(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Coming up on Nebraska Stories, a visit to Chadron's Olde Main Street Inn.

(upbeat music) A Nebraska student cracks the code on ancient scrolls.

(upbeat music) The Kiewit Luminarium sparks curiosity in young visitors.

(upbeat music) And a fast-growing sport hits the bull's-eye.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (bluegrass music) -[Narrator] On the north side of Chadron, at the corner of Main and 1st, sits the Olde Main Street Inn and the Longbranch Saloon, in a building that has been around since the birth of Chadron.

It's had many owners, and seen many guests.

One owner was Evva Gore-Bracken.

Evva came to Chadron in 1946, following a wartime job building planes at the Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant.

(bluegrass music) There in Chadron, Evva entered into the bar business.

-[Jeanne] One of the ladies in town had a bar on 2nd Street, and she said to mother, she said, "Evva, I want you to come and take this bar."

So mother took that bar, which was the 77 Lounge.

-[Narrator] The 77 Lounge became a hit, especially with students at Chadron State College.

-[Jeanne] The college kids would come in, and we have a T-shirt that hangs on the wall that says, "Working on my degree at Evva's 77," because they would come in, they would sit down in the booth, and get their homework done, and then they'd drink beer.

(gentle music) (gentle music) -[Narrator] The current owner, Jeanne Goetzinger, is Evva's daughter.

She decided to continue her mom's legacy.

As a kid, Jeanne and her sister would help Evva out.

(gentle music) I learned to scrub floors, I learned to clean urinals.

She was tough, you know, she taught us to do it right.

Any job worth doing is worth doing well.

-[Narrator] In the 1960s, Evva purchased another business, this time, a combination bar hotel called The Hub Hotel.

She began renovations, renaming the bar the Longbranch Saloon, and the hotel and restaurant, The Cave.

-[Jeanne] She built all that in, poured the concrete.

The kitchen wasn't the kitchen, it had been the shower for the YMCA.

It was a massive undertaking, and she was brilliant.

Nobody else had ever held two liquor licenses in Chadron, and so she was very, very proud of that fact.

-[Narrator] Her establishment became a place that was accepting to all walks of life, as well as a little bit controversial.

-[Jeanne] She brought in the first go-go dancers.

These people were entertainers, they weren't strippers, and that caused quite a flurry.

It was described as the most uninhibited night spot in Western Nebraska.

And so it was quite a place.

(gentle music) -[Narrator] In 1990, Evva sold the bar and hotel to Jeanne, who at the time, was working at one of the top law firms in Denver.

When I went to work there, my office manager said to me, "How long will you be with us and what will cause you to leave?"

I said, "Well, I'm a mountain climber, and when this mountain gets boring, and I need to climb another mountain, then I'll leave."

And so this was a pretty good sized mountain when I got here.

-[Narrator] And indeed it was, since Jeanne had never run a bed and breakfast before.

Unknown to Jeanne, she would soon come onto a surprising history about this building on the corner of Main and 1st.

(gentle music) On that plot of land, in September of 1885, Peter and Maggie O'Hanlon built a hotel named the Chadron House.

(gentle music) The Chadron House burnt down, but undeterred, the O'Hanlons rebuilt, naming their new building, the Hotel Chadron.

-[Jeanne] The hotel was built four bricks thick on the outer walls.

It opened on August 8th, 1890 with a social ball.

-[Narrator] In 1891, General Nelson Miles was assigned to investigate what would become the Wounded Knee Massacre, choosing the Hotel Chadron as his base of operations.

(gentle music) In 1901, Peter and Maggie decided to sell the property and move west to California.

(gentle music) Two years later, the property would be bought by the Railroad Young Men's Christian Association, where it would be used not just to house rail crews, but also as a recreation facility.

(gentle music) These rec facilities were not just for the train crews, but were also used by the schools within town, one of which would become Chadron State College.

(gentle music) -[Jeanne] The college, when they were looking to put a college in Western Nebraska, they were considering many different places, but there was already a gymnasium here they could use until they could build their athletic facility.

-[Narrator] The Railroad YMCA, likely a casualty of the Great Depression, closed in 1931.

(gentle music) Soon after, the building was bought and changed into the Commercial Hotel, and then the Hub Hotel, from there, Jeanne's mom bought it, and then Jeanne took over.

-[Jeanne] I didn't know it was the Hotel Chadron.

I didn't know any of that history.

Had I known that I would've renamed it the Hotel Chadron.

(gentle music) -[Narrator] When Jeanie learned about the history of the building, she immediately planned to get it added to the historical register.

(gentle music) Soon after this discovery, history walked through her door.

We had a couple walk in our door, and they're looking for the Chadron House.

It's Jack and Barbara Weber, he was the grandson of the people that built the hotel, Peter and Margaret O'Hanlon.

And the grandparents were so proud General Miles took headquarters here, so they wanted to come and see it.

I took them out immediately to the corner of the building, because on the corner of the building is scratched, "J. O'Hanlon", and it's very faint.

I said, "Is this your family that scratched this in the brick?"

And he looked at that and he says, "Oh, that was my uncle, Jack, that's who I'm named after.

He was a rascal."

Then he went two bricks down from that, scratched in the brick is "Anna".

The Ns are backwards.

And he said, "This is my mother, she was dyslexic."

[Narrator] Nebraska's own Dick Cavett was a regular at the Olde Main Street Inn.

-[Jeanne] He did just walk in, and we were swamped, so I took him upstairs.

We had one room left, the General Miles Suite, and he said, "Oh, this is lovely.

It's just like home."

Then I brought him downstairs to get him checked in and he, my mom was walking by, and so she, I said, "Mom, I want you to meet Cavett."

He told me his name was Cavett.

He didn't say "Dick Cavett".

Mom just looked at him, and she says, she just giggled.

And she took her finger, and she turned his head to the side.

She said, "It's Dick, isn't it?"

And he just loved that, 'cause she knew right off.

(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Even today, despite the restaurant portion closing, and the hours at the bar becoming more limited, Jeanne still opens her doors to both old and new friends.

There's Tess and Don Anderson, who had their first date at the Olde Main.

(gentle music) - He was here early, I was so nervous.

I was like, "Ah, why am I nervous?"

I had to grab onto the railing.

It hit me like it was the most terrifying and exciting and thrilling moment where something in my, it is like a thunderbolt.

It hit me and said, "You're gonna spend the rest of your life with this man."

I was like, "That's a lot to put on the first date."

But I went through with it, we had a great time, and we found even more that we had in common.

And that was March 6th, 1998.

(gentle music) And I remember that, because we got March 6th, we got married on March 6th, 1999.

So we got married a year to the day of our first date at the Olde Main Street Inn.

- There's my Bucky, (gentle music) There's my Bucky, aw... -[Narrator] Tess and Don's dog, Buckwheat, who they got from Jeanne, was born at the hotel.

(gentle music) There was Shelly White who got engaged at the Olde Main Street Inn.

-[Shelly] There was probably, I don't know, 10 of us sitting around that table.

And they started giving us the business about, "When are you guys just gonna get together?"

Will, when are you gonna propose?

And he and Jeanne disappeared, and Will came back with a piece of a crystal chandelier on a green bread tie, so he had a ring to propose with, and that was my engagement ring.

-[Narrator] There is Dean Myers, who began as a regular at Jeanne's mom's original bar, the 77 Lounge.

-[Dean] So we went to the 77 to say goodbye to all her friends, and we were drinking, there's no question about that.

And we were in the bar, and we overstayed our time limit, and the bus left town without us, which, I guess technically, I was AWOL before I even got on on a bus to go to the army.

(gentle music) -[Jeanne] So many coincidences here, so many stories, it's just amazing.

(gentle music) - And then I found some sheets... -[Narrator] Jeanne has built a place that is welcoming and accepting to all, a place where good memories exist, and even better friends can be made.

A home away from home.

- Jeanne's has always been a melting pot, and a welcome place for, regardless of what your ethnicity or religion, or preference on partners, everybody's always welcome at the Olde Main.

(casual offbeat music) (casual offbeat music) (casual offbeat music) -[Luke] So I've always been interested in history.

Growing up, I learned Latin.

I was never that good at it, but I was always kind of into that sort of stuff.

Read a lot about the Roman Empire and things.

And one day I was just listening to a podcast back in March.

It was with Nat Friedman.

He just kind of got on the podcast, explained like there are these burnt up scrolls that were buried in the Pompeii eruption.

No one knows how to read them, but some professors have created CT scans of these scrolls, and they uploaded the data on the internet as a competition to see who could find writing inside of these scrolls.

And when I heard that, I was just immediately like, oh my goodness, this is such a cool project.

I have to work on this.

I just went home from work that day at the end of the day, and I've been working on it evenings and weekends ever since.

I run most of the things from my laptop.

It's just a normal MacBook, don't worry.

But then I've just got like five surplus computers in here.

This is what I do most of my work from.

(gentle music) The lake school and just the University of Nebraska as a whole has provided a great educational background where I can then, you know, take these skills that I've learned and apply them to problems like this.

(gentle music) I just spend hours upon hours staring at flattened pieces of the scroll like this, trying to find these patterns, which are part of the writing.

At the start of the challenge, we had not been able to find any writing at all within these scrolls.

There are hundreds of these scrolls that are from the mansion.

We've scanned a couple of them, and no one had been able to find any writing in them using these methods.

(gentle music) Late one Saturday night, I was sitting at a party at a friend's house in Omaha, and I get a text from another person on the challenge team, and he says, hey, I've just uploaded this new kind of piece of the scroll.

You should take a look at it.

Here I remotely accessed my computer.

I type into it like, please run the algorithm on this new piece of scroll.

And then I just kind of started, I pull up my phone again, just nonchalantly like, hey, I wonder how that went.

And there are three Greek letters on the screen, the letters I'd never seen before.

It was really cool, because it was like, oh my goodness, like we actually detected new writing in the scrolls using AI.

That was the moment I realized, like, this is actually gonna work.

Like, we were probably going to read the scroll.

And I completely freaked out.

My friends were there and I was cheering, jumping up and down, you know, screaming, crying, all the stuff.

I, you know, took a picture of the results and I sent them to my mom and she called me and she's like, "Hey, these look great."

You know?

It was a really special moment.

Yeah, so this is the word that I actually found.

It's right here.

It's the word poporus, which translates to purple.

It's the first word we found in the scrolls.

It was reviewed by a committee of kind of Greek scholars, but it's the word purple, and I'm glad it's not the word in or the or and that we found first.

We actually found a word that has meaning.

This would not be possible without modern AI and modern scanning tech techniques.

People have wanted to read these books for hundreds of years, and this seems like the only way that's where it's really possible to do that.

Now we're reading entire paragraphs from the scrolls, and hopefully we'll be able to read the entire book and read the hundreds of other books that were buried in this condition as well.

When we found this first word, you know, we went public with it and I think everyone has been very pleasantly surprised by the amount of attention it's gotten.

As a college student, it's definitely been overwhelming in the best way possible.

but it's been really cool to get to kind of, you know, talk about my findings and, you know, share what I wanna do in the future with so many people.

So it's been overwhelming in the best possible way.

(gentle music) -[Children] Three, two, one!

(children laughing) (children laughing) -[Narrator] There's a lot of teaching and learning happening here, disguised as fun.

(children talking indistinctly) (upbeat music) This is the Kiewit Luminarium, built as a place for curious humans.

Built in a newly developed area on the banks of the Missouri River, it's 82,000 square feet of hands-on STEM exhibits and activities that opened in the spring of 2023.

-[Silva] Omaha was one of the few metros in the country of this size that did not have a science center.

It's a pretty special place.

It was designed, purpose-built, very collaboratively created with the community to be a place for everyone can come and explore scientific phenomena, which sounds intimidating.

It's really all around us, we're part of it, it's nature, and sort of explore those phenomena in a very special way that is different from the way we usually encounter science and math.

It's an experience that you are the driver of.

(upbeat music) -[Narrator] It's a place where you can change the flow of a stream, make music together, test how fingertip sweat shows inner feelings.

-[Guest] Describe the last time you cried.

-[Narrator] Build a machine to topple dominoes, and more.

125 interactive exhibits created from research about how people learn.

-[Jessica] So we connected the generator into the lights and the lights back to the generator.

And that's a closed loop, right?

-[Narrator] Jessica Johnson is a parent and homeschool teacher for her kids.

-[Jessica] Yeah, we really enjoy coming here.

I really enjoy science.

My degree is in science from when I went to college, and so getting to share that with my kids is a lot of fun.

Oh, this is very valuable.

It's a lot of hands-on experience that I can't give necessarily, at home.

(child screaming, laughing) -[Silva] The experiences are framed up in a way that it doesn't matter whether you're seven years old or 75 years old, whether you have a Nobel Laureate in physics or whether you're someone self-described who doesn't like science and math.

because it's about framing up something that's engaging and kind of either visually delightful or curious and then giving you the keys to kind of ask and answer your own questions.

(upbeat music) We're not telling you how to think about something, we're giving you an opportunity to explore, gather your own evidence and kind of come to your own conclusions about it.

(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Omaha's Luminarium is modeled after San Francisco's Exploratorium.

The Luminarium was actually created as part of a collaborative effort to expand what the Exploratorium has done for more than 50 years, to reimagine science museums.

Raker came here from the Exploratorium to help launch the Luminarium.

(upbeat music) - Yes, very much it flows from, but there's also some really important differences.

-[Narrator] Like the role of these folks called Luminators.

- Hi everybody, welcome.

Is this our first cow eye dissection?

-[Narrator] A concept expanded from what happens in San Francisco with young people, ages 15 to 25 hired to help with almost every aspect of the operation.

-[Suleyma] Luminators are stationed everywhere in the Luminarium, so we're the first face that you see when you come check in.

We have a pretty good extensive knowledge of each exhibit and we also run demonstrations, we facilitate them.

And we explore different areas of science within those demonstrations.

High five, down low, you kind of got it.

-[Narrator] This is a perception goggles demonstration.

-[Suleyma] As soon as you put them on and your brain gets adjusted to them, it becomes familiar with this new environment that you're putting it in.

And after a while you get used to it and then when you take them off, you are in another new environment that you have to quickly adjust to.

So we try to explain to them that that's basically how our minds work with everything else.

And then that was you getting adjusted to it, so you- -[Narrator] Luminators are most of the staff here, hired to represent a diverse population.

If you have any questions, just listen to somebody with a blue vest, okay?

-[Guest] Thank you very much.

-[Braxton] They talk about science, technology, engineering, and math.

So the good thing about it too, is that when you come and you see our Luminator Program, it's a very diverse group of people.

And so for me to be able to come into a place and feel represented, I think does amplify the interaction that you have with guests.

(upbeat music) -[Narrator] It's very new, a work in progress like the riverfront development it sits on, but the Luminarium is a place with lofty aspirations, to be a place that will activate and engage a community, especially populations who may not have easy access to resources like this and be underrepresented in STEM careers.

-[Suleyma] With the Luminarium, we're closing that gap of, being scared of the unknown and just fostering safer environment for people to explore and learn new things, -[Silva] The experiences, our staff, our pricing model, everything, it's really in the DNA of the place to say, "How do we engineer for a different outcome "that actually gets folks from all different backgrounds "in here and engage them, and then hopefully in a flow "that changes a lot of things, "cycles of generational poverty, "but also creating a really robust workforce."

-[Braxton] I hope that it just sparks ideas for young people.

(upbeat music) (axe grinding) (axe grinding) (upbeat music) (thud sound) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Axe throwing is quickly growing in reputation around the United States, and rapidly becoming a popular pastime.

Sometimes called hatchet, athletes compete by throwing an axe at a target, attempting to hit the bullseye as close as possible.

-[Jesse] When I think of axe, I think of a big, like a long-handled axe, like you would use for firefighting, for forcing entry or anything like that, but it's actually more of like a hatchet.

So the hatchets themselves are about anywhere from a pound and a quarter to about five pounds.

- You have to be behind a 12-foot line, and then there's another 15-foot line, there's hatchet, big axe, duels, knife throwing, stuff like that.

- [Narrator] Modern competitive axe throwing began in the early 2000s, and it quickly grew into a sport that's accessible for nearly anyone.

With the introduction of axe throwing bars across the country, more and more people have been introduced to the pastime while enjoying their favorite drink.

- I would say, for most people, it's two things that definitely shouldn't go together, but we find a way like to make it work.

- [Narrator] Jesse Rood is just one of the many who fell in love with the sport.

After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and marrying his wife, Isabelle, the two ventured out to Colorado in 2019 for a summer camp.

While mentoring young children as a horse wrangler, Jesse found a new passion that exceeded his wildest dreams.

-[Jesse] One day I just picked up an axe and tried it and I was like, "This is pretty sweet."

And one of the older guys at camp was like, "Yeah, and all you have to do to double your rotations of the axe is just back up the same distance you are from the target, so just double your distance."

- [Narrator] With this new interest in tow, Jesse and his wife moved back to Nebraska to fulfill a childhood dream, one that would have slight parallels to his new passion.

-[Jesse] My dad was a firefighter all throughout my life various different departments, volunteer departments, so I knew early on, I wanted to go into firefighting.

I had my EMT, but I had no fire experience, so I kind of thought it would be a really difficult time.

But with COVID, there was some openings at the Air Guard base, so I kind of slipped in at the perfect time.

Obviously, for firefighting, you're using an axe for all kinds of things, forcing entry, helping with the halligan, but that's what we use axes for on the job.

It's a lot harder to throw those big axes.

(upbeat music) One night, when we were closing, I threw probably like a six rotation shot.

(intense music) - Whoa.

-[Jesse] And I was like, dang, I kind of wanna see what the world record is, so I went home, looked it up and it was around 72 feet at the time.

And just that night, 60 or so feet, I knew I was close so I was like, with some practice, I guarantee I could break it.

So I applied for the record and it took really long time to get approved to attempt it, maybe four or five months.

But in the meantime, Craft put me into contact with the Nebraska Sports Council and Dave Mlnarik, who works out there, he's a great guy, and he was super excited about having me do it for the Cornhusker State Games.

- [Narrator] In order to set a record, Jesse trained hard to hone his throw.

- I would say I was going like three to five times a week, depending on how busy I was.

But I'd go out there in the morning and just throw till the mid-afternoon and toss my headphones in.

- [Narrator] With his sights set on the 72 foot record, Jesse's goal was not only to break the record but to shatter it.

- Obviously, some days, if I wanted to focus more on like 120 feet or beyond, I wouldn't throw as many until I got to 120 just 'cause my arm was gassed.

And I also had issues initially where I was thinking, I think I overdid it.

(intense music) - [Steven] I mean, we lent him old, like half-used boards that he could practice on, we gave him a couple sprayers, 'cause if the wood's too hard, it's not gonna stick.

Just kind of gave him like the supplies he needed and the support of like an official, like, we're certified with the World Axe Throwing League.

- We had to reach out to Allied Surveying and Mapping, and they were awesome, volunteered their time to come out and get it certified.

(upbeat music) I think most of the nerves came from like the questions I was getting on the day of where people were saying like, "What kind of percentage are you hitting from, from like 75 feet plus?"

And I was like, "Well, I've never thrown in front of people ever."

And I was pretty nervous after about eight or nine that I invited all my friends and family to come watch me not stick an axe.

But then, I think I really relaxed, took a couple deep breaths.

(somber music) (crowd cheering) (upbeat music) I finally stuck from 89.3 feet, officially.

It was pretty sweet when I hit it.

And I think it was mostly 'cause I missed so many and I think I could kind of see that people were starting to question if this was like gonna happen.

But I was really excited after sticking to get a chance to hit from 120, because in warmups, even that day, I hit two axes from 120, so I really, that was my goal.

And even though it was only by like 10 or so feet, it's just cool to have your name on something like that.

-[Steven] He comes from a small town, I come from a small town, different small towns, but still like for that world record to be held by someone who came from rural Nebraska, I think that part was like the coolest part for me.

-[Jesse] I would love to do it again.

It was kind of a lot of hoops initially to jump through and I'm kind of am just enjoying the time of not setting anything up.

- [Narrator] As Jesse looks to the future, and potentially defending his world record, the popularity of axe throwing continues to spread.

- Some people do, you know, like spa days, stuff like that.

For a lot of people that come here, it's how they forget about a bad day at work or stress or whatever, it's just something to get your mind off of whatever you're going through.

(upbeat 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.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)