Pavelka Farmstead: My Antonia's Real Home

The low farmstead you are passing near is where Willa Cather's most beloved novel ends. Anna Sadilek Pavelka, a Bohemian immigrant girl who arrived in Webster County in eighteen eighty at age twelve, became the inspiration for Antonia Shimerda in Cather's nineteen eighteen novel My Antonia. Cather knew Anna and drew on this farm near Bladen, Nebraska, for her book.

The farmstead, the Cuzak farm of the novel's final chapters, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house has been restored to its nineteen sixteen appearance, and a walking path makes the site accessible to visitors today.