Preserving the Memories
An interior wall of the Lincoln County Historical Museum museum was painted by Glenn Johansen to resemble the window view from inside the canteen which looked out onto the station platform and the arriving troop trains.
With demolition of the depot, preserving memories of the canteen was focused on the Lincoln County Historical Museum located near the restored home of famed North Platte resident William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Constructed in 1973, the museum has since collected photographs, artifacts and the thousands of letters pertaining to the center.
Artifacts include the registration books for the service personnel, the daily supply lists of contributed food, and Doris Dotson's insignia-covered jacket. The latter is a coat that - as a young girl hanging around the canteen to dance with the servicemen - Dotson began wearing after some of the GIs gave her their unit’s insignia patches to wear on it. Other servicemen, noting she did not have the “best one,” began giving her their patches as well. The result was a coat of many military colors.A grand funded through the Nebraska Committee for the Humanities permitted a major renovation of the museum's canteen exhibits during 1987. The atmosphere of the canteen was recreated at the museum during September 1988 when former volunteers served refreshments during a major three-day canteen reunion celebration.
The canteen is otherwise best remembered in the minds and hearts of those who lived it. President Ronald Reagan, during an August 1987 visit to North Platte, said the spirit and generosity o North Platte's canteen workers should be kept "shining for all the world to see."
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