699. Ponca, Dixon County (NE16)

Well, what can I really say about it?  It’s an unimpressive courthouse for a small county.  It’s nothing special, but it’s not cringeworthy, either.  Considering it’s in a town of about nine hundred within a county of six thousand, they’re doing their best.  It meets their needs, so I guess that’s good enough. 

The cache was similarly unremarkable, a cap-and-cap in a tree.  The location was chosen because Lewis, Clark, and Company spent three nights camping at the site.  There had been a marker, but someone had removed it somehow.  It looked like only one post on it was cut, so I don’t even know what was up with that.  Besides, I can’t imagine something like that being intentionally taken down without having the replacement at the ready, especially since it’s related to Lewis and Clark.  The cache could do with a little TLC also.  It was pretty weathered and the wire that held it in the tree broke on me.  Luckily, there was enough wire still there that I could wind the cache back up where it came from.  I usually carry a few cap-and-caps with me, but I had neglected to do so this time, and I hadn’t brought my repair kit.  There may not be a good reason to keep the cache around, considering the marker is gone and may or may not be replaced. I’ll let the folks in the area hash that out.  I’m just a tourist passing through.  And pass through I did, hoping to find a better courthouse and cache in nearby…