Back in the early '70s I hauled lots of corn out of Geneva, Nebraska to Oklahoma and Texas. We always stopped at Foote's for fuel and coffee. Late at night their radio would be playing KOMA AM radio out of Oklahoma City, Ok. Foote's had a handsome waitress at night, too, as I recall! The turn-around north of town at the end of the old Hwy 81 Was a Nebraska State weigh station that always got some of my cash. Big times for a kid in a 1963 Emeryville IHC!
When I was growing up and riding in the truck with dad we always stopped at Footes for dinner. They had the absolute BEST hot roast beef sandwiches!!! We'd always park on the south side the building by the Foote's painting and get a picture of the truck with it. Good times!!! 40 years later, I'm driving dad's last truck and think of all the good times trucking up and down hwy 81 and stopping at Foote's :)
In the late 70, I trucked back and forth from northeast Nebraska to Texas. Foote truck stop always had great food back then. I spent a few nights in the, now old Hotel just to "escape" the truck or waiting for the scales to close at Hebron or my log book to catch up. Doc Martin
Chester is such a great little town. My grandpa and grandma lived 6 miles east, just on the Kansas side of State Line Road. The school served Chester, Hubble, and Byron before it closed, and is now an art center. There used to be a fire escape slide on the north end of the building that we'd get yelled at for climbing up and sliding back down. The building at 7:47 used to be the grocery store. Across the street the Chester Herald had its office. I seem to remember them reporting that the Highway Patrol nailed one of my cousins for speeding on Hwy. 8 back in about 1976. Big news back then. Just a bit farther north, on the west side of Thayer st. is the Methodist church. It's still very active and hasn't really changed from the 70s. I can still smell the giant coffe urn from adult Sunday School in the basement. I can also remember sweating like a marathon runner during Sunday service. I believe it was built around 1919 and was an oven in the summer. Gramdma would take us kids into town for a cheeseburger at Foote's, (the best ever) and when we had enough people, we got to sit in the big dining room on the south end of the building. I also remember being sure grandpa would get us killled pulling off of 8 and onto 81 doing 17 MPH. I like to think he was personally responsible for them moving 81. Thanks for a great video, and turning back the clock for me to about 1975.
Foote cafe is now closed. Back in the day this place was open 24 hours a day. Cafe and truck stop both. Busy Place. Bulk fuel delivery and fixed a lot of truck tires also
It's weird watching knowing that this was my childhood having grown up around the town getting lunch at Foote's, going to ChesterFest, and hanging out with friends. Glad there is some footage of the town out there for the future.
I remember visiting my sisters family in late 1968 in Chester when we returned from overseas (USAF), her husband Ted Harmon worked for Ray Peak trucking company.
We used to stop and walk up to the Cafe to eat and the Sundowner liquor store was there until a few years ago. I guess I didn't realize it was gone until I saw it mentioned in the comments.
When I was much younger I used to haul livestock in nebraska, kansas, oklahoma and texas. Foote"s truck stop was always where I stopped for food and fuel. The food was better than good it was great. Sure do miss the old truck stops like Foote' these new stops a crap holes.
Us 81 was upgraded in the 90s to improve access from Nebraska to Wichita and Texas. Unfortunately seems to have been a net loss for the smallest villages on the corridor.
The old main street was the first highway 81, then it went by Footes, then where it is now. The dead end by the old 81/8 intersection was the Sundowner, a small town bar and liquor store. The building was demolished a few years back. My husband was from there, and I'm sure he could fill you in on lots more than I can.
I work for the BNS F RR and used to work the local that ran from Wymore to Superior. The tracks ran right south of the elevator at the end of main street. I still go through Chester in a van going to Superior from Lincoln to get trains coming from Newton KS. I will keep an eye out for you in Superior.
My grandma had a small house in Chester across from the school and worked part time at Foote's Cafe. I spent a few weeks with her every summer back in the late 70's. Not much to do there other than ride my bike around. Still pretty fun though.
I especially like your featuring both the abandoned and still-used structures in your videos. Is there a chance of your shooting some towns at least 40 miles further north?
It just really depends of what part of Nebraska you're in out in the panhandle in the Sand hills of course it is pretty hilly but Southeast Nebraska is about as flat as it gets.
One chilly night a few years ago my wife and I were on our way south on Hwy 81. I was in the middel of a nap, but between Chester and the Kansas border, my wife saw a mountain lion standing at the side of the road. Skeptics might question my wife's ability to identify a mountain lion, but she had a B.S. in biology and she is never wrong in her field of expertise. Outside of that, she wasn't always right, however, I have learned to keep such judgements to myself.
That dead end of 81 to the north and the parking area use to be a bar and liquor store. I've had a few beesr in the bar and I think it was called the Sundowner. Not positive on the name. Anyway I and a few guys would ride our Harleys this way, and stop for a break.
Outstanding. Interesting. Awesome. To replace pretty cool. Never been that far south. Lived in Lincoln a few years ,it was pretty 😎 cool. I would guess in the time up until 1980 alot of these small towns were more active.
Just today, the 29th of NOV 22, I came across your channel. I also like to go thru places like this. BUT, I have one major question. If one Wander Lust person wants to move to these places to buy some land or settle down, and unable to call it up on the computer, where could you suggest one to contact and whom? I started writing down the cities you covered in Nebraska, but with a few quick serches couldn't find help. So, maybe, you have an answer??? Maybe not, but I am here and going to watch. Thank you for what you do.
Sidney Price Rokusek At Keller Williams Realty In Superior Nebraska is the person to contact if your are looking for land or real estate in rural Nebraska. (402) 879-1869 Thanks for watching, I'm glad you enjoy the videos!
@@joeysixtysix Thank you for a reply. Yes, I enjoy going around seeing the real America. I like those little spots that bring you face to face with a life or life style that most people have never seen. . Thank you for replying. I just wonder what did happen to all that abandoned land.
Only one truck stop ever in Chester. NAFTA was the primary reason for the bypass If memory is close to correct, the cutout on the north end of town, was a DOT scale
Thanks for the vid, Joey. I always enjoy your vids of old forgotten towns. While watching I always try to imagine how it is to live there in such a fairly large town with so few people. Did you convert your Challenger to right side drive, LOL, starting at 10:54 it looks like you're driving from the passenger seat.
I was in the passenger seat haha. The wind was terrible so I had my girlfriend drive while I made the video from inside. Thanks for watching, I love making these videos.
In one way, it's really sad to see small towns in that condition but it's also kinda fun to imagine what it was like when it was all new. It's a relic of a by-gone era, not without its problems, but it had its charms too. One wishes at times that it was possible to visit the past again even for a day. I also have to wonder what happened. How did it prosper for so long only to be gradually abandoned. I have to assume that when the new highway went through, Chester sort of fell off the map and businesses suffered because motorists weren't stopping like they used to. All that open countryside really looks nice. I bet it's a great place to live, quiet, peaceful, where everyone knows everyone else.
Jack Blair you go out, record history, and find ways to describe what you’re looking at. Apparently you’ve got the time to sit down on a computer and leave smart ass comments, where’s the video?
At least the back end of your Challenger is clean! You don't want to see mine right now. It's so covered with dirt that you can't see the taillights. Total mudball. Daily driving to work at the southern tip of Ontario Canada. Only an hour from Detroit. Nothing but salt and dirt everywhere and too cold to get out the garden hose. Thank God for Huskyliner floor mats and snow tires. Yes, there are some car-washes around here but I won't take it through the automatic ones, too worried about scratches and damage, and it also seems like what's the point because it'll get dirty again in 5 minutes anyway. C'mon Spring!
The new highways that bypassed these old towns caused them to die a slow death just as the internet and companies like Amazon are causing brick and mortar mom and pop businesses to follow in the same manner. Do you know what the population of Chester was at its peak? I have a story to tell about the Village of Cushing Nebraska but I will save it for another time. Your videos are priceless and a tribute to small town America. Greetings from Southern California.
My family moved to Nebraska to be close to my aunt. I went to the school " CHB". Chester Hubbel Byron or whatever. The school was still open in 2001. It closed later.
Hey city slicker the “nothing out here” you made reference to are hard working farm families who grow the food that ungrateful city slickers eat. So you might phrase your observation a little differently. Your food doesn’t grow in the grocery store
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Back in the early '70s I hauled lots of corn out of Geneva, Nebraska to Oklahoma and Texas. We always stopped at Foote's for fuel and coffee. Late at night their radio would be playing KOMA AM radio out of Oklahoma City, Ok. Foote's had a handsome waitress at night, too, as I recall! The turn-around north of town at the end of the old Hwy 81 Was a Nebraska State weigh station that always got some of my cash. Big times for a kid in a 1963 Emeryville IHC!
When I was growing up and riding in the truck with dad we always stopped at Footes for dinner. They had the absolute BEST hot roast beef sandwiches!!!
We'd always park on the south side the building by the Foote's painting and get a picture of the truck with it. Good times!!!
40 years later, I'm driving dad's last truck and think of all the good times trucking up and down hwy 81 and stopping at Foote's :)
In the late 70, I trucked back and forth from northeast Nebraska to Texas. Foote truck stop always had great food back then. I spent a few nights in the, now old Hotel just to "escape" the truck or waiting for the scales to close at Hebron or my log book to catch up.
Doc Martin
Chester is such a great little town. My grandpa and grandma lived 6 miles east, just on the Kansas side of State Line Road.
The school served Chester, Hubble, and Byron before it closed, and is now an art center. There used to be a fire escape slide on the north end of the building that we'd get yelled at for climbing up and sliding back down.
The building at 7:47 used to be the grocery store. Across the street the Chester Herald had its office. I seem to remember them reporting that the Highway Patrol nailed one of my cousins for speeding on Hwy. 8 back in about 1976. Big news back then.
Just a bit farther north, on the west side of Thayer st. is the Methodist church. It's still very active and hasn't really changed from the 70s. I can still smell the giant coffe urn from adult Sunday School in the basement. I can also remember sweating like a marathon runner during Sunday service. I believe it was built around 1919 and was an oven in the summer.
Gramdma would take us kids into town for a cheeseburger at Foote's, (the best ever) and when we had enough people, we got to sit in the big dining room on the south end of the building. I also remember being sure grandpa would get us killled pulling off of 8 and onto 81 doing 17 MPH. I like to think he was personally responsible for them moving 81.
Thanks for a great video, and turning back the clock for me to about 1975.
Foote cafe is now closed. Back in the day this place was open 24 hours a day. Cafe and truck stop both. Busy Place. Bulk fuel delivery and fixed a lot of truck tires also
It's weird watching knowing that this was my childhood having grown up around the town getting lunch at Foote's, going to ChesterFest, and hanging out with friends. Glad there is some footage of the town out there for the future.
Cool...
I remember visiting my sisters family in late 1968 in Chester when we returned from overseas (USAF), her husband Ted Harmon worked for Ray Peak trucking company.
I grew up there, and my dad was the pastor at the smaller church
8:34
Oh nice, it's a nice little town.
We used to stop and walk up to the Cafe to eat and the Sundowner liquor store was there until a few years ago. I guess I didn't realize it was gone until I saw it mentioned in the comments.
When I was much younger I used to haul livestock in nebraska, kansas, oklahoma and texas. Foote"s truck stop was always where I stopped for food and fuel. The food was better than good it was great. Sure do miss the old truck stops like Foote' these new stops a crap holes.
Thank you for watching. Those are great comments. It's cool to hear from people who stopped there in the past.
Had friends who owned a house in Chester and i stayed with them a few times.
Foote's was great food!
Us 81 was upgraded in the 90s to improve access from Nebraska to Wichita and Texas. Unfortunately seems to have been a net loss for the smallest villages on the corridor.
The old main street was the first highway 81, then it went by Footes, then where it is now. The dead end by the old 81/8 intersection was the Sundowner, a small town bar and liquor store. The building was demolished a few years back. My husband was from there, and I'm sure he could fill you in on lots more than I can.
I work for the BNS F RR and used to work the local that ran from Wymore to Superior. The tracks ran right south of the elevator at the end of main street. I still go through Chester in a van going to Superior from Lincoln to get trains coming from Newton KS. I will keep an eye out for you in Superior.
My grandma had a small house in Chester across from the school and worked part time at Foote's Cafe. I spent a few weeks with her every summer back in the late 70's. Not much to do there other than ride my bike around. Still pretty fun though.
I truly miss my home state and the many small 'cowtowns' it holds.
Come visit!
I am a son of a Barbara Allen from Nebraska. Small world.
I especially like your featuring both the abandoned and still-used structures in your videos. Is there a chance of your shooting some towns at least 40 miles further north?
Love watching your video's of small town Nebraska, my Wife used to live in Grand Island so its like seeing home again for her. Keep them coming.
Thank you so much.!
I was love those little towns I enjoy your videos thank you
Thank you so much!
Foote's in Chester was still pretty viable into this millenium. Just FYI.
Nice road trip for you guys. I still can't get over how flat Nebraska is. lol.
It just really depends of what part of Nebraska you're in out in the panhandle in the Sand hills of course it is pretty hilly but Southeast Nebraska is about as flat as it gets.
That’s cool!!!
Love 'em. Keep them coming!
Thanks!
Stayed in that hotel in the early 90's.
I wonder how long it's been closed.
One chilly night a few years ago my wife and I were on our way south on Hwy 81. I was in the middel of a nap, but between Chester and the Kansas border, my wife saw a mountain lion standing at the side of the road. Skeptics might question my wife's ability to identify a mountain lion, but she had a B.S. in biology and she is never wrong in her field of expertise. Outside of that, she wasn't always right, however, I have learned to keep such judgements to myself.
That dead end of 81 to the north and the parking area use to be a bar and liquor store. I've had a few beesr in the bar and I think it was called the Sundowner. Not positive on the name. Anyway I and a few guys would ride our Harleys this way, and stop for a break.
Outstanding.
Interesting.
Awesome.
To replace pretty cool.
Never been that far south.
Lived in Lincoln a few years ,it was pretty 😎 cool.
I would guess in the time up until 1980 alot of these small towns were more active.
My cousins used to live on church Street
I'm one of those cousins 😂
@@stevenbowden6507 yeahhhhh lean wit it rock wit it, the good life
Just today, the 29th of NOV 22, I came across your channel. I also like to go thru places like this. BUT, I have one major question. If one Wander Lust person wants to move to these places to buy some land or settle down, and unable to call it up on the computer, where could you suggest one to contact and whom? I started writing down the cities you covered in Nebraska, but with a few quick serches couldn't find help. So, maybe, you have an answer??? Maybe not, but I am here and going to watch. Thank you for what you do.
Sidney Price Rokusek At Keller Williams Realty In Superior Nebraska is the person to contact if your are looking for land or real estate in rural Nebraska. (402) 879-1869 Thanks for watching, I'm glad you enjoy the videos!
@@joeysixtysix Thank you for a reply. Yes, I enjoy going around seeing the real America.
I like those little spots that bring you face to face with a life or life style that most people have never seen. . Thank you for replying. I just wonder what did happen to all that abandoned land.
Only one truck stop ever in Chester. NAFTA was the primary reason for the bypass
If memory is close to correct, the cutout on the north end of town, was a DOT scale
Love the old truck stop,I think that I've been through there. You could say " Bitchin" .
Ok, Bitchin' it is! Thanks!
Just a notch above being abandoned.
Pretty cool video. Very nostalgic to see, looks a lot like it probably resembled towns I’ve lived in growing up.
Thank you for watching, I hope to do more videos like this soon.
I grew up here that cafe gonna be out of buisness very soon sadly I lived right next to the baseball park
Thanks for the vid, Joey. I always enjoy your vids of old forgotten towns. While watching I always try to imagine how it is to live there in such a fairly large town with so few people. Did you convert your Challenger to right side drive, LOL, starting at 10:54 it looks like you're driving from the passenger seat.
I was in the passenger seat haha. The wind was terrible so I had my girlfriend drive while I made the video from inside. Thanks for watching, I love making these videos.
In one way, it's really sad to see small towns in that condition but it's also kinda fun to imagine what it was like when it was all new. It's a relic of a by-gone era, not without its problems, but it had its charms too. One wishes at times that it was possible to visit the past again even for a day. I also have to wonder what happened. How did it prosper for so long only to be gradually abandoned. I have to assume that when the new highway went through, Chester sort of fell off the map and businesses suffered because motorists weren't stopping like they used to. All that open countryside really looks nice. I bet it's a great place to live, quiet, peaceful, where everyone knows everyone else.
Great comments.
Still go hunting around there some time's..( getting kinda old now) First thing we would look for in any of the towns we came to was the beer joint.!
Beer is one of the best parts of hunting lol.
Can’t get any beer at foots
Pretty cool, interesting, nostalgic, I like that...get a Thesaurus
Thanks for watching lol.
Jack Blair you go out, record history, and find ways to describe what you’re looking at. Apparently you’ve got the time to sit down on a computer and leave smart ass comments, where’s the video?
At least the back end of your Challenger is clean! You don't want to see mine right now. It's so covered with dirt that you can't see the taillights. Total mudball. Daily driving to work at the southern tip of Ontario Canada. Only an hour from Detroit. Nothing but salt and dirt everywhere and too cold to get out the garden hose. Thank God for Huskyliner floor mats and snow tires. Yes, there are some car-washes around here but I won't take it through the automatic ones, too worried about scratches and damage, and it also seems like what's the point because it'll get dirty again in 5 minutes anyway. C'mon Spring!
Mine is dirty too, I can't wait til I have a nice day to spend a few hours on her.
I think you sound pretty cool, and interesting! Say whatever words you like!
Thank you!
The new highways that bypassed these old towns caused them to die a slow death just as the internet and companies like Amazon are causing brick and mortar mom and pop businesses to follow in the same manner. Do you know what the population of Chester was at its peak? I have a story to tell about the Village of Cushing Nebraska but I will save it for another time. Your videos are priceless and a tribute to small town America. Greetings from Southern California.
Chester had 634 people in 1940 (it's peak). Thank you for the kind comments and for watching. I'd love to hear about Cushing, NE.
is the sundowner still there? is it open?
I think it sat at that dead end that I showed near the end of the video. It's gone.
@@joeysixtysix ya at the intersection of 8 and old 81
They tore it down
Where is Chester? I am in Omaha!
About 55 miles west of Beatrice. Or Beatrice is 40 miles south of Lincoln
About 1 and a half away
Its on the Ks/Nebr state line, hwy 81, straight south of York
Been there a few times , i live in Nebraska i believe the town has been pretty dead since the early 80's
That's what I hear.
My family moved to Nebraska to be close to my aunt. I went to the school " CHB". Chester Hubbel Byron or whatever. The school was still open in 2001. It closed later.
Are you still saying Bitchin?
Haha I'm gonna bring it back!
Hey city slicker the “nothing out here” you made reference to are hard working farm families who grow the food that ungrateful city slickers eat. So you might phrase your observation a little differently. Your food doesn’t grow in the grocery store
Love all the empty hotels and homes, well americans state no affordable housing... What a joke.
Yeeahh go Trump!🤣
If you hadn't noticed 'biden' is in office now. Take your politics else where.