“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.
Most likely, we aren't going to be good at something at the start. But that shouldn't stop us from trying.
August 2025 Volunteer of the Month Bruce McDowell can be found walking around McCook for his health, to be helpful or maybe even attend a meeting.
It takes work and effort to be social but its vital to our community.
McCook's young people are shaping their hometown through a various projects.
MCFF Summer Hometown Intern Natalie Roberts shares how her perspective on McCook changed over the past few months.
With the McCook Aquatic Center closing soon for the season, another tradition - Mr. Bill and his 25-cent snow-cones - will likely be coming to an end soon too.
McCook among five Nebraska communities in Revitalize and Thrive Program
Getting Outside of National Night Out Nearly everyone can tell you their last interaction with the police or the fire department. And unfortunately because of the nature of the organizations, it is usually not at a positive moment. My last contact with the McCook Police Department was just a few weeks ago, when I was pulled over on B Street in McCook…on my scooter. I pulled into the wrong lane when making a turn, which is illegal. But in my defense, it was an act of self-defense to just get through the intersection of East B and Sixth streets alive. Since the drivers haven’t seen a stop-light since Holdrege, cars and semis regularly run the traffic light, which makes me a wee bit vulnerable as I pass through the lanes. I got off with a warning but the true punishment were the texts throughout the day from everyone who saw me with my scooter and the police officer. Since most exchanges with police and fire are not on good terms, National Night Out was created to have an evening of positive interactions, to remind the public that the police and fire departments are just normal people, doing their jobs, looking out for their friends and neighbors, trying to create a safe community for everyone. National Night Out is designed to simply join your friends and neighbors for an evening of fellowship and fun. It is an opportunity to meet local law enforcement, creating safer and more caring neighborhoods. McCook is joining thousands of other communities across the country in hosting National Night Out, which typically takes place on the first Tuesday of August every year. Planned for Tuesday, Aug. 5 from 5:30-7 p.m. in and around Norris Park in McCook, the night includes a bike parade, a walk, awards for bike decorating, desserts and more. In other words, it is simply a block party to hang out. Numerous organizations have come together to make the evening possible. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and the McCook Rotary Club are hosting a bike parade that starts at 6 p.m. Linda Maiden with State Farm, a bicycle helmet advocate, will also be in Norris Park. The streets around Norris Park will be shut down to provide a safe area to ride, as well as more space to cruise around the block. Participants are encouraged to decorate their bike, scooter, roller skates or anything on wheels. This could mean streamers, pompom balls, markers or even the old classic - playing cards in the spokes of your wheels. Some supplies will be available at the park for use if you show up and realize you are the most underdressed person at the party. If your bike has an inch of dust on it, this is a great time to get it out, wipe it off and get it rolling. And if your bike needs minimal fixes like a flat tire or a brake adjustment, bike tools will be on hand along with myself and my hubbie, who know just enough about bike repair to be dangerous but did manage a 300-plus mile bike ride last week so we must be doing something right. But let’s say you don’t have a bike or biking isn’t your cup of tea? Then you are still encouraged to join the “Walk in the Park,” hosted by Community Hospital. Designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle, walkers will stroll around the park and the neighborhood at whatever pace you feel like with strollers and dogs on leashes welcomed. And perhaps most importantly, there will be a chance to meet members of the McCook Police and Fire Department, getting to see police cars and fire engines close-up in a non-emergency manner, always the best way to see them. And if the weather cooperates, there may be a fire hose, water and spraying involved. If you have been at the Culbertson Fourth of July parade, you know it is up to you to stay out of the line of fire if you want to remain dry. We all have excuses for why we don’t want to go out at night, especially after a long day at work. But National Night Out in McCook on Aug. 5 is a great reason to get out your bicycle and lace up your walking shoes. Hang out with your friends, get to know your neighbors and meet your first responders. That is what makes our communities just a little bit better.
Judy McCune named July 2025 McCook volunteer of the month
Joyce Anderson named June 2025 McCook Volunteer of the Month
