A "wide spot in the road" is fading away
Rose, Nebraska, in 2000. Trading Post (left),livestock feed shed, and machine shop (right)
My address, when I was growing up, was Rose, Nebraska. Rose is on Highway 183, more or less midway in the 60 miles between Bassett and Taylor, Nebraska.
When I was little (1950s), the blacktop road from Bassett ended just south of the Rose Trading Post, and the next 30 miles to Taylor were gravel road. A couple of miles after the road turned to gravel, it passed Grandpa and Grandma (Gilbert and Christina) Swinney's house, which was the Rose post office.
By the time I was 10 or so (early 1960s), Highway 183 was paved all the way from Bassett to Taylor. Not long after that, Grandma Swinney retired as postmistress, and the post office was moved from her house to the Rose Trading Post.
After acquiring the post office, the Trading Post earned the honor of having the "Rose" highway sign there also. It always read, "Rose, population 2."
Rose was in its heyday during the time that I was growing up. The store sold groceries and necessities, livestock feed, and gasoline. Another building housed the Swanson Brothers' machine repair shop. (They moved their operation to Bassett around 1960.)
The Rose Community Hall was located just north of the Trading Post, and it was used for dances, 4-H and extension club meetings, Thanksgiving potlucks and Christmas programs, and as a polling place during elections.
We lived about four and a half miles west of Rose, as the crow flies. We could have driven through pastures, but by real roads, it was about eight miles. I looked forward to my mother going to the Rose store because I might be able to talk her into buying me some bubble gum or perhaps even a bottle of pop.
When Mike and Mildred Riley were running the Rose Trading Post, Mildred had a beauty shop in a room between the store and the living quarters. My Grandma Nora liked to go there to have her hair done, and I remember going with her to have a perm put in my hair once, courtesy of Grandma.
About 1970, several rural schools in the area consolidated and built a community school at Rose. I believe my sister-in-law Kathy taught there the first year that the Rose School opened. She was young and single, and she boarded with my parents. She and my brother became interested in each other, and the rest is history. They've been married for around 35 years now.
The last few decades have been hard on Rose. Population in the county has decreased, and Rose has been one of the casualties. I don't know if Rose still gets a dot on the Nebraska map or not, but it won't completely vanish as long as the school is there.
The community hall is still there, too, and it's probably still used for some of the same events that I remember attending there.The Trading Post has closed. The machine shop has, I believe, stood empty since the Swanson Brothers moved out.
The post office was located in the community hall for a while, but now it has closed permanently. You can still address a letter to Rose, but the Bassett post office handles that zip code.
Cowboy poet Baxter Black gave Rose a bit of immortality in "Sandhills Savior", a poem about the windmills in the Nebraska Sandhills.
... From Thedford to Hyannis, from Valentine to Rose
Across that sandy country where the prairie grass still grows
You'll see those man-made daisies, silhouettes against the sky
Their steel petals gleaming on their stalks eighteen feet high...
24 comments:
Don't blink or you will miss the town. Some wide spot!
Is it better for a place like Rose to slowly disappear into our memories, or for it to grow into something entirely different and, probably, not quite as good as we remember?
PT, is that Rose? It surely must be! The buildings seem to be in the correct places. I guess that's an irrigated quarter just to the south. The trees are a lot bigger than I remember -- I suppose that's not surprising. Thanks for posting that.
Mark, I don't know the answer except this -- nothing stays the same. There are probably a dozen or more little Sandhill post offices and stores that have already faded into oblivion between Bassett and Taylor Nebraska. Rose hung on for a long time because of its location on the highway.
When I read interesting descriptions of places, I like to look them up on Google Earth. Rose is tiny, its not even a crossroads.
I don't think Google Earth will work on anything but a high-speed internet connection. If you ever want an "aerial" of a place, just let me know where.
Not everyplace out in the boondocks is covered with high resolution imagery, but it is easy to look.
I will keep that in mind, PT. Thanks again.
When writing about Rose, I should also have mentioned the Rose Church. It is located a couple of miles north and several (4?) miles east of the Trading Post. In the days of the old gravel highway, it would have been just a couple of miles off the highway, but the blacktop road followed a somewhat different route.
When I was growing up, the Rose Church was Evangelical United Brethern (EUB) in denomination, and later the EUB merged with the Methodists.
When I drove by there about three years ago, the little church looked just like it always did. However,
I am quite sure that regular services aren't held there anymore.
I'm an Iowan but I've driven out through that part of Nebraska, probably even Rose, more than once. I think it is absolutely beautiful country. I love the way the ponds are set like sapphires in the Sandhills. And the thrill of the summer afternoon supercell thunderstorms.
I am an unusual Iowan. :)
I've been through Ainsworth, Neligh Cherry County, and Broken Bow, but I've missed Rose.
But I found it here:
http://www.hometownlocator.com/City/Rose-Nebraska.cfm
Heartaday, thanks for visiting. I swear I've answered your comment, but somehow, it must not have "taken." The internet was probably being sluggish at the time. Ugh, I hate dial-up. Yes, the Sandhill lakes are really beautiful, especially out south of Valentine and Gordon. In some areas, there's a lake over every ridge of hills. Some are alkaline, because there's no outlet for the water.
Hi, John. Thanks for the link. It doesn't say much, but there isn't much to say. :)
I was born in Ainsworth, and Valentine was within my range of occasional childhood travel. I've been to Broken Bow a number of times, too, but not within recent years. Broken Bow had a fire not long ago that destroyed some of the historic downtown. I was sure sorry about that.
Rose Ne. what memories.... a few years ago, after taking my son to Kansas to catch a ride back to Texas to school, I got caught in a Nebraska snow storm, and had to "camp-out" at Rose.....for 36 hours in my pickup! Lucky for me, I had lots of fuel and food, but the memories of our younger days, from church to 4H to NC. The Rose store has had a 4-sale sign on the window for a couple years now, the school is still going,we buried Dad at the Rose cemetery last year, and I was very impressed how the area folks have kept it all up. I didn't mean to rite a book here but thanks for your blog.
Mike! It's nice to see you on the blog! Oh my gosh, I can't imagine sitting in a pickup truck at Rose for 36 hours with a blizzard swirling around me -- but I'm proud of you for having the good sense to be well prepared for an emergency.
I remember coming home from Taylor after dark one time, before the highway was blacktop through there, and it was snowing and blowing like crazy. The snowflakes were a million arrows in the headlights, and there was starting to be drifts across the road. There weren't any tracks to follow, and we could just barely see the tops of some weeds now and then to let us know where the ditches were. I'm sure my mom and dad were glad when we got home that night.
Mike, I thought the same thing about the Duff Cemetery when I visited it about 5 years ago -- it was quite well cared-for, considering its remote location. It speaks well for the residents of those communities, I think.
My dad's family is from Rose. My grandpa's name was Art Roggasch. We moved to Anchorage, Alaska when I was little, (1974), but my dad used to tell me to tell anyone who asked, I was from Rose. Glad I found your blog!
When people say they are from Rose, they mean that they're from the south end of Rock County. There's not much at Rose. :) I hope you get to visit your grandpa's ranch there someday.
Art Roggasch lived five or six miles from us by the road. We had land on Bloody Creek that bordered against his land on the east side. I was a first grader when we moved to Duff Valley, and Regina Roggasch was my teacher for the rest of that year. Don Roggasch was in my brother's grade, five years older than me.
I just discovered your blog and have really enjoyed reading. My mom is from Rose, Grandpa ranched a few miles north and east of the Rose Store you mention. When Mom was little Grandma and Grandpa Schubert ran the Rose Store when it was east of the location you mention. That store along with their home burned to the ground when Mom was a girl in the 1950's. When I was a kid Ed and Bernice Kuchera ran the store and I remember going there to get some Black Jack Gum with Grandma! My brother still ranches in the Sandhills. My brother and sisters attend K-8 grade at Sybrant School, south of Pony Lake where you taught. Sybrant is closed now, my brother's sons went to Pony Lake (Pony Lake remains open today and it doesn't look much different now than in did in when in opened in the early 70's). Haying has changed a bunch, you don't suffer now like we did on the mow machine or the hay sweep in the heat and humidity! I have enough memories for two lifetimes like you do, some of my favorites are fishing at Ben Boerger's farm pond in Rose or swimming in the Calamus River on a hot summer day with Grandpa Shorty and Grandma Garney!
Thanks for the stroll!
Thanks for your comments, and thanks for reading, Thomas. As you might guess, I remember your grandparents and all the other people and places you mentioned!
I went to high school with the younger Horner kids, don't know if you were aware but Warren passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. Also, we share a common grade school teacher; Mary Schubert was my 5th grade teacher! Mary is still going strong!
Yes, I do know about Warren passing away. Such a shock and so sad that he is gone at such a young age. I keep up with Mary via Facebook. As it happens, her husband Willard Hollopeter is my third cousin. He and I share a great-great-grandmother.
Carolyn and I talked on the phone this afternoon and went down memory lane as we read your blog to each other. I called her to let her know that I had emailed a picture to her of the last group of students (and Bernice Kuchera) who attended District 4. Mrs. Kuchera, who passed away just over a week ago was the last teacher to teach in that little one-room schoolhouse. Your sister is among that small group of students and I was wondering what grade she would have been in at that time. (1966 - 1967) I was in kindergarten at that time and was the youngest student to attend District 4. (I've been told that my Grandma Caroline Horner was the oldest student to attend.) Thank you so much for taking the time to document the history of the Duff/Rose community. What a treasure!
Thank you for your kind comments. Charlotte was five years behind me in school, and I was in 10th grade in 66-67. That would put her in 5th grade that year. She was a grade behind Teresa, I think. Does that sound right?
I believe that's what Carolyn said, but she wasn't sure. Thanks again for sharing your writing.
Do you know what year the Rose church was established. My great grandparents were part of it the Ershams
Genevieve unfortunately passed a couple of years ago, but my grandparents lived nearby and went there. I spoke with my brother and he believes the current church building dates to 1922, I’m sure the congregation predates that. I was there a couple of years ago and can share some pictures if you want.
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