The Superior Express -

Judy Coe, president of the Heritage Highway group, called The Superior Express editor Monday asking for help in promoting the Highway 136 Trail of Treasurers which is planned for October 6 through 8.

This will be the 12th year for the event that is popular in some areas but has never generated the expected level of support in Thayer and Nuckolls counties. Trail of Treasures is a flea market and garage sale extravaganza across Southern Nebraska that was patterned after the popular Junk Jaunt in northern Nebraska and the Highway 36 Treasure Hunt across northern Kansas which extends from Missouri to Colorado.

In prior years, The Express print shop had a hand in trying to develop a similar border to border treasure hunt along Highway 14. We were retained to print community banners and the event was popular in the more central part of the state but it generated little interest here, perhaps because Nuckolls County was on the southern border.

For several years we printed a tabloid newspaper advertising an event called Bargains on the Byways. Organized by people at Franklin, it utilized a circle tour concept with Superior anchoring the southeast corner.

Monday we received an order for a community banner that will be used in Republic County to encourage shoppers to visit a community located along Highway 36.

Vendors from southern Kansas often rent spaces in Mankato with the hope of stopping the bargain hunters criss-crossing the Sunflower State.

Mrs. Coe said the Trail of Treasures is well supported in the eastern and western sections but it lacks support in the middle. She said in September answering vendors’ questions and coordinating the sale is nearly a full-time job.

Heritage Highway Byway was designated in 1999 from Brownville to Edison which includes the 10 counties of Nemaha, Johnson, Gage, Jefferson, Thayer, Nuckolls, Webster, Franklin, Harlan and Furnas. The seven corridor counties that have joined since are Otoe, Pawnee, Richardson and Saline and in recent years the counties of Red Willow, Hitchcock and Dundy. The Trail of Treasures event now goes from border to border across Southern Nebraska, in other words from Missouri to Colorado.

To learn more about the Trail of Treasurers, a classified ad in this week’s issue of The Express gives the contact information. Though not located on Highway 136, Mrs. Coe said vendors located in either Superior or Nelson should expect to have customers.

The organization advertises the registered sale locations both online and in print. The Express is also willing to print local ads and provide signs similar to what are provided for the Superior city-wide sales held in April and August.