Walking With Willa Cather: A Literary Journey Through Red Cloud
Walking With Willa Cather: A Literary Journey Through Red Cloud
by Tim Trudell, Omaha Magazine
"The land belongs to the future, Carl; that's the way it seems to me. How many of the names on the county clerk's plat will be there in fifty years? I might as well try to will the sunset over there to my brother's children. We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it—for a little while."
Like a passage from Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, visiting Red Cloud, it's easy to feel as if you're a character in one of her novels. Cather's hometown embraces the author's life, seemingly weaving through plots and storylines as you explore the town and its history, often used as inspiration and fodder for her award-winning books.
From the “American Bittersweet” exhibit at the National Willa Cather Center to her childhood home, exploring Red Cloud includes buildings, homes, and sites which inspired Cather to create a dozen books detailing early settler life on the prairie.
