Alliance, NE Summary

Alliance is the seat of Box Butte County in northwestern Nebraska. It is 32 miles north of Bridgeport via US-385, at the intersection with State Route 2.

Two miles north of town on US- 385 is Carhenge, a Pop Art assemblage of 36 junked Cadillacs, Chevys, and Plymouths painted gray and arranged at quite unusual angles to suggest an American-style parallel to England’s ancient and venerable stone monument.

Erected in 1987 by six local families during a family reunion, Carhenge attracts 50,000 tourists each year.

However, its irreverent spirit and undeniable parallels with Stonehenge, widely held to have been a place of worship, have not met with universal approval. Fundamentalist Christians objected to its pagan connotations, while the Nebraska Department of Roads did its best to remove it. This action was prevented by the citizens of Alliance, who redrew the city boundaries in order to save Carhenge and the tourism it generates. On a nearby rise is another stark and haunting car sculpture known as The Four Seasons.

Also of interest in Alliance are the Carnegie Arts Center, which features works from Nebraska artists; Dobby’s Frontier Town, a re-creation of an early twentiethcentury settlement; and the Knight Museum of the High Plains Heritage, which has interesting displays of pioneer and Native American artifacts from the region.

Anyone looking for a scenic drive would do well to investigate State Route 2, a lengthy and solitary but exceptionally attractive drive through the Sandhills region which consists of low hills and ridges formed of sand and covered with prairie grass. Cattle are plentiful but towns are small and scattered. This is a landscape of wildflowers; fish-filled rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds; the occasional farmstead; and some charming village churches. It is a longer but far more interesting alternative to I-80, the main east-west highway.