Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - May 8, 2026


From Wales to Wymore

Last Sunday was a perfect day for a drive - sunny with mostly blue skies to the west and northwest streaked by a few cirrus clouds. It was warm, but not too warm.

Husband Art suggested a little adventure - to Wymore, Nebraska, population 1,300 - a town about 75 miles due north from our home.

For years we had skirted Wymore, an unwanted slow point on our 700-mile journeys between our Kansas home and Art's hometown in Wisconsin. But we’ve repeatedly remarked we really needed to stop to see what its Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre had to offer. We were hesitant because a small-town exhibit can range from gem to junk.

The website advertises the center is only open by appointment much of the year, but has regular Sunday hours beginning in May.

We have more interest in Wales than most folks, owing to our many visits there over the past 35-plus years. We both have Welsh roots as well. Art's great-grandfather Tom Vaughan was born near Llansilin in North Wales, and my great-great grandmother Eliza Davies was born near Aberystwyth, a university town about midway along Wales' western coast.

We arrived in Wymore a little before the 2 p.m. opening time and stopped at the local Subway for a late lunch. It was about 15 minutes past the hour when we parked at the center, but a door sign announced regular hours began in June. The door was locked.

The gate to a pretty “memorial garden” just north of the building beckoned. We admired the building's large outside mural. It had a red dragon - the national symbol of Wales, a map of the country, a Welsh love spoon, a leek, a Corgi, and women in Welsh costumes, as well as scenes from the Great Plains - rolling fields, a windmill, a barn, and a church. The women were waving at a sailboat leaving Wales, symbolizing saying "goodbye" to a ship transporting family to new homes thousands of miles away. A curving brick sidewalk through the grassy "park" had names recognizing people who had settled the area and those who supported the center. A signpost indicated how far we were from Welsh communities in the U.S. and in Wales.

Left: Mural on north side of the center. Right: Janice (left), Art and Janey

Art called a number listed on the center's website, and within minutes, Janey Williams Rudder and Janice Cohorst arrived. They proved to be great hosts and guides. On a detailed Wales map, they pointed to where their relatives had lived and we pointed to where ours were from.

In an example of how small the world can be, Janice's great-great grandfather John Hughes was from Cynwyd, a village we had passed through many times as it is just three miles from Llandrillo, where Art's great-great-grandmother Anne Williams was born. Janey's father Richard Williams was born in Bangor and grew up in neighboring Glasinfryn. We have often passed through both, and as recently as during our last visit.

Both women heard Welsh spoken in their homes and used the Welsh words "nain" (nine) for grandma and "taid" (tide) for grandpa.

We watched a video of locals who have explored their own Welsh ancestry and wanted to share that and "all-things Wales" with others.

As we chatted, it was clear that Janey and Janice seemed to enjoy us being there as much as we did! The entire building was clean, well organized, and appealing to the eye. The displays do a wonderful job of telling the story of how immigrants came from Wales to Wymore and other parts of the Midwest.

And there is more on the way! A 2,200-square-foot expansion to the south already has the concrete foundation in place and the center's board members are actively seeking donations to build the room and finish its interior.

Over the next two hours, we learned about the Welsh heritage of Wymore and surrounding area. Janey and Janice showed us dozens of artifacts, including Welsh pottery, items related to coal- and slate- mining activities in Wales and the U.S., clothing, photos, quilts, an organ, a fold-up traveling organ, a piano, furniture, samplers, tools, and traveling trunks. We also had fun exploring the photo wall of well-known people who can claim Welsh ancestry - including presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama; actors Richard Burton and Catherine Zeta Jones; singer Tom Jones; poet Dylan Thomas; and architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Janey and Janice said the building had once been a chick hatchery, then an armory, then a mortuary before becoming the center's home.

It has a nice presentation area that looks like the inside of an old church, complete with pews, walls covered in signature quilts, an organ and a piano, as well as a screen and digital projector for programs. A "Welsh Voices" series features speakers who discuss Welsh and Welsh-American culture and history. This coming summer, an online summer school class will focus on Welsh migration, starting with conditions in Wales at the beginning of the 19th century and explaining patterns of migration with primary source documents.

While the center is a museum, it is also a research facility, with books in Welsh and English, family histories, and histories of Welsh communities in the U.S. More valuable or fragile items are kept in a temperature-controlled archive room. These include Bibles, photos, maps, documents, and microfilm and paper copies of the Welsh-American newspaper Y Drych (The Mirror).

Our earlier concern about stopping proved to be unfounded. The Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre is truly a gem!