(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Coming up on Nebraska Stories, A mother's love blooms eternal for her lost twins.

(upbeat music) Enjoy a scenic walk to the iconic Chimney Rock.

(upbeat music) A son crafts a lasting homage to his father.

(upbeat music) And Willa Cather takes her place in Statuary Hall.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (eerie music) -[Lynette] So, I found out about the graves or the babies being buried, there probably back when I was like 13 years old or 14.

(eerie music) I thought it was made up, but Gene said it actually said that on the sign about those flowers blooming (eerie music) -[Jessica] And we found it and when we turned on it, it was like a abandoned road, like completely overgrown, almost looked like an eerie type lane.

(eerie music) So, we go down it, we're walking down it (eerie music) looking around.

Where is this?

What's it gonna look like?

And then we see it, and to me, what I remember of it is a gated, like a black fence.

It looked like any kind of a spooky movie.

(eerie music) (car whooshing) -[Narrator] Nearly 10 miles northeast of small town Ravenna, across from a rural cemetery and hidden within the overgrowth of an abandoned road exists a grave site said by locals to be the final resting place for a pair of infant twins.

(eerie music) The burial site is notoriously difficult to access and even more difficult to locate.

Those who may have stumbled upon it by chance often have a hard time recalling its exact location.

Yet, to those who've stood face to face with the marker, it's left a lasting impression, one that's mystified locals for decades, but before the twins ever became a local legend, they were simply children starting a new life in the United States with their parents, August and Anna Zeller.

(gentle music) (gentle music) The twins were German immigrants, 19th century pioneers of the American West.

(gentle music) Their father August was a shoemaker in Germany and at the age of 25, he and his wife Anna decided to leave their life and their home country behind.

(gentle music) In July of 1880, the family arrived in New York where they would begin their 1,423-mile journey to Nebraska.

(gentle music) They settled just north of what would later become Ravenna in a small sod house where the family would continue to live well into the 20th century.

(gentle music) August began his life in the United States as a farmer and he and Anna continued to grow their family, raising 10 more children in the coming years, (gentle music) but the twins, their first born children, who bravely endured the long and treacherous journey to America, never lived to see the new life their family built.

(gentle music) Although the cause of death and date of their passing have been lost to time, the children died shortly after the family arrived in Nebraska.

Their mother buried them roughly 100 yards south of their home, marking the grave with a plot of irises (gentle music) In 1980, over a century after the twins had passed, a local farmer noticed the irises blooming in his pasture.

Remembering the story of the twins, Bud Pritschau took action, and with the help of the Sherman County Historical Society, he and his wife Elsie built a marker to remember the children and protect the burial site.

Decades later, the homemade marker still stands.

(gentle music) The crude structure, built from the farming materials Pritschau had on hand, protects the irises that continue to bloom after all these years, (gentle music) (birds chirping) but to Kirk Zeller, a fifth generation descendant of August and Anna, the burial is more than a humble sign and a bit of history.

It stands as a reminder of his heritage.

-[Kirk] I've always been curious about the family history and always felt a deep connection to it, a connection to my German ancestry, and so I was very intrigued when I did find out about it and went out there and I've gone out there to take pictures with all three of my kids at different stages in their life, because it's something that, something that I think is really important to pass down.

(bird chirping) -[Narrator] No matter where his career takes him, Kirk always finds himself returning to Ravenna, where he can reflect on his family's heritage and revisit the place where his story began.

(gentle music) -[Kirk] I remember coming here with my son and he sat, didn't say a word.

I explained to him coming here in advance of what we were doing and where we were going after we'd visited the homestead and he just walked right over here and sat down, crossed his legs, bowed his head, and just wanted a moment of silence and sat here in front of this, thinking about the sacrifices they made, he told me later, and how grateful he was that he was able to be an American (gentle music) (gentle music) -[Narrator] To some, a ghost story taken right out of a spooky movie.

(gentle music) To others, a cherished piece of family history.

(gentle music) Throughout the grueling era of westward expansion, thousands of pioneers lost their lives as they pursued prosperity on the new American frontier.

(gentle music) Some of these brave men, women and children are remembered fondly, their burial sites identified by a granite headstone, historical marker, or a handcrafted sign, (gentle music) but many of these graves remain unmarked, undocumented, and forgotten.

(gentle music) For every inspiring legend of resilience, sacrifice, and preserved family heritage, there are likely hundreds more completely lost to time.

(gentle music) -[Kirk] I'm appreciative that some of the things, some of the old churches and stuff, there's at least landmarks where they once were and I'm hoping we can preserve that stuff, so other people and future generations, two or three generations later have the ability to go back and be able to physically understand, "Wow, my great-great-great grandparents lived here."

I think it's important to feel that, that connection.

(gentle music) (gentle music) (birds chirping) (birds chirping) (serene music) (birds chirping) (serene music) (birds chirping) (serene music) (birds chirping) (serene music) (birds chirping) (serene music) (birds chirping) (classical music) (birds chirping) (classical music) (classical music) (classical music) (classical music) NARRATOR: Larry Bowers is building a ship.

He's not doing it from memory, but from memories.

LARRY BOWERS: Dad never talked about actually working on the boat.

He would talk about some of the fires that the boat was involved in.

NARRATOR: Larry's dad, Len, worked on a real-life fireboat, the L.A. City #2 near Los Angeles in the San Pedro Harbor.

Len Bowers and the others aboard helped to pull water from the harbor to help put out fires on the shore.

LARRY: He joined the fire department in October of 1941.

Course, Pearl Harbor was in December of '41.

And I think he stayed on the boat until the end of World War II, when he was transferred to a traditional fire station in Los Angeles.

NARRATOR: In the early 2000's, the boat was retired.

Larry purchased plans of the ship to build a model for his dad, but that didn't happen.

His dad passed away in 2012.

LARRY: I got some drawings from the fire department, and I was thinking of building it.

My dad was still alive, he was in his late 80's at the time, and life got in the way.

I just never got around to it.

NARRATOR: Larry eventually got to see the boat at the Los Angeles Fire Department Harbor Museum during a trip to California with his brother.

He learned the boat was being restored, but no one would be allowed below deck, where much of the work took place.

Larry made the museum an offer.

LARRY: I said I'll build it and give it to 'em, but I'll do a cutaway showing what's called the engineering spaces below deck, the engines and the pumps and the piping, all that really neat stuff.

They said, "Sure, go for it."

NARRATOR: Larry's model building work in the basement of his home started with lots of research.

LARRY: I might spend two or three hours down here building something, but I might spend two or three hours upstairs on the computer.

I correspond with the folks at the museum.

In the last six months that I've really been building this thing, I bet we've exchanged three or 400 emails.

I need a piece of information, they'll go out to the boat and they'll actually look at it, measure it, or research their archives, and will send me the information back.

(pensive music) NARRATOR: Building the model is almost as detailed as building the actual boat, right down to the rivets.

LARRY: Every 18 inches, there's a series of rivets, and I have about 14,000 of these little rivet impressions put in the boat.

NARRATOR: From the water pumps to the fire hose reels, no detail is too small to be included.

LARRY: The engines are so intricate.

There's spark plug wires, there's carburetors in 'em, there's fuel lines, oil lubrication lines, oil filters.

NARRATOR: Larry even used 3D printers to construct copies of the engines to ensure they were exactly identical.

Looking back, the entire project could have been overwhelming.

LARRY: If you think about this thing as a overall project, you'd probably give up before you even start.

The way I approach it is everything's just a little project.

You get the engine done, you get the pump done.

You move on to the next thing.

You don't think about a whole bunch of stuff down the road.

NARRATOR: His work on the model kept him busy for several hours each day, and that was just the time he spent in his workshop.

LARRY: The crazy thing is I might be out mowin' the lawn, but I'm thinkin' about how I gotta do something.

I might be walkin' the dog, and all of a sudden, "Hey, I can make this part this way or that way."

So my mind's always kinda churning through how to build something on the boat.

(soft piano music) NARRATOR: Now, after 10 months, his masterpiece of a model is complete.

LARRY: I step back, "Wow."

It's cool.

NARRATOR: Larry's been building models of boats since he was a young child.

He thinks this one will be his last, and: LARRY: By far, it's my best.

NARRATOR: He'll eventually make the trip to Los Angeles and donate the boat to the Fire Department Museum.

LARRY: Like any of my models, I love looking at 'em when they're done, but they sit here in my basement, and me and the dog look at 'em and don't pay any attention, so I'm glad that this is gonna be some place where other people can see what it looked like.

NARRATOR: In all, Larry has invested nearly 900 hours of work on this four-foot memorial to his dad, who he believes has been with him through it all.

LARRY: Yup, I think he's lookin' over my shoulder.

I'm gonna put a dedication, like a little plaque on there, you know, dedicating to him, showing his picture.

I think that'd be pretty cool.

I just wish he could see it.

I just miss talkin' to him, so.

(laughs) Sorry.

NARRATOR: This model of a boat 1,500 miles away, from nearly 80 years ago, is bringing this son and his dad a little closer.

LARRY: He'd like it.

Yeah, he would be really happy.

(Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") (Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") - [Littleton] And here we are walking to the Capitol, (Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") and it was a perfect day, it was beautiful, the sky was blue with clouds.

(Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") But we saw the dome and the fountains and all of it, and it was just entering this beautiful space.

(Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") It was just gorgeous.

(Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") When we walked through the main hall, the hall opened up, and there were photographers from all around the world there.

The place was packed.

(Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik") - [Narrator] Sculptor Littleton Alston arrives in Statuary Hall, on the second floor of the US Capitol, on the most thrilling day of his professional career.

(announcer chatting) His seven foot bronze of Nebraska writer Willa Cathar.

-is hidden under cloth.

-(ethereal music) Today, she'll be unveiled for the world to see.

(ethereal music) - (Littleton) Her novels, her writing, her presence, her influence, (ethereal music) I think that's what makes her great.

(ethereal music) Telling a story about our nation, through her characters, (ethereal music) in a way that allows all of us, even today, -to connect, -(ethereal music) to feel a sense of connectedness to the past.

(ethereal music) We're nothing if we don't understand our past, we're nothing if we don't have artists who understand that.

(mob clamors) - [Narrator] What would Willa Cather think of the recent past when protestors stormed the US Capitol and moved through Statuary Hall on their way to challenge the US election?

(ethereal music) - [Reporter] Unbelievable.

We are televising the breach.

- [Reporter] Listen, you can't get through with a hairbrush that's metal, how do they get through with a flagpole?

- [Rioter] That's right, we own it.

We own you.

(ethereal music) - [Narrator] Two and a half years have passed, the physical evidence of the insurrection is gone, as Willa Cather prepares to take her place in Statuary Hall.

(ethereal music) (Attendees applaud) - [Kevin] I know you're excited, but I'm more excited, because this is the first statue I get to do as being speaker.

You know, every state sends two statues of extraordinary citizens to the US Capitol to represent them in Washington.

By law, the statues have to be made of bronze or marble.

(ethereal music) But make no mistake, the men and women we honor here are living symbols who represent our national memory, our patriotism, and our shared American creed, "E pluribus unum", out of many, one.

(ethereal music) - [Narrator] It was 2019 when Littleton Alston was chosen from among 70 artists to create a bronze of Nebraska's world famous author.

(ethereal music) He began by listening to her books and looking at her many portraits.

(ethereal music) - [Littleton] I look at each of the images and, just to sort of get a sense of her, but also just to make sure that, because I sculpt from the inside out, that everything is there.

So I'm not making a doll, I'm actually making a human form.

(gentle music) There are times when, when you're moving, when you're sculpting a form that's moving through space, (gentle music) there are a lot of dynamics going on.

You may not recognize it as just a viewer, but to the artist, there's a thousand things happening, and you're trying to orchestrate all of that.

And there are days in which I would go in and make changes, (gentle music) and think, oh, I've got it, oh yeah, that's it, (gentle music) and then I'd go home and come back in the morning and go, oh, no, that's not it.

(gentle music) That was the most frustrating.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Alston unveiled the first version of his statue in Willa Cather's hometown of Red Cloud Nebraska.

(gentle music) - [Littleton] I look at the maquette as a poem, (gentle music) and then I look at the four-foot version as a short story.

And then the seven-foot, which will be in bronze, of Willa, in Statuary hall, will be the novel.

-(gentle music) -(Attendees applaud) - [Narrator] The next time he unveiled Willa Cathar in his Omaha studio, she had changed.

(gentle music) Members of the Willa Cather National Statuary Hall Selection Committee were impressed.

(gentle music) The poem has become the short story.

(gentle music) - [Littleton] I wanted to capture (gentle music) that wind surrounding her and her vision.

Also, I put in around her the memories of Nebraska, so there's the wagon wheel, and the arc of the wheel here, as well as here.

And then the cane, coming up with her pen, -and her writings.

-(uplifting music) So she's striding forward (uplifting music) into history.

(uplifting music) - [Ron] Now I like this better than, I liked that when I saw it in Red Cloud, but this is less matronly.

(uplifting music) And I like that, because she doesn't need to be portrayed matronly, (uplifting music) she needs to be alive, and I love the look on her face, like she is thinking and she is looking ahead, (uplifting music) it's quite moving.

(uplifting music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Finally, at a foundry in Colorado, Alston supervises the finishing touches on his vision of Willa Cather.

The novel.

(gentle music) - [Littleton] It's like an adrenaline rush, (flames blowing) and it's beautiful to see it.

(flames blowing) The heat and the fire, and just the way in which it becomes almost a primal emergence of a form, doesn't it?

It's just astonishing.

It's almost like we're pulling it out of this cradle, right?

And it's just, you know, it's coming alive right in front of you.

(whimsical harp music) (whimsical harp music) - [Narrator] After that, Willa had to go into storage.

(whimsical harp music) She was ready, but Statuary Hall was not.

(whimsical harp music) -(indistinct chatter) -(cameras flash) It would be almost two years before Congress was prepared to dedicate another statute to the collection.

(whimsical harp music) By the time Willa Cather joined the Hall of Statues, it was the 150th anniversary of her birth.

(whimsical harp music) -- You ready?

-- Yep.

-- Okay.

Three, two, one.

-(whimsical music continues) (All applaud) - [Deb] Littleton, she is beautiful.

(applause) Willa is stepping forward, just like you told us she would.

Thank you.

Cather's vivid reflective writing has become synonymous with the pioneer spirit of Nebraska.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Littleton Alston's bronze statue, on its granite pedestal, stands 10 feet tall and weighs nearly 1200 pounds.

(gentle music) The gold inscription on the front reads, "Nebraska, Willa Cather, author, 1873-1947," (gentle music) And as she wrote in her novel "O Pioneers!

", the history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

(gentle music) - [Littleton] There's a sense that a lot of things had come full circle, (gentle music) and I feel as though I've been lifted onto a carpet and just sort of flown around, - it was very beautiful.

-(gentle music) - [Narrator] Littleton Alston is the first African American to create a statue for the collection.

(gentle music) His Willa Cather replaces Jay Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day, who was also a fervent supporter of slavery.

(gentle music) Four years earlier, Nebraska replaced a bronze of orator and politician, William Jennings Bryan, with Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Tribe, whose famous courtroom battle established Native Americans as persons under the law.

(gentle music) - [Littleton] I think Nebraska is more than you think.

(gentle music) I think the people of Nebraska are so diverse, (gentle music) and so independent, in so many ways, that you'll be surprised at what you'll find.

(gentle music) And I think that that's the great strength of Nebraska, (gentle music) we are capable of always accepting others who are on that journey in trying to find a home, (gentle music) and also inviting them into the home of Nebraska, and letting them understand and appreciate what it is -to be a part of this.

-(Crowd applauds) And I think on that day of the dedication, we were unified, all of us, and it was joyous.

(gentle 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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