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Country Tour

Country Tour

The Country Tour highlights twenty historic sites related to the life and writing of Willa Cather. You may schedule a guided tour of these sites by contacting the Willa Cather Foundation, or you may purchase a detailed Country Tour Book for a self-guided tour. The Country Tour takes visitors through roughly fifty miles of the Webster County countryside, including settings from Lucy Gayheart, My Ántonia, O Pioneers!, One of Ours, short stories "Neighbour Rosicky" and "Peter," and others, as well as many scenes from Cather's own life—the Cather homesteads and the prairies and river where the Cather children played and explored. Roads are not always passable during inclement weather, so please plan accordingly.


"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea...and there was so much motion in it, the whole country seemed somehow, to be running." — My Antonia

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Pavelka Farmstead

Pavelka Farmstead

“We turned to leave the cave; Antonia and I went up the stairs first, and the children waited. We were standing outside talking, when they all came running up the steps together, big and little, tow...

Cloverton Cemetery

Cloverton Cemetery

“It was a nice graveyard, Rosicky reflected, sort of snug and homelike, not cramped or mournful,—a big sweep all round it. A man could lie down in the long grass and see the complete arch of the sky...

Bladen Cemetery

Bladen Cemetery

The Bladen Cemetery, just southeast of town, is where G.P. Cather, hero of One of Ours and Willa Cather's cousin, is buried. "He died believing his own country better than it is, and France better...

Bladen

Bladen

Named for Ellen Bladen Gere, daughter of the founder of the Lincoln State Journal and friend of Willa Cather, the town of Bladen boasts the home of G.P. Cather and his wife and the Bladen Opera House...

Catherton Cemetery

Catherton Cemetery

Originally, George Cathers's two sisters, Jennie (see "Macon Prairie") and Alverna, both of whom died of tuberculosis, were buried in an apple orchard north of the George Cather home. In later years...

George Cather Home

George Cather Home

The George Cather home, just south of Bladen, was the setting for One of Ours . In the pasture west of the house, George and Frances "Franc" Cather built a dugout in 1873, becoming the first of the...

The Divide

The Divide

In "The Enchanted Bluff" Cather speaks of the "windy plain that was all windmills and cornfields and big pastures." In O Pioneers! she mentions the furrows that "often lie a mile in length" and the...

Cather Homestead

Cather Homestead

Northwest of the New Virginia Church is the location of the Cather homestead—the Burden homestead in My Ántonia . Willa Cather came here in 1883. Even then she was aware of the light air, the earth,...

The New Virginia Church

The New Virginia Church

The New Virginia Church was built by Virginians settling this area. Because this was a Methodist church, the Cathers did not attend services here but instead went to the Baptist services held in the...

Suicide Grave

Suicide Grave

The former location of the Mr. Shimerda's suicide grave in My Antonia was described by Willa Cather as a little island of tall red grass. Francis Sadilek, the prototype for Mr. Shimerda, committed...

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