one up and read it with that great voice of his. I never could figure out how he decided which story to use next.  It never seemed that he had the stories in any kind of an order, but it worked for him.”

                Charley said he was “never enamored” with Chicago, calling it “a corrupt city that’s still that way.” So when his contract ended he moved to KTTV, a major independent station in Los Angeles, and soon became its sole news anchor. KTTV is now owned by FOX.

                “I was there for eight years and had a great time,” he said. “I guess this was the ‘biggest job’ I ever had when it came to audience size.  But after a while, I began dreaming about having my own radio station, so in 1980 I moved again.  While in LA, I worked hard to obtain a permit to put a new FM station on the air in Lincoln City/Newport, Ore., right on the coast.

                “Building and managing the station was probably the most fun thing I have ever done and we put a superior product on the air. We won more than a dozen Associated Press statewide awards and a couple of national awards for our news coverage.  But I realized while I was having great fun, I wasn't making much money.   So I sold it and began looking for a television news position in the Northwest.”

                Charley didn’t get much time off after selling the station.  Within a few weeks he was hired as an anchor at KREM-TV in Spokane, Wash., and spent the last 20 years of his career there.

                “Our ratings were top notch and I enjoyed the staff at the station, even though I had a constant battle with some of the activist-liberals in the newsroom to make sure we were telling both sides of the story. Maybe that's why the 5 p.m. news at KREM, which I co-anchored for the full 20-years, was constantly number one. I finally retired when I reached 72 and that was five years ago.

                “I had a good career and I don’t have any complaints. I always enjoyed preparing myself for the job on a daily basis and then getting it done.” he added.

                He remains in Spokane after retiring and calls himself “a neighborhood volunteer" who is heavy into the Tea Party, Heritage Foundation and the National Rifle Association.

                He said he’s dismayed that the national media is so biased to the left and he tries to do what he can to maintain and promote the conservative viewpoint.

                Along the same lines, he said he greatly enjoyed his visit to Chadron and the chance to meet up with a number of his high school friends again.  Most of them, he noted, seem to be holding on to what he describes as “this country’s traditional values of honesty and hard work.”

(Thanks to good friend Con Marshall for sharing this story, originally written for the Chadron  Record)