Emma's Project

I received an unexpected package in the mail today, from my sister, Laura, who forwarded me her granddaughter, Emma's, school Geography project. Emma lives with her family in south-central Nebraska. Her fifth grade teacher has directed her students to mail a journal to a friend or relative, with instructions to write about the area where they live, and then dispatch the journal on to someone else. By mid-April, when the journal is supposed to be returned to the school, each student should have journal entries from several people all over the country. In addition, each writer is asked to mail a postcard to the school at the same time they mail the journal to the next person, so all of the students can see where all of their journals are going.

This sounds like a good way to get young students excited about Geography.

After I finished writing the letter for Emma's journal, I realized that many of my blog readers might enjoy reading it, too. I've touched on some of the content in a few of my blogs, over the years, but there might be some information that is new to some of you, even if you've lived in the Gering area all of your life. (What can I say--I like geography, and statistics.)

Tomorrow, I plan to head to the Scotts Bluff National Monument Visitors' Center to pick up a postcard, and then I'll mail it to Emma's school when I send the journal to its next destination. If you live in Missouri--Heads Up!

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Scotts Bluff National Monument, at sunset 

Dear Emma,

I live in Gering, in Scotts Bluff County in the Nebraska panhandle, just 25 miles from Wyoming. We are about 90 miles from Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming, which is a small city of 65,000 people. The closest large city, Denver, Colorado, has a population of nearly 3 million, and is 160 miles from Gering.

Gering is part of a tri-city community, with Scottsbluff and Terrytown. The North Platte River separates Gering and Terrytown from Scottsbluff. Gering’s population is 8,500, Scottsbluff’s population is 14,500, and Terrytown has around 1,000 people. Altogether, our population is about the same as Hastings’ population. We do most of our shopping and have most of our appointments in Scottsbluff, although we travel to Cheyenne or Denver for some things.

Scotts Bluff National Monument is located just a couple of miles from my house. The Monument is a large bluff, or small mountain, that the early pioneers used as a landmark on the Oregon Trail. I enjoy walking on the path that runs parallel to the Monument, and sometimes I hike all the way to the Monument, or even up to the top and back. My grandkids like to go along.

Scotts Bluff is part of the Wildcat Hills, which are considered to be foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We like to hike and camp at the Wildcat Hills Nature Center, located eight miles south of Gering. Chimney Rock, another Oregon Trail landmark, is located about 20 miles east of Gering. On a clear day, we can see it from the top of Scotts Bluff.

Scotts Bluff County is a farming and ranching area. Farmers grow alfalfa, sugar beets, corn, and dry, edible beans like Great Northern or pinto beans. We have a local processing plant for the beans, and a sugar factory that turns the sugar beets into white sugar. Ranchers and farmers raise cattle (mainly Black Angus) and sometimes horses, sheep, or goats.

Two railroads run through the area, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific. The long trains move coal from the Wyoming open pit mines to numerous power plants all over the country, where the coal is used to produce electricity.

Several well-known people have lived here. Randy Meisner, who grew up a few miles from Gering, played electric guitar and sang with the Eagles, a popular rock band. Teresa Scanlan was crowned Miss America in 2010 at the age of 17, when she lived in Gering. She is currently a lawyer in Texas. Nebraska Congressman, Adrian Smith, attends our church when he is in town, and has a house just a couple of blocks from ours. (I was his music teacher when he was in the 7^th and 8^th grades.)

Our climate is usually warmer in the winter than it is where you live, with daytime highs in the 40s or even 50s once in a while, but it isn’t unusual for the temperature to get as low as 30 degrees below zero, or even colder. Our summer highs range from the 80s into the 100s, but our humidity is usually very low, so it doesn’t seem as hot here as in eastern Nebraska. We get an average of 15 inches of precipitation in a year’s time, which is only about half of the total amount of precipitation where you live. Like most of Nebraska, our part of the state is in a drought right now, so we are hoping for significant rain soon.

Tourists come here to see and learn about the old Oregon Trail and related history at Scotts Bluff National Monument and Chimney Rock, and the Legacy of the Plains Museum. Throughout the summer, people come from all over to participate in several different 5Ks and marathons, bicycle races, a hot air balloon festival, and Oregon Trail Days. People love to hike and bike all over the area, and camp and fish at Lake Minatare, which is 12 miles from Gering.

I hope you can come to visit sometime so you can see for yourself that Gering, Nebraska, is a great place to live.

Sincerely,

Janet Bauer (Aunt Janet)

Chimney Rock, in the fall

 

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Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.

Proverbs 22:6 NLT