Omaha Exploration

At one point, Levi Everett claimed to be “the last bona fide hermit living in a cave in the United States.” Born in 1862, Levi worked as a “dynamite monkey” in his youth and was said to be the only person crazy enough to ride a wagon full of nitroglycerin along the bumpy, rutted roads to the rock quarries in Cass County, where he was tasked with lighting the dynamite.

From that point forward, Levi was known as “Dynamite Pete.” After abandoning that line of work, he moved away from the family home in Plattsmouth and took up life as a hermit, living in shacks and caves along Pawnee Creek near South Bend, Nebraska. He lived in the woods, where he fed animals, tended a garden to raise his own food, cured tobacco, and sang and played music on his prized possession—a 200-year-old Jacob Steiner violin his family had brought with them when they emigrated from Germany. Pete claimed to know more than 200 songs.

Pete did occasionally return from the wild. In 1890, he lived in South Bend with his mother, Harriet, for a time. She was divorced, and given that she passed away just two years later, it’s reasonable to assume Pete was there to help care for her. He also spent seven months in the hospital after being sideswiped by a train in 1914 as he walked along the tracks.

With a beard and long hair that he cut only every 15 years or so, Pete often wore overalls, was not fond of shirts, and refused to wear shoes. The exploits of Dynamite Pete are well known. On at least one occasion, he is said to have walked through town on his hands with a bottle of whiskey in his mouth to win a bet. He once lit a stick of dynamite inside a bar and proceeded to ask railroaders if they were man enough to join him for a drink. When they fled, he pinched the wick and finished their beers. He once invited a group of curious children into his cave for a home-cooked meal—chili in a tin can heated over a fire. Only afterward did he realize he’d forgotten the “secret ingredient,” which he corrected by taking the wad of chewing tobacco out of his mouth and mixing it into the food. He was also known to participate in local talent shows, where he played his favorite tune, “Turkey in the Straw,” on his violin.

Despite his solitary lifestyle, Pete was no stranger to the city or to publicity. While in Omaha in 1933, he formed a sort of fraternity with other hermits, including Henry Morris of the Platte River and Clark Watson of the Elkhorn River. To become a member of “Hermits Ltd.,” you had to have been a hermit for 35 years and vow to remain one until you died. While Pete couldn’t keep his word, he did outlive the others.

In 1936, he spent 10 days in the hospital after being hit by a car. After his release, he sponsored a hermit club for youths that included his nephew, Ernest. The children became interested after hearing him play music and learning about his life in the wild. Pete was given the honor of turning the first shovel of dirt for the club’s cave, located near Ernest’s home at 4116 Grant Street. Pete, of course, returned to his familiar surroundings before coming back to Omaha two years later to play music for Bobby Jeanne, a girl who was shot out of a cannon at Aksarben Field.

After another hospital stay, the lifelong bachelor sought a companion who could tend his crops and look after him as he healed. That led him once again to Omaha, where he took part in a “hook-up” show designed to pair contestants with potential spouses. The 80-year-old man, living off pension checks, said, “I am full of fun. Like my beer. I never quarrel. If I had a wife she would do as she pleases and all—outside of men friends.” A 41-year-old widow living in a shelter expressed interest, but the marriage was denied by the health department on the grounds that Pete’s residence in a cave was not acceptable.

The event attracted the attention of a New York City–based human-interest radio broadcast called We, the People. Pete dressed for the occasion in a suit and, although he shed the jacket and tie, he did keep the socks and shoes on. He recounted that he wanted to speak off the cuff but was ultimately handed a script. Even so, he said his life as a hermit had been a good one, and that if he had to do it again, he would. He claimed he was happier than any rich man and that, while he didn’t eat much, he was better for it. He genuinely enjoyed a lifestyle that allowed him to live as he pleased without paying a mortgage, rent, or taxes.

Pete’s fortunes took a turn for the worse after the show. When his cave flooded in 1944, he returned to Omaha and stayed with his nephew for a time. Though he planned to resume his hermit life after it dried out, he soon came down with pneumonia. Pete spent his final five years at the Hillcrest nursing home in Plattsmouth. He never got the chance to return to the 6-by-9-foot shack that stood at the entrance of his cave. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in 1949.

More than 75 years after his death, the legacy of Dynamite Pete lives on through “Dynamite Pete Days,” hosted each summer by the Louisville Area Foundation. Funds raised during the festival are used to improve the community and its organizations. Click here to learn more: Dynamite Pete Days – It’s going to be a blast — Louisville Area Foundation

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