Memphis, Nebraska - A Story of Big Ice and Small Stamps

With snow in the forecast for Saturday, we skipped the normal Lincoln ride and decided to grab Carlos Ventana and ride something a little closer to home in an attempt to get it in before the bulk of the snow was supposed to arrive.



Our launch point was Ashland with the plan to head to Memphis, Yutan and Colon before returning to the warmth of the vehicle. On our way out we mooed at the cows in the pasture, as one does when you see cows on a gravel road. We must have said the right words or the ladies were fascinated with Carlos because they all started "jogging" towards the fence and continued to follow us parallel to the road until they could go no further. I guess that will teach me to ride with my udders out.


Rolled into Memphis, Nebraska and Don's Bar much to the delight of a few of the patrons out enjoying a refreshing cancer stick. They were quite tickled and in awe seeing us roll up on Carlos... until we revealed where we had started from and what something like Carlos would run you if you wanted to acquire one for yourself.

Never heard of Memphis, Nebraska you say? Well, you and almost everyone else. This tiny little village has been around a long time though and has some interesting history surrounding it. The village came to be, much like most small Nebraska and mid-west towns, because the railroad decided to build a station in this particular spot in Saunders County. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad built a station and the first trains began arriving in Memphis in 1887, a post office followed in 1888 and a bank in 1902. The land that the village sits on was originally purchased from John Owen and the village folk had wanted to name the town Owenville, as was customary in those days, but John was a bit of a shy fellow and wanted no part of having a town named after him. Since the majority of the people in the village hailed from the Memphis, Tennessee area originally it seemed logical to them that they should name the village Memphis as their second choice and so the tiny village of Memphis came to be. 

The largest business in Memphis was an ice house but not just any ice house, claimed to be the largest ice house in the world, the Armor Ice House existed in Memphis from 1897 until 1921 when it burned to the ground in a fire. The Armor Ice House measured 180 feet wide, 700 feet long and reached a height of 52 feet so it was no small building. For comparison sake, that would be a bit over a half a football field wide and 2 and a third football fields long! Back in the 1800s before modern refrigeration, ice was made by freezing lake and river water which was then harvested and stored in ice houses until it was needed. This process of course needed to be done in areas of the country that were naturally cold in the winter so that the ice would form with some regularity. The ice for the Armor Ice House was harvested from a man made 100 acre lake built for the purposes of making ice for refrigerated rail cars. Several years after the fire that destroyed the Armor Ice House the state bought up 144 acres, including the man made ice harvesting lake, and turned it into what is now knows as Memphis State Lake and the adjoining State Recreational Area. 

Each spring the lake was drained and each fall they would clean up the dry lake bed and fill it with water from silver creek and wait for nature to do it's thing. When the ice froze to a depth of 8 inches it was cut into 20 foot by 40 foot cakes and pull from the lake by a team of horses. In it's height the Armor Ice House sent on average 24 rail cars of ice from Omaha to Chicago per day (about 100,000 lbs annually) for the meat packing industry. Ice from Memphis was actually considered better ice than many other ice houses produced due to the care the people of Memphis took in making sure the lake stayed as clean as possible. It was often said that the ice from Memphis Lake was such good quality that it could be used in your glass of lemonade. If the fire hadn't gotten the ice house, modern refrigeration would have eventually closed them but many ice houses around the country remained in business into the 1950s. 


From large ice houses to diminutive Post Offices, Memphis was also known for it's tiny Post Office which was Nebraska's smallest Post Office. The minuscule Post Office existed in Memphis until about 1988 when it was moved to the Saunders County Historical Society's village in Wahoo. A larger Post Office was built to replace it but that one is now also gone and all that remains is a series of mailboxes like you'd see in an apartment complex to take it's place. About the only business still alive in Memphis today is Don's Bar which enjoys the perks of being located near Memphis State Lake SRA and as such charges Omaha type prices for it's adult beverages, much to the chagrin of thirsty cyclists expecting small town Nebraska charm and prices.




Not wanting to take out a loan to get a beverage, we opted to ride on past to Nellie Road and the abandoned bridge over Wahoo Creek to enjoy the Snow Beast we brought with us. The locals apparently like to shoot off of this bridge as it's littered with tens of dozens of shells from rifles, pistols and shotguns. I have no clue what they are shooting at other than the bridge itself as it's in the middle of farm fields and dead flat so setting up any actual targets seems highly dangerous due to the potential range of any rounds that do not hit their desired target and stop. Given this detritus of gun play, we were a little leery of the orange Chevy Avalanche parked on the other bridge at the intersection of Road D and Nellie Road almost blocking the way in and out but we managed to scoot around him to get to the abandoned bridge. No easy feat on a bicycle built for two but Carlos is pretty stable and confidence inspiring. Not sure what he was doing but there he sat on this narrow bridge, with his truck off, on a cold Nebraska winter's day. I suppose given his nearness to Nellie Rd. maybe he was trying to learn his country grammar... yes I know that isn't how Nelly spells his name but that's where the learnin would have come in handy



The truck finally got tired of waiting on us to leave and decided to drive off in the opposite direction. As we sat there enjoying our Beast the winds started to pickup and the snow started to fall in earnest. Even though it was a few hours earlier than forecast it didn't look like it was going anywhere so we decided to take that as our cue to cut the ride short and just head back to Ashland.




That decision ended up being the right call as the closer we got to Ashland the heavier the snow fall became until visibility was starting to become a real issue and we were without lights for Carlos. The 11 miles back in the snow was enough fun for one day, while we didn't get in the 40 that was planned we still managed almost 22 by the time it was all said and done. Not a bad day on the tandem in the middle of winter if you ask me and  you all got to know more about Memphis, Nebraska than you probably ever wanted to know. I call that a win/win.