ODELL — The place some noticed a constructing destined for demolition, a gaggle of residents in southern Gage County noticed potential in an Odell constructing and launched plans to show a former hospital into what would grow to be the Rice Lodge and Convention Heart.
It has now been 10 years for the reason that constructing was put into service providing lodging in Odell, however the constructing’s historical past dates again a lot additional.
Gwen Vitosh, certainly one of a handful of people that labored to get the mission off the bottom and who stays lively with the constructing, mentioned it opened as a hospital in 1929 operated by Dr. Clarence Rice.
“It ran as a hospital till the early Nineteen Sixties. We haven’t pinpointed a date but,” she mentioned. “By then, he had misplaced a variety of his fingers due to X-ray tools. They didn’t take precautions like going out of the room, and the top nurse was doing most every thing, anyway.”
After the hospital closed, the constructing was transformed to be used as residences earlier than being deserted someday within the late Nineteen Nineties.
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Finally, 4 {couples} obtained collectively and determined to search out new life for the getting older construction.
“We decided there have been three issues we might do,” Vitosh mentioned. “Let it sit because it was, knock it down or do one thing with it. We began brainstorming and visited the Wilber lodge and visited the Convent Home in Steinauer. We kicked round a bunch of concepts and at last got here up with the concept of a lodge.”
The Odell Rice Lodge and Convention Heart encompasses a kitchen space. The lodge Contains a continental breakfast for occupants.
As soon as a plan was shaped, the group needed to increase the cash to renovate the constructing. Many space residents pledged time and money to place towards the mission, although receiving grants from the Gage County Conference and Guests Bureau and Nebraska Division of Financial Improvement had been milestone achievements.
“Between these two, we utilized for like $100,000,” Vitosh mentioned. “If we obtained the grant, we had been a go, if not, we had been sunk. We had folks pledge {dollars}, and if it was a go we’d go to them to donate. We obtained $88,000 in grants, so it was a go. That was large, and we determined to maneuver ahead. In 2010 volunteers got here from in all places. “
The 2 buildings concerned had been fully overhauled and have a capability to sleep 26 folks. Rooms are named after donating households and include household artifacts. Even the paint schemes within the rooms had been chosen by the household the rooms are named after.
The Village of Odell owns the property, although Vitosh mentioned the lodge is totally self-sustaining and the village has not contributed financially to the mission.
The Rice Lodge and Convention Heart obtained its begin as a hospital in 1929.
This August will mark 10 years for the reason that lodge opened.
“I nonetheless bear in mind the primary ones, it was for a marriage on the town,” she recalled. “All people stayed right here. That was priceless. Then three years later we began on the opposite constructing and opened that one in Might 2015.”
Final 12 months, 590 folks stayed on the Rice Lodge and Convention Heart, bouncing again from a pandemic 12 months when occupancy was down.
Vitosh mentioned a lot of those that keep are return prospects who benefit from the appeal the Rice Lodge can provide.
“Lots of people simply hold coming again,” she mentioned. “If somebody asks how we obtained from step A to step Z, I can’t even give them a solution. I used to be there each step of the way in which, however why did we expect to do that or that? How did we get so far? It’s a blur.”
Along with bedrooms and kitchen areas, the Rice Lodge and Convention Heart options gathering areas for occupants.
Pictures: Nationwide landmarks of Nebraska
Don Parmenter, left, of Gering and Casey Debus of Morrill wait momentarily at Scotts Bluff Nationwide Monument whereas the mochila transfers horses. In 2008, the 2 riders participated in a Pony Categorical re-ride that started in Sacramento, California, and concluded in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The Willow Island Pony Categorical station sits in a metropolis park in Cozad, Neb. First used as a buying and selling put up, the station additionally served as a stage coach cease for the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Categorical Firm. The cabin was initially constructed on a financial institution of the Platte River, south of present-day Darr, Neb., and was moved right here in 1938.
Markers south of exit 231 on Interstate 80, between Lexington and Cozad, designate the close by websites of the Willow Island Pony Categorical station, left, and the Oregon Path.
Path riders transfer down the Oregon Path at Ash Hole State Historic Park in the course of the Convergence on Sacred Floor occasion in 2017. In full, the Oregon Path spanned over 2,000 miles and crossed six states, by which path landmarks, settlements, wagon ruts and different traces can nonetheless be seen in the present day.
The Oregon Path Wagon Practice passes over a mattress of white “plains bee balm” on the primary day of a four-day trek. As soon as a well-liked vacationer attraction, members had been capable of expertise a bit of what the pioneer journey over the prairie close to Chimney Rock was like.
For each Native American tribes and pioneers touring westward, Chimney Rock, now a Nationwide Historic Website close to Bayard, was the primary of two essential markers alongside the Oregon, Mormon, and California trails within the Nebraska Panhandle. The distinctive geological formation, together with the landmark at Scotts Bluff Nationwide Monument, lower than thirty miles away, seems talked about within the writings of many early settlers.
Night mild and rolling storm clouds create a scenic backdrop for the prairie panorama at Scotts Bluff Nationwide Monument. The monument marks its a hundredth anniversary this 12 months.
Max Cawiezel operates an vintage John Deere sugar beet digger with the assistance of Belgian horses Bob and Ben on the Farm and Ranch Museum close to Gering, Neb. Historic tools and farming methods had been part of the museum’s eighth annual Harvest Competition in 2004.
The Homestead Act of 1862 supplied incentive, within the type of 160 acres of free land, to pioneers shifting westward. Homestead Nationwide Monument commemorates this historic occasion, housing an in depth assortment of homesteading artifacts and providing interactive displays documenting the lives of early settlers. On show here’s a 1945 Allis Chalmers Mannequin C tractor, utilized in Alaska on the nation’s final homestead.
In August 2017, a uncommon complete photo voltaic eclipse crossed a large swath of Nebraska, bringing with it report quantities of tourism to small cities and state parks alongside the trail. Bruce Cardwell, heart, of Omaha, Nebraska, waits for the eclipse to reappear from behind the clouds. Homestead Nationwide Monument hosted a viewing celebration for the eclipse, inviting NASA scientists and that includes packages led by celeb visitor Invoice Nye.
The sky over the Homestead Nationwide Monument’s Homestead Heritage Heart is illuminated by a lunar eclipse on Jan. 31, 2018, as seen by means of the window of the middle. Open prairie and clear skies have made the location standard for star viewing and storytelling, in addition to daytime astronomy packages.
The Mormon Pioneer Nationwide Historic Path traces the trail of early Mormon settlers from Illinois, by means of Iowa and Nebraska, in the direction of Wyoming and Utah. Two notable encampment areas — Winter Quarters in north Omaha and Kanesville in Council Bluffs — served as very important stops alongside the way in which.
Amber Lutke, left, and Russ Leger lead a wagon practice on Pioneer Path heading to for the Grand Encampment on the Iowa College for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. The occasion marked the one hundred and seventieth anniversary for the reason that Mormons left Nauvoo, Illinois, to camp in what are actually Council Bluffs and north Omaha.
Dave McKeag, path boss and wagonmaster from Council Bluffs, prepares to steer the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary Gold Rush Days wagon path experience to California. The experience began from the Western Historic Path Heart in Council Bluffs, and included a cease in a single day in Omaha.
The Missouri River, as seen from the Chief Standing Bear Bridge connecting Nebraska and South Dakota, close to Niobrara on the Lewis & Clark path. Two segments of the river, totaling simply over 100 miles, make up the Missouri Nationwide Leisure River.
The Lewis and Clark reproduction keelboat of The Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, Missouri, pushes up the Missouri River throughout from downtown Omaha. As a part of the two hundredth anniversary celebration of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, reenactors adopted the unique route of the expedition up the river, stopping at a number of cities alongside the way in which.
Rapids appeal to guests to the Niobrara River’s Rocky Ford space. Solely a fraction of segments of rivers in america are capable of be designated underneath the Nationwide Wild & Scenic Rivers System – the 76-mile stretch close to Valentine qualifies by being a free-flowing section with accessible undeveloped shoreline and clear or managed water. Rocky Ford, a well-liked take-out website for canoes and float journeys, is privately owned, however previous negotiations have thought-about turning it over to the federal authorities to make sure continued public entry.
Members of the College of Nebraska-Lincoln Wildlife Membership take canoes and kayaks out on the Niobrara River.
The Niobrara Nationwide Scenic River can be dwelling to nationally and regionally important geology, fossil websites and wildlife. Numerous species of crops and animals, together with elk, may be discovered on the Niobrara Nationwide Wildlife Refuge.
This bock of fossils was collected from the Agate Fossil Beds Nationwide Monument and is housed within the American Museum of Pure Historical past in New York Metropolis. It incorporates bones from a number of totally different teams of animals, together with chalicotheres, big pigs, oreodonts, cats and canines. A lot of the bones, nonetheless, are from Menoceras, a pony-sized rhinoceros.
Sundown shadows at Agate Fossil Beds Nationwide Monument.
