An Alliance of Quirkiness

 Alliance NE

One of the quirkiest places I visited was Alliance Nebraska. And I say that with the deepest appreciation because I do love me some quirk. Located in the middle of nowhere in Western Nebraska, it is off the beaten path for most travelers, but if you ever happen to find yourself in the area, it is so worth your time because it is the home of the infamous Carhenge, Dobby's Frontier Town, and so much more. 

Carhenge, a Car Art Reserve, began with a nearly identical replica in size and layout of the original Stonehenge in England, but was built out of cars and opened to the public in 1987. Since then numerous additional car and car-related art structures have been added to the site, including "Fourd Seasons" inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons and made entirely of Ford cars. The Visitor's Center "The Pit Stop," which also uses car parts in various unique ways, was built in 2007.

The creator of Carhenge, Jim Reinders, an Alliance native, passed away in 2021, but his story is as fascinating as his creation. You can read more about him and Carhenge here. 

Dobby's Frontier Town, just down the road from Carhenge, is hard to describe. It is an entire town painstakingly recreated with authentic period details, and contains every aspect of a real frontier town, from a church to a doctor's office, a saloon to a jail, a bank to a bootlegger, a blacksmith to a quilting and dress shop, a candy maker to a cobbler, a post office to a one-room school house, a diner to a printer's shop. It's got it all -- even working public outhouses, which I was not brave enough to actual give a try.

The day I visited, I was literally the only person there. It is all self guided; you just walk around the town and let yourself into each shop. Besides not seeing another soul the entire time I was there (unless you count the occasional mannequin like the doctor and child patient with an oddly twisted leg; my uneducated diagnosis was that it was really, really broken), the fact that the very first establishment I visited was a furniture/coffin maker and funeral parlor -- a strange combination but one that I guess makes sense in pioneer times -- just added to the eerie vibe the place was throwing off for me. But being the only person there did allow me to spend as much time as I wanted in each place, and the sheer details of each setting were fascinating. 

If you can get there (Alliance does have an airport with a couple of daily flights from Denver and is about a four hour drive from Denver airport), there is an annual fall festival this weekend at Dobby's Frontier Town - more info here. It sounds like loads of fun, with vendors, live entertainment, old-time photos, and lots of food. It also sounds a lot less creepy than my solo experience. 

Alliance also has a western history and culture museum, Knight Museum and Sand Hills Center, and Sallows Military Museum and Botanic Garden that I did not get a chance to visit. I had planned on visiting Carnegie Art Center, but sadly it was closed on Mondays. The charming downtown district of Alliance is like something straight out of a movie. I just did a quick drive through, but there seemed to be lots of quaint shops to spend some time. 

And I have to say that I had the best gas station pizza I have ever had in my life from Hot Stuff Pizza inside KC's Short Stop gas station and car wash. I gassed up at KC's and went in to grab a breakfast biscuit or something because I had eaten nothing but "road snacks" all day. The girl behind the counter said she wasn't trained to cook breakfast food because she only did afternoon shifts, but she offered up a "breakfast" personal pizza instead. Her description sort of sounded like a Denver omelet on a deep dish pizza crust, and I was so hungry at that point, I jumped at it. She said to go ahead and sit at a booth and she would bring it out when it was ready. I was thinking, it is a gas station pizza, how long can it take? It actually took about 15-20 minutes, and it turns out it is made from scratch and cooked in an actual pizza oven. It was amazing! So gas station pizza, gets a yes! But I still don't think I can ever go for gas station sushi.  

As I left KC's heading out of town, Alliance had one more piece of quirkiness to serve up. I pulled out behind ... I am not really sure what it was, but I was thrilled when it briefly pulled to the side of the road so I could pull up behind and take a quick shot of it. Yeah, you don't see that every day. Well, except maybe in Alliance Nebraska.  

All in all, Alliance gets a ten on the quirky scale and was a really fun experience. 

If you came to this first through the blog, know that there are more photos on the related Facebook post 

Google Album for these photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fe2TYvnHktaj42Zh7