(upbeat music) [Narrator] Coming up on "Nebraska Stories," a day in the life of a locomotive engineer.

(upbeat music) Following in the footsteps of greatness.

(upbeat music) The strange and spectacular masks of Doane Powell.

(upbeat music) And the little courthouse of Arthur County.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (railroad bells ringing) (railroad bells ringing) (electronic music) (electronic music) (electronic music) (train horn blowing) (electronic music) -[Sam] When I was a kid, it's always been trains.

(train horn blowing) That dream I never let it die.

(electronic music) Even in an old yearbook when I was in fourth grade, my future occupation I put for it was train engineer.

So, it's pretty cool.

I still got it.

(train horn blowing) (electronic music) I feel like I'm lucky every day just to be doing this what I'm doing, being an engineer, working for the railroad.

To have my dream job I just feel very lucky.

(train screeching) I'm Sam Read.

I am a locomotive engineer and conductor for the Nebraska Central Railroad here stationed out of Grand Island, Nebraska.

(electronic music) Some days I'm a conductor and some days I'm an engineer.

And as a conductor my responsibility is paperwork, building the train.

(electronic music) Putting together a train, I would say it's kind of like a puzzle.

You gotta get the right pieces together.

(train coupling) (classic rock music) And as the engineer, my position there is operating the locomotive.

I make sure I keep my speed maintained and that I'm always in control of my train behind me.

(classic rock music) (classic rock music) We start in our office, we get all our paperwork squared away, we get everything printed off that we need.

Then we have to call our dispatchers.

All righty.

You got anyone in New York sub?

We'll get our track warrant for our line, which gives us authority to access the main line.

One and two.

And track warrant number ORD 33 to the NCRC 2197 box four work team mile plus eight and end of track.

And after that we will head down to the Grand Island yard.

(engineer radio talking) We always have a little job brief is what we call it and make sure everyone is on the same page when we're doing this.

(track squeaking) (classic rock music) And then we will build our train accordingly to how we need to.

(soft classic rock music) All right, Scott, I'm all good to go when you are.

(train rumbling) After that, it's pretty much straight shot up.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) This is hard to choose a favorite spot along the line that I run on, but town wise, I think Elba is so small.

Seeing the old grain elevators sitting there, it's just a really neat piece of history.

(train horn blowing) (upbeat music) I'd say another spot that's really nice along the line is the Loup River.

Going by that river, especially in the fall time, it's just one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

(upbeat music) There's no way to describe what it looks like, how you feel.

You just have to sit there and just take a deep breath.

Just admire the beauty.

(train rumbling) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Random people along the line that take time just to wave, brings joy to me and puts a smile on my face.

(train horn blowing) We start to recognize these faces, we start to remember them.

(upbeat music) We don't know their names.

We tell other people there's these certain people that sit at these different towns and wave at us.

And it's definitely a memory for me.

I love to wave at them.

If I even see anyone that's not waving, I'll still wave at them.

It's just something I like to do.

(train horn blowing) (upbeat music) So we go by this house along our line.

90% of the time they always come out to wave at us.

The kids just want a horn show and it just warms my heart seeing that because that was something I used to do when I was younger.

And having that connection with that family is just real nice.

(train horn blowing) When the two boys are out there, they're just pumping their arms, up and down just going crazy and that's all they want.

They just want me to toot that horn and it's like an honor for me to do it for them.

And sometimes it is late, it's like 10 or 10:30 at night and they're still out there.

Their porch light's on, that way I can see them.

I would say it's definitely one of the bigger landmarks.

I mean, we know the milepost area, but we just say it's the kids' house and we just know where that's at.

(upbeat music) Finally getting to meet that family in person was a dream that I was hoping would come true and it finally did because I knew that was a kid inside me that would've wanted that to happen too.

And being able to do that for another family was very heartwarming.

It was a very touching moment for me.

(upbeat music) Having stuff like that just makes my night so much better.

Just the little things like that bring joy to my heart.

(upbeat music) (train rumbling) (train rumbling) (upbeat music) -[Announcer] Number 13, Neal Mosser!

(crowd cheering) -[Neal] Throughout my like childhood, my dad has always had me around basketball.

He coached for a while.

And then he always had me watching basketball.

And then when I finally got to the age where I had the ball in my hand, I just fell in love with it and kept going.

-[Narrator] Millard North's career three-point leader and single-season free-throw percentage record holder, Neal Mosser grew into an all around talent on the court.

(crowd cheering) -[Stu] He was basically as a freshman, a spot up three-point shooter, but he developed his game.

He rounded it out.

He got better on defense.

He got better attacking the basket.

And I think great-grandpa would be very pleased with that.

-[Narrator] Neal comes from a long lineage of standout basketball players dating back to his great-grandfather, Hall of Fame coach and namesake Neal Mosser.

To say the game is in his blood would be an understatement.

- I wouldn't say there was pressure, but they definitely put the ball in my hand at a early age just to see how I liked it.

It had a huge impact in sharing like these stories of my great-grandpa, and even my grandparents.

It's just the long lineage in our family.

Just hearing these stories makes it even more special.

-[Narrator] In the history of Nebraska high school sports, few coaches, if any, can match the record of developing top tier athletes over a 20 year span like Neal Mosser did.

His style went well beyond just coaching.

(upbeat music) - He's a mentor, he's a teacher, (upbeat music) he's a family man, and a competitor.

-[Stu] Neal Mosser was a coach ahead of his time.

(upbeat music) He coached in an inner city school, was not afraid to break the color line, defended his athletes to the core, and he is one of the legendary coaches in Nebraska high school sports history.

He was a stabilizing factor within the school.

I think he was well respected.

Again, he would defend his kids.

-[Neal] He was all for his team, and he was not gonna let anybody mess with his team, whether it was refs, whether it was other people, whether it was fans, coaches.

Those guys were his dudes, and he wasn't gonna let any anybody get to them.

-[Stu] He was one of those pillars of Tech High that, even though the school closed in the mid-80s, will be remembered forever in Omaha history.

(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Omaha Technical High School, founded in 1923, integrated both academic and vocational training to nearly 3,000 students before closing its doors in 1984.

It was the largest high school ever built in Omaha.

It stretched about two city blocks.

It had first OPS swimming pool, and they had one of the best basketball gyms for seating.

So a lot of the key games are played in the Tech gym.

(movie film clicking) -[Narrator] Bob Gibson, (upbeat music) Bob Boozer, (upbeat music) Ron Boone, (upbeat music) Fred Hare, Joe Williams were just some of the famous names Neal coached.

With all the wins recorded, it didn't come without challenges.

-[Stu] It was the makeup of his team (upbeat music) being most in a inner city setting.

African American Black players, they felt discrimination at times.

They would have issues even going out in the state and finding accommodations at night.

He'd have to vouch sometimes that they were with him (upbeat music) to get hotel rooms.

-[Mitch] Starting five African Americans on a basketball team wasn't something he thought about from a political standpoint.

He was competitive and wanted to win.

-[Stu] The most notorious infamous situation was the '62 state final Lincoln Northeast, Omaha Tech.

There was a charge block call that went against Tech.

(upbeat music) It escalated from there.

There was pandemonium in the gym afterwards.

That played an impact both within the team and within basketball at large for what came the following year and maybe Nebraska's greatest team of all time.

(upbeat music) Tech only lost two games that year.

And they came to state, and the title game was 91-73 over a very good Creighton Prep team.

So it was a relief, maybe some vindication, you know, not only for that '62 team but for all these teams.

-[Mitch] I'm not sure he was out there beating his chest, being an advocate.

He was doing what he thought was right and right for kids and supporting and advocating for student athletes.

-[Neal] He definitely challenged societal norms at that time, so I mean, just that shows the type of person he was.

I think what he would, if he was sitting here today, his biggest achievement was he loved his wife.

Very family oriented.

He would dote on his four sons and very proud of the fact that they all graduated from college and all became educators.

-[Narrator] He'd also be proud of his great grandson and his accomplishments in high school.

From playing in four straight title games to winning two of them, the younger Neal continues to be thankful for his opportunities and for his connection to Nebraska high school history.

-[Neal] It was great.

My first year, I didn't know really what to expect with a loaded team behind a lot of talent.

I got to learn from those older guys.

Won the state championship.

It was great.

And then we just kept going back, and it just kept becoming more special to me as I started playing more and building different relationships with different teammates.

But every single team we had something special that the last team didn't, so it was fun.

-[Announcer] Long three by Mosser.

Makes it dead on.

-Big shot by Mosser.

-Really big shot.

(crowd cheering) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Doane Powell believed every face held beauty, character or significance.

(gentle music) He was fascinated by the details and differences expressed in a human face, and he put those qualities in a mask form.

(gentle music) - [Jordan] These masks were made by Doane Powell, primarily in the 1930s through the 1950s.

(gentle music) They were really unique in the sense that they were made to be used in advertisements, in circuses, on television, in movies, theatrical productions.

- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome once again to masquerade party, Bobby Sherwood.

There he is.

(audience clapping) - [Narrator] Powell also created masks of recognizable figures.

A veritable who's who of the biggest names in politics and pop culture during these years.

(gentle music) Many of them were household names at the time and now are largely forgotten.

A nod to the fleeting nature of fame.

(gentle music) With an art degree from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, the Omaha born artist spent years as a political cartoonist.

He later moved to Paris to further his studies in art before ultimately settling in New York City with his family.

That's when Powell's mask making took off.

- A lot of people think that they're just paper-mache, but he used this like laminated paper technique and just kind of really experimented.

(paper rustling) - [Narrator] Curator Jordan Miller, who works with 3D objects, was a bit taken aback the first time she saw the masks.

(cardboard rubbing) - [Jordan] The thing that jumps out to me most is the fact that they are so lifelike.

Every mask has their own box.

You open the box and it's like you're looking at somebody who was just beheaded because they're so real, and I think that's probably one of the things that's most striking about them.

(gentle music) He seemed to be an eccentric artist.

(gentle music) You go and see his masks and they are super animated And exaggerated and colorful.

This is another scrapbook we have in the Doane Powell collection.

This one is though primarily of his apprentice, Kari Hunt's career.

This is a photo of Kari and her husband Doug.

Here is Kari with her daughter Karen, who is the one who donated the Doane Powell collection.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Karen Schnitzspahn remembers meeting the eccentric artist.

After her mother, Kari Hunt reached out to Powell.

- [Karen] She wrote a letter to him and she said she was very interested in learning how to make masks, and he invited her to come to his studio and to learn.

I was only about three or four years old.

(gentle music) My mom took me into New York with her, and it was so funny and so exciting.

Doane Powell was sitting on a bench wearing a pig mask that had a little straw hat, and he was waving to me and I thought it was just, was a little bit scary, but it was the funniest thing as well.

(gentle music) And then we went to his studio, he was very kind.

(gentle music) I do remember the walls were covered with masks.

(gentle music) It was quite a place, it was memorable for sure.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Both artists made hundreds of masks.

Powell even wrote a book detailing his methods for making masks.

When Doane Powell died in 1951, he left the collection in Hunt's Care.

(gentle music) - [Karen] She often talked about him And missed him very much.

(gentle music) He really gave her so much knowledge about mask making.

(gentle music) She enjoyed her time at his studio.

(gentle music) In her later years, she did tell me that she hoped that I would keep the masks and perhaps find a home for them.

(gentle music) I started writing to so many different museums (gentle music) and I got the same answer most of the time that, oh, that's very interesting.

We love those masks, but we just don't have any place to store them ourselves.

(gentle music) I remembered that Doane Powell came from Nebraska.

(gentle music) - [Jordan] Kari's daughter, Karen actually reached out to us seeing if we were interested in acquiring this collection, and we were, and it was really great because it wasn't just the masks, it's also archival material.

(paper rustling) We have a large photo collection that's all digitized and online, and then we also have two scrapbooks.

(Jordan talking about scrapbook in background) This just really tells a fuller story of who Doane Powell was and Kari Hunt, and how the masks were made and used.

(gentle music) He had a lot of really unique techniques, (gentle music) but then it also presented a lot of issues after they had been stored in a variety of conditions for decades.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] The task of restoring these delicate creations fell to the conservators at the Ford Conservation Center in Omaha.

(gentle music) - [Jordan] It was a unique challenge to try and figure out what he had used and how they could conserve it or restore it or, you know, get it to its true likeness.

(gentle music) - [Adam] I find this one remarkable because it has a mixed emotion and there's a special degree of tension that's in this smile.

- [Jordan] We have people coming and researching how he was doing what he was doing, and how they can interpret that in their own work.

- [Adam] One of the measurements that I've taken is the pupillary distance, and on average our pupils are around three inches apart.

- [Narrator] One of those people is Adam Houghton, a theater professor who teaches a class and mask performance at Brigham Young University in Utah.

(gentle music) - [Adam] They make up a remarkable collection as the work of an artist.

For me, they have a meaning because the masks allow us to see things that we can't see in our daily life.

(gentle music) For an acting student, it reveals all of this new skillset in terms of developing the body to be able to express all the emotions that the face can express.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Using Powell's book as a guide, Houghton made his own mask.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Michele] Wow, well, can I ask you a question?

(gentle music) - I can't speak with it on.

(laughs) (gentle music) - [Narrator] We may never know why Doane Powell and Kari Hunt dedicated so much of their lives to the art of mask making, a cultural tradition dating back thousands of years.

(gentle music) - [Adam] It is a tool of transformation and it links back to ancient practices and rituals, but it can also occur just in our celebratory moments when we put on masks like Halloween or dress up parties and so on, where we then can open the door to another way of being.

(gentle music) - [Jordan] Doane Powell was born and raised and worked and played in Nebraska for a long time, and then he went and he went to Paris and New York.

And so these masks just tell a national story as opposed to just a Nebraska story, which makes him just even more special.

(gentle music) - [Karen] My dad was a part-time magician, and my parents did magic shows, (gentle music) and they often used the masks along with the magic.

(gentle music) The newspapers in New Jersey used to go wild over the masks and sometimes we would have reporters come and do photo shoots with the masks, and this was one of my favorite things, and I do remember this.

(gentle music) My parents and I would be wearing the masks at some sort of a public place, and people would walk by and See these faces of these masks.

(gentle music) Some of them were the funny ones, some were the world leaders, and they would just be so startled and taken back, and then when they found out they're masks, they loved it, it with great fun.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] For Karen, who grew up surrounded by these strange and wonderful faces, (gentle music) the masks carry a more personal meaning.

(gentle music) - [Karen] My bedroom was on the third floor of our house.

The third floor had two bedrooms, one of 'em was mine and the other became the mask room.

It was right next to my bedroom, so it was a little scary at night.

(gentle music) I thought I would hear the masks talking to each other.

I would have some nightmares about them, but there were also some masks that I felt were my playmates, my friends.

(gentle music) -(soft western music) -(wind blowing) (wind blowing) - [Narrator] Nestled in the Sandhills of Nebraska, Arthur County is renowned as the smallest county in the state, and the fifth smallest in the United States by population.

While cattle ranching stands as its predominant occupation, friendly faces and a slower pace of life are hallmarks of this close-knit community.

(soft western music) - [Ruth] Most of the businesses have been here for a long time.

We still have a grocery store.

We have the bank, which is open one day a week.

(soft western music) We have a high school, and a grade school, junior high.

Our kids that graduate do very well.

(soft western music) - [Narrator] In its early days, Arthur County grew to nearly 2,500 residents because of the Kincaid Act of 1904.

As the population in Arthur grew, so did the need for law and order.

Reflecting the size of Arthur, in 1914, a small courthouse was built.

The 26 by 28 foot building was perhaps the smallest courthouse in the United States.

(soft western music) (soft western music) - [Ruth] So in this courthouse right here, the sheriff sat here, the judge sat here, the judge sat up there.

This was all the commissioners.

This was the superintendent, which run all the schools.

(soft western music) When they did have court, the court was actually held up the street past the Baled Hay church, at the grade school.

So they never held court in this room.

(soft western music) (door creaking) This is the vault.

The vault has old records, land transfers, court dockets, divorces, death notices.

(soft western music) This is filed today, 1924.

(soft western music) - [Narrator] The multi-use courthouse received an addition the following year, with a similarly small county jail with unique features.

(soft western music) - [Ruth] As you can see, the jail is made out of two by fours, not pipe like all old jails are made out of.

(soft western music) It was little, it had two rooms and solitary confinement.

The sheriff didn't stay here.

If you were in jail, you were bad, you're on your own.

(soft western music) I don't know that they had a lot of people in jail for a very long time.

Mainly it was drunk and disorderly, horse thief, cattle rustling, just being bad, waiting for trial.

Those were the main things.

(soft western music) - [Narrator] Utilized until 1961, the courthouse gave way to construction of the present day courthouse, while the jail ceased operations a year later.

Both structures earned recognition on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ripley's Believe It or Not has hailed it as the world's smallest courthouse.

This modest building has been preserved and transformed into a museum that draws visitors from far and wide to this unique landmark.

(soft western music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Watch more Nebraska stories on our website, Facebook and YouTube.

Nebraska Stories is funded in part by the Margaret and Martha Thomas Foundation, and the Bill Harris and Mary Sue Hormel Harris Fund for the presentation of cultural programming.

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