Guided Seasonal Tour
During the month of December, sites on this tour will feature festive yet modest Christmas decorations that reflect the late 19th century holiday traditions observed in the rural Webster County community of Willa Cather's childhood. Christmas-themed passages from My Ántonia are also part of this wintertime itinerary.
Willa Cather’s My Ántonia was among the fifty titles selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for their 2024 Big Read initiative. In partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read supports community reading programs designed around a single NEA Big Read book, with an aim to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
For residents of the Great Plains, My Ántonia embodies the NEA’s "Where We Live" theme. The novel is set in Black Hawk, Nebraska, a town Willa Cather modeled after her childhood hometown of Red Cloud. More than that, Cather's memorable "fictional" character Ántonia Shimerda was very closely based on Cather's real-life friend, Anna Sadilek Pavelka, who immigrated to Nebraska from Bohemia (the Czech Republic today) in 1880. While My Ántonia takes place in the late 19th Century, its themes of enduring friendship and tenacity in the face of adversity are timeless. Cather’s evocative descriptions of the land and of life in rural America have drawn readers into this classic novel for more than 100 years.
As part of our NEA Big Read programming, guests are invited to experience the Burlington Depot, St. Juliana Falconieri Catholic Church, J.L. Miner House, and the Pavelka Farmstead, four sites in Red Cloud and Webster County that are featured in My Ántonia. Registration includes a ticket to the tour and a copy of My Ántonia.
Note! Guests should have their own transportation and plan to follow a tour guide from site to site. Tours last approximately 90 minutes.
Adults: $30.00
Seniors: $24.00
Students: (K - 12) - $15.00
Children: (5 & under) – Free
Burlington Depot
Cather uses the depot in many of her works, such as in an early scene in My Ántonia. The Depot also figures prominently in “The Sculptor’s Funeral.” This is Red Cloud’s third depot, built in 1897. Willa Cather would have used it when traveling to and from her hometown.
St. Juliana Falconieri Catholic Church
This is the site where Anna Sadilek Pavelka’s first child was baptized and where Anna was married. This church had no bell in the belfry, “poor man’s stained glass” (lead paint with hand-made designs); the parish priest rode the train from nearby towns to hold services. A special whistle alerted worshipers of Mass when the priest was aboard the train.
J.L. Miner House
One block west of the Cather home is the J. L. Miner House, the home described in My Àntonia, where Ántonia worked. Anna Sadilek Pavelka, the prototype for Ántonia, lived here while working for the Miner family. This is where Cather befriended Annie and developed a lifelong friendship that inspired her most beloved novel.
Pavelka Farmstead
The Pavelka Farmstead and fruit cave described in My Ántonia, from which the children emerged in a burst of light and life, is located just south of Highway 4 near Bladen. The Pavelka Farmstead embodies not only John and Anna Pavelka's success as a farm family, it also symbolizes the immigrant stories and rich multiculturalism that shaped the Great Plains at the dawn of the twentieth century.