Sure, if you’re most people in America, you spell “clown” with a ‘c’, but if you live near Northeast Nebraska, you just know that it starts with ‘K’.

How’d that happen? In the 1950s, a group of residents in the Plainview area began the Plainview Klown Band as a way to promote tourism. The band traveled to and participated in all types of festivities and parades. The group donned clown outfits as they played.  For several years, the community hosted a Klown Days weekend. Now, it’s a yearly event that occurs in June.

Fast forward 40+years, and the city’s chamber director placed several clown dolls in the chamber office. Then, donations began pouring in. Now, the Plainview Klown Doll Museum sits along U.S. Highway 20. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the museum is open Monday – Saturday from 10 – 5. The remainder of the year, the facility is open Monday – Friday from 1 – 5. Admission is free. The museum has an interesting and varied collection of clowns.

Check out my latest reviews at the San Francisco Book Review. Latest posts feature:

• Dead Beautiful -  YA
• Blindsided – YA
• Sneeznesia – Children’s
• Desperate Dog Writes Again – Children’s

Personally, I do not like going barefoot. Even in our house, I have a pair of flipflops close by. But, most people in underprivileged countries don’t own shoes. Connie Gildersleeve of O’Neill, Nebraska organized a “One Day Without Shoes” event and collected 1,005 pairs of shoes. Check out my story at the Norfolk Daily News.

Nebraska has jellyfish? According to posts at NebraskalandMagazine.com, YES!

And no, they aren’t located in the state’s two aquariums.

They’re known as Craspedacusta sowerbii.  Small, freshwater jellyfish – especially Hydra – hide among mayfly larvae, midge larvae, and other “things” floating in the water.  Freshwater medusa jellyfish have been found in several water spots across Nebraska.

In 2003, 11-year-old Alex Fegley of Grand Island discovered the first jellyfish in the State of Nebraska, ranging from dime- to quarter-size. She talks about her findings on NPR. Great interview!

When Lewis and Clark made their monumental trek through the wilderness, they were impressed with the bluffs and wide river that was a boundary along what is now present-day southeast Nebraska.

The Missouri River moved between bluffs, and sometimes the river swelled to a twenty-mile wide rage of rolling flow. Deciduous trees – willows, cottonwood, and elm – sprouted along the bluffs and riverbed. Some areas survived; others trees died when the river switched channels yet again.

Now, along Richardson and Nemaha Counties, Indian Cave State Park boasts 3,000 acres of forest and open land. Come down from the bluffs and you’ll discover loess soil sprouting oaks, hickory, pawpaw, and blackberry brambles. Named for the ledges that jut out from the caves, carvings have been discovered inside the Indian Cave.

It’s the history of this land that leads to its mysticism and magic. In 1830, this land was part of theNemaha Half-Breed Reservation, a 138,000 acre tract for homeless offspring of trappers and natives. They could receive a 640-acre allotment to live on. Two brothers, Joseph and John Deroin, sons of a French Canadian trapper – Amable de Rouins and his Oto wife – received land on the northern edge of the present day Indian Cave Park.

By the late 1830s, Joseph ran a trading post and named the land St. Deroin, in hopes of luring riverboat traffic.

In 1856, the town was plotted. Pleas to remove the white squatters from the land went ignored. And in 1858, Joseph was shot and killed while arguing with a squatter over an unpaid bill. By 1860, between 40 to 60 people lived in St. Deroin, and the Half-Breed Tract vanished in 1961.

St. Deroinexperienced a boom in population in the 1870s when 200 people call it home. By 1880, only 90 people lived there. The floods of 1910 moved the Missouri’s channel one more time and St. Deroin, wiping out the majority of the town.

The state acquired the land in 1962. Now, the State Park covers 3,000 acres and offers horseback riding, hiking trails, fishing spots, camping areas, and in the winter, snow skiing.