Wilber doesn’t do Czech heritage as a theme — it just is Czech. About 50,000 Czechs settled in Nebraska, most from Bohemia, and they concentrated in Saline County villages like this one. The street signs are in English and Czech, the bakeries sell kolaches, and the polka is not ironic.
The credentials are official: named Czech Capital of Nebraska by the governor in 1963, then Czech Capital of the USA by Ronald Reagan’s proclamation in 1987. The Czech Museum and cultural center, the Dvoracek Memorial Library’s Czech collections, and St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church anchor the heritage side.
Time your visit for Czech Days, the first full weekend of August — tens of thousands show up for the parades, the costume pageant, the duck-and-dumpling run, and more kolaches than you can carry. Outside festival weekend, it’s a quiet small town with a very good bakery case.