USA’s Red Cloud, Nebraska, Showcases Native Legendary Novelist Willa Cather

 By Carla Marie Rupp & Jason Rupp

Travel escapes to the beautiful rural town of Red Cloud in the state of Nebraska, USA are being promoted to explore the history and life of a renowned woman writer. Born around 150 years ago, the literary great Willa Cather: (Dec. 7-April 24, 1947) is known for her uniquely American prose which is still very relevant today. Travelers to Red Cloud can learn about Cather by taking tours at sites related to her, and visiting the home where she lived. There are also many other activities in the town and surrounding areas, such as shopping, hiking, golf, bowling, dining, swimming, and sightseeing.

Hotel Garber is the newest thing in Red Cloud with its multi-million dollar restoration of the historic Potter-Wright structure. The extraordinary new hotel has 27 well-furnished rooms and hallways filled with photographs from the last century. From the lobby, you can sit on colorful sofa chairs, relax, and admire the beauty of the Garber Hotel, a nod to Silas Garber, a character in Cather’s book “Lost Lady”. Forrester (the restaurant’s name) is also mentioned in a Cather book. We were invited to stay overnight at the hotel and try the tasty food for dinner in its restaurant. Chef Mark Tucker oversees a tasty menu in this spacious, hip dining and bar area. It’s well worth a drive from Interstate Highway 80 which goes east to west across the United States. A stay at Hotel Garber makes for the perfect stop on a road trip. 

In 1871, Garber and a group of locals named the town “Red Cloud” after the Ogala Lakota Native American: Chief Red Cloud. A prominent figure in the 19th-century conflicts between Native Americans and the U.S. government, he was an admired leader while the region was used as a hunting ground by the Pawnee Native Americans. Today with about 1,000 residents this awesome, small town is in the center of the country and draws international visitors from all over to check out the hometown of noted Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather.

It was in 1923 that Cather was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “One of Ours,” a novel set during World War I. “My Antonia” is another of Cather’s famous books. The National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. included it in its Big Read program, sparking even more interest in her work. Some of her other books include “A Lost Lady”, “Alexander’s Bridge”, “The Song of the Lark”, “One of Ours”, and “O Pioneer”. She loved her little Nebraska frontier town and spoke about it in speeches and her writing. The community still celebrates her with workshops and seminars, and famous actors such as Jessica Lange have starred in movies made from Cather novels.

“Great Stories Grow Here” is one of the tourism sayings of Red Cloud. The National Willa Cather Center is among the important sites, located across the street from Hotel Garber, to immerse in the author’s life experiences. There is so much here about Cather, and visitors can also go into the archives room to find out more. There is also the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie outside of town, with roughly 612 acres to enjoy. You can hike the trails, enjoy the unbroken horizon, and experience the prairie as it was more than one hundred years ago. It’s especially beautiful at sunset time.

Visitors come from all over the world to tiny Red Cloud because of the significance of the legendary author. There’s a new “Cather Immersion Package,” which includes several days of excursions to places with connections to the writer and a night’s stay in Red Cloud. Celebrities such as civil rights activist Maya Angelou and American media personality Garrison Keillor have slipped into Red Cloud just because they are fans of Cather’s 12 novels, six collections of short fiction, and several volumes of poetry.

Around town and in the surrounding area are fun things to do. There’s a huge unique Starke Round Barn, the largest true round barn in the world, with a tour from Liz by appointment through the Red Cloud Convention & Visitor’s Bureau. A beautiful 19-mile drive will take you past the Nebraska border and into the State of Kansas before the town of Lebanon. Here you can take pictures at the exact geographical center of the Continental United States.

In town, The Alley Cat is a bowling alley operated by a hospitable couple Don and Tami Mullen, who moved to Red Cloud from Montrose, Colorado, to get a new start. They looked all over the U.S. and finally found this place that was going to go out of business. So they saved the cute retro bowling alley and added a lot of atmosphere and great food. Alley Cat has a big breakfast following with huge portions of yummy pancakes, eggs any style, and the works. Nearby is a cocktail bar: Brix, which would match the sophistication of any city bar. There’s a lot to do in and around Red Cloud.

Big thanks to Jarrod McCartney from the Cather Foundation and executive director of the Red Cloud Convention & Visitors Office who was a big help with this story.More information is available on the Red Cloud website and at WillaCather.org. Carla Marie Rupp and Jason Rupp are freelance travel journalists, and can be reached at [email protected] and at [email protected].