Nebraska Junk Jaunt 2020 was crazy and glorious. One small town, Ravenna, reported visitors from more than 250 other Nebraska communities and 30 other states. It was definitely a fun, carnival-like atmosphere all along the 350-mile trail as treasure hunters enthusiastically dug through piles of junk. This is one of my favorite finds:
This is a World War II era license plate topper from Camp Polk in Louisiana, an army training facility and German POW camp. License plates or license plate toppers like mine were used by military bases as a means of identifying vehicles authorized to enter the base. This one has obviously been repainted, which is a shame, but it is still a rare find.
By the way, Nebraska was also home to a number of German POW camps. One of them, Camp Atlanta, was located not far from where I grew up. There is a fantastic exhibit on the camp at the Nebraska Prairie Museum, and this lonely chimney still stands at the site of this camp on the plains:
