Reliving a Wonderful Piece of Local History
The following editorial appeared in the North Platte Telegraph August 31, 1995 and is reprinted here with their permission.
You can visit the ‘Canteen’ tonight The spirit of the North Platte Canteen comes alive again this afternoon at the Eagles Club in conjunction with the Victory ‘95 celebration.
From 6-7:30 p.m. at the Eagles, following a ceremony when the commemorative troop train rolls into town, the sandwiches and cookies will be free, just as they were for servicemen and women stopping at the Union Pacific Depot across Front Street during World War II.
The celebration is a chance again to tell that remarkable story, an opportunity to introduce new and younger residents to an inspired and inspiring chapter from regional and city history. The story of the canteen has been told on national television, in national magazines and books, and many times in this newspaper.
It is a story that deserves to be told long after the last Canteen worker, the last World War II veteran, is no longer here to tell it, or to be saluted. Preserving the story will require occasional public events like tonight's, and family visits to the Lincoln County Historical Museum’s permanent Canteen display.
What sort of turnout will there be for tonight's festivities? No way to tell of course. But if just one person from each of the towns that sent workers to the North Platte Canteen attended, there would be a crowd to greet the train, have a cookie and attend tonight's dance.
That’s one of the most remarkable aspects of the story, we noted in an editorial when the 40th anniversary of the canteen closing was marked: the way people came from all over the region to help work there, and to provide the cookies, sandwiches, fried chicken and other items given to the servicemen and women.
The editorial continued with the list of towns and villages that sent canteen workers. As the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II is celebrated, it bears repeating. The list:
Arnold, Arthur, Anselmo, Ansley, Arapahoe, Atkinson, Bayard, Bertrand, Berwyn, Big Springs, Birdwood, Brady, Broadwater, Bridgeport, Broken Bow, Brownlee, Brule, Buffalo Grove, Burwell, Bushnell.
Callaway, Champion, Chappell, Comstock, Cozad, Curtis, Dalton, Dickens, Dix, Dry Valley, Eddyville, Elm Creek, Elsie, Elwood, Eustis, Elyria, Farnam, Flats, Franklin, Gandy, Gering, Gibbon, Gothenburg, Grainton, Grand Island, Grant, Gurley, Hayes Center, Hershey, Holbrook, Holdrege, Imperial, Ingham.
Kearney, Keystone, Kimball, Lamar, Lemoyne, Lewellen, Lexington, Lisco, Lodgepole, Lyman, Madrid, Mason City, Maxwell, Maywood, McCook, McGrew, Merna, Mitchell, Moorefield, Morrill, Newman Grove, Nichols, North Loup, North Platte, Oconto, O'Fallons, Ogallala, O'Neill, Ord, Orleans, Oshkosh, Overton.
Paxton, Potter, Red Cloud, Ringgold, Roscoe, Sarben, Sargent, Shelton, Sidney, Stapleton, Stockville, Sumner. Sunol, Sutherland, Talin Table, Taylor, Thedford, Thune, Trumbull, Tryon, Valentine, Venango, Wallace, Weisert, Westerville, Willow Island.
From Colorado: Amherst, Haxtun, Holyoke, Julesburg, Ovid, Sedgewick. And from Kansas: Colby.
“Think of that!” the 1986 editorial continued. “It was a time of rationing of food, gasoline, tires. Every reason in the world to stay home. Some of those towns are as far west as the Nebraska Panhandle, sad some as far east as Grand Island and Red Cloud.”
“Not all those names will appear on your map. Some are towns that have disappeared, and some are only regional names for a rural neighborhood. But all deserve a place — and have it — in a remarkable and wonderful piece of history.”
That history comes alive tonight. Area residents can help honor the men and women who served in World War II, abroad and at home, by joining in the observance.
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