“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain (Samuel Clements), The Innocents Abroad (1869)/ Roughing It (1914)
Although this quote is more than a century old, these words are even more relevant today. While everyone should be encouraged to travel, people should also be encouraged to expand how they think about their place - where you live, work, and raise a family. I am talking about your hometown.
Aside from a physical location, I think Twain’s quote addresses how a community lives together, builds personal relationships, and works together to keep a hometown vibrant.
Twain writing in the late 1860s could not have imagined all the advancements in health care, transportation and technology we take for granted today. He was likely influenced by the deadly and divisive Civil War and the mass European immigrants settling in the Midwest and Great Plains. These were people with big dreams, high expectations and determination to make a better place for themselves. Yes, some of those people were my ancestors.
More than 130 years ago, my great-grandfather took out a homestead claim just north of McCook. For four generations, my family has farmed and ranched in this area and McCook has served us well. To continue to do that, McCook must remain an economically active, culturally vibrant, and attractive place where people want to live.
McCook has the good fortune to be the geographic hub of cultural and economic activity for our region. Along with that comes much responsibility, for the area’s success falls more proportionately on our shoulders. McCook has carried this responsibility well when you think of all the innovative “Dream and Do” projects that McCook has accomplished over the years.
Forty years ago, we opened the current YMCA facility and established Heritage Hills Golf Course. In the last 20 years, partnerships involving public, private, and charitable people and institutions came together to create the Keystone Business Center, Kiplinger Fairground buildings, Anderson Cancer Center at Community Hospital, and McCook Community College’s Graff Events Center.
These projects, along with many others, were “Dream and Do” projects requiring the dedication of McCook leaders visioning, planning, and working together to take a calculated risk.
Initially fueled by the railroad and farming, McCook businesses and services grew to serve the needs of a fast-growing community. Early inhabitants had a vision and a commitment to build schools, a hospital, places of worship, theaters, a college, a YMCA, and many other community assets.
With minimal ties to the area and limited resources with them, they relied on their vision of the future and tried to anticipate the needs of 50, 75, 100 years later. Gazing down the bricks of Norris Avenue, their vision continues to serve us well 130 years later.
I continue to see a very bright future for McCook if we work to meet future demands. Internet technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence advances are changing how people live and why people choose to reside in a community. Career choices, recreation and lifestyle options will be increasingly important.
While the projects of the past century have served us well, community infrastructure must meet our needs of the next 50 to 100 years.
There is no denying our community is on a journey…friends and family traveling through time together, sharing space on the high plains with McCook as our provider of essential services.
McCook’s economic development director Andy Long has proclaimed that “This is McCook’s Decade!” to capture our community’s potential. As we share this enthusiasm, there are other McCook leaders discovering that our future is not what we settle for but rather what we make it.
Can we take McCook on an incredible journey this decade? Can you imagine 20 to 50 years from now? It will require us to travel mentally, physically, and virtually - over some rugged terrain at times - to understand what we presently do not know. The path may not always be easy, as my ancestors and I have discovered, but where it leads will be worth pursuing.
Dale Dueland is a member of the McCook Community Foundation Fund and board chairman of the Nebraska Community Foundation, as well as a life-long resident of McCook where he shares his passion, knowledge and vision.
McCook's last hometown bakery closed this past week, leaving a void not just for donuts but for connections.
Many organizations and businesses in McCook offer the opportunity to recycle, reuse and repair items that may just end up in the trash.
Organizer for Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival and former librarian named Oct 2025 volunteer of the month.
McCook's Third Thursdays were created to get businesses and organizations involved and designed to create life-long memories for the community.
Long-time community advocate Barb Ostrum received the Sept 2025 McCook Volunteer of the Month award.
We need to celebrate our young people while they are here and encourage them to return.
While some like myself appreciate a rainy day, others dread them for a variety of reasons. We need to be empathetic as interact with others.
MCFF Fall Grant Deadline is Oct. 1. Complete list of former recipients on MCFF website
With so much going, it is time for a “This, That and the Other Thing” column, where we will cover several topics, not very deeply but hopefully with a sense of humor as we clean up and prepare for a busy week in McCook. *** McCook again made state and national news this week for ice. This time, it was in the form of hail that pounded the community for hours upon hours. Conversations this week begin with “where were you….?” or “how many windows did you lose?” And while they may be legitimate and are offering their services, it is like vultures with all the roofing repair and dent removal businesses which have descended upon McCook following the storm. As city officials noted, do your due diligence with any company doing repairs for you and follow the old adage, which is old and still around because it’s true: If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. And one last note on the storm, we need to be careful what we ask for. As storm after storm approaches McCook and then splits in two to go around the town, we finally got one to roll right over us. The storm liked McCook so much it slowed down and just there. I was in Lincoln during the storm and trying to determine when I would drive home. I thought the weather app had frozen or the radar was broken because every time I looked, the storm was still sitting over McCook, doing its damage. I guess we can be thankful the next time a storm seemingly just goes around us. *** We are in the thick of McCook’s Heritage Days celebration. Congratulations to all the Heritage Days Royalty, which was announced at the MNB Bank Mixer this week. A special shout-out to Bill Donze, better known as Mr. Bill and his wife, Kathy, who were honored as royalty for their impact in McCook. As many know, Mr. Bill is fighting cancer and the prognosis isn’t good. The chances of him selling snow-cones and candy out of his van next summer near the McCook Aquatic Center are not good. One judge of his impact was the response to my column about Mr. Bill a few months ago. The post was shared thousands of times, viewed nearly 70,000 times with just as many comments by people sharing their fond memories of Mr. Bill. So when you see Mr. Bill riding down Norris in the convertible this weekend in the Heritage Days parade, send extra prayers and well-wishes to the man who has brought so much joy to so many kids - and adults too - over the years. *** Continuing on the Heritage Days theme, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the McCook Rotary Club is tossing all egos and formality out the window this weekend. As the president of the McCook Rotary Club, I invite everyone to at least watch, if not participate, in the Rotary’s first inflatable costume relay race on Saturday as part of the festivities in Norris Park. These are those giant, blow-up costumes you usually see around Halloween. The first costumes were usually T-Rexes but now there is everything imaginable available as a design. With the idea for the race originally conceived by Melanie Goodenberger, she has purchased everything from corn on the cob to a cowboy riding a chicken. This is a fund-raiser for the Rotary Club with a cost of just $20 for a team of four to participate in the relay race. But it is also a chance to giggle, perhaps make a fool of yourself and just have fun. Come to the park Saturday afternoon for the Wiener Dog races and stay for the Rotary Relay races. While the dogs will already be close to the ground, the relay race participants will likely just end up on the ground. *** With so much going on in McCook this week, I debated whether there should be another activity the next week but the response has already been great for the Lied’s Arts Across Nebraska’s next production in McCook. Hosted by the McCook Creative District, the Omaha Street Percussion ensemble will perform at the Fox Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 24. There is a matinee showing at 10:30 a.m. but I will be up-front…we are testing the capacity of the Fox with every seat already claimed with students. If that is the only show you can make, please come and we’ll find you a seat but it may be those up in the rafters. Otherwise, please plan to attend the 7 p.m. show on Sept. 24. And even better, there is no cost thanks to the Kimmel Foundation and the Friends of the Lied. This is a busy week and a busy weekend but this is a great opportunity to sit back and enjoy a fun, entertaining evening of live music.
Most likely, we aren't going to be good at something at the start. But that shouldn't stop us from trying.
