687. Plattsmouth, Cass County (NE11)

Once again, Lewis Cass gets an accolade. On the one hand, he was a big advocate of popular sovereignty, making it possible that he was anti-slavery (though if he held such a belief, he certainly didn’t express it openly). On the other hand, he enthusiastically helped Andrew Jackson with Indian removal. On a scale from one to darkness, I give him a very dimly lit 6.5. He’s dead, so forget about him. Check out the courthouse! I’m curious whether that detail work on the top is carved from stone or some kind of shaped and fired clay. I don’t know, but could clay have lasted that long in the elements? Then again, what do I know about pottery? It also gets extra points for having an expansion that thematically (though not perfectly) fits with the old building. It certainly made up for my disappointment back in Mills County. I got to driving when I had another weird side-note thought: how is it that every main street seems to have antique shops and boutiques that look like their styles haven’t changed since the Carter administration but have manage to survive the likely high rents of a main street?

There’s always a cemetery, this one on the outskirts of town. There was a cache at the courthouse that involved looking at 3D pictures to get coordinate numbers, but to paraphrase the meme, ain’t nobody got time for that. I had previously attempted a nearby Travel Bug Hotel, but couldn’t find it, probably because it had recently rained and a lot of grass and brush had fallen over the GZ, possibly because I just sucked at caching at that time of the morning. The cemetery cache was easy enough to find though. What was weird was the shopping center right next to the cemetery, with a casino right by the front gate! I get that the needs of the dead can take a backseat to the living, but somehow that just seems both disrespectful and gauche. That was a thought to consider as I made the turn heading for…