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Cattle & NE Cultures

Somewhere about a third of the way across Nebraska’s 430-mile expanse, there is an invisible line. On the eastward side of the line, people involved in cattle wear seed corn caps and boots with rounded toes. On the west, the caps yield to cowboy hats and the toes of the boots sharpen and the heels rise.

This line is imprecise and curvy. It does not coincide with other invisible lines: the one that divides Central Time from Mountain Time; the line ... Read more

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Project Construction

Construction of the Tri-County Project began on March 13, 1936. Kingsley Dam was completed in 1941.

Part 1: Digging & Filling in the Dam

Silent Film of the Construction of the Kingsley Dam
From the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District film, "Plain Magic"

Part 2: Laying Concrete Blocks

Part 3: Construction Camp

At the time of its construction, Kingsley Dam was the second largest hydraulic-fill dam in the world. (Only Ft. Peck Dam in Montana, which remains the largest hydraulic-fill dam in the ... Read more

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Farm Support Groups

This call to the Nebraska Farm Crisis Hotline was typical — a lot at stake but expressed with controlled emotions.
From the 1990 NET program, After the Last Harvest

As more and more farmers came under stress, neighbors and eventually statewide organizations tried to help. The goal of most of these support groups was to help the farmers work through the hard times, if possible. If that was impossible, the goal turned to providing emotional support as the farmers found new careers.

Personal ... Read more

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Japanese Americans

What is it like to be born and raised an American, but to be considered an enemy because of where your parents were born? That’s what happened to many Japanese Americans in World War II.

Racism and war hysteria motivated the U.S. government to forcibly move more than 120,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans from their homes on the west coast to internment camps between 1942 and 1945. Nebraska’s central location kept its Japanese American citizens comparably safe from this process, ... Read more

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Widows & Orphans

The ends to which a rancher might go to acquire land were quite extensive. Some used a provision of the amended Homestead Act that allowed Civil War veterans or their widows and orphans to acquire land. These ranchers would locate war widows and have them file for the land, then get the land from the widow, who often never stepped foot on the property.

In one inventive, if reprehensible, scheme, land speculator John A. Walters of Lincoln took particular advantage of ... Read more

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Living in an Atomic Age

Activities: 1950-1974: The Cold War & Living In The Atomic Age - Grade Level [4-12]

As World War II ended, a new age began — the Atomic Age. The first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, ended World War II and created a new, more nervous age. Very quickly, the Soviet Union also developed atomic bombs. Countries that had been allies against the Nazis were now enemies, each pledged to outdo the other in the battle for ... Read more

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Homestead Act Signed

Imagine yourself as a young person in a place where the land has all been taken. You might want to become a farmer, but there is no farmland available. Then imagine seeing advertisements for land, some for very little money, some for free! You face many unknowns. What is this new land really like? Will there be enough rainfall to grow your crops? Will you have neighbors? Who will they be? What about the people who are already on the ... Read more

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Conscientious Objectors

The personal beliefs of some healthy men kept them from using weapons. Some men objected on religious and moral grounds to participating in violence. Some belonged to churches that have historically objected to war. In World War I, these conscientious objectors (COs) were jailed.

There have always been conscientious objectors to war, but it was not until World War II that the U.S. legally recognized the right of an individual to fight.
From the 1993 NET program A Matter of Conscience

But as ... Read more

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High Falutin’ Beef

Lesson Plans: 1875-1899: High Falutin' Beef - Grade Level [8-12]

Introduction

Several events caused an increase in the number of cattle in Nebraska after the Civil War. The destruction of the Plains bison made more room for cattle, and Native Americans needed a new meat source. Meat-processing plants in Chicago and gold miners rushing to the Black Hills needed beef. The enormous growth in the beef industry caused many changes and challenges.

In the 1870s, Americans’ taste for beef became more refined. ... Read more

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1906 Kidnapping

One strange story related to the Progressive Movement involved one of the most sensational crimes in Nebraska history. In Omaha, petty crook Pat Crowe’s small butchering business had been wiped out by the mega-industrialist, meatpacking business tycoon Edward Cudahy, Sr. Later, Crowe was also fired from a job in a Cudahy store for allegedly stealing store funds. Crowe’s resulting grudge against Cudahy led him to kidnap Cudahy’s son, 16-year-old Edward Cudahy, Jr. The boy was seized as he returned home ... Read more

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Mexican Americans

"Ironically, at home, the soldier’s mothers, wives, and daughters were being told, ‘Go home to Mexico, where you came from.’"One mother is reported to have said, ‘Send my son home from Germany first.’ "
—From Our Treasures, A Celebration of Nebraska’s Mexican Heritage by Dr. Emilia González-Clements

In the early 1900s, Mexicans migrated to Nebraska in large numbers for many reasons. Some left Mexico to escape the Mexican Revolution. Some came here to better their economic condition. Nebraska offered work in the ... Read more

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First Human Residents

Activities: Pre-1500: First Human Residents - Grade Level [8-12]

12 Thousand Years Ago

The first accepted evidence we have of human beings on the Central Plains is around 12,000 years old. Archaeologists have found spear points near Clovis, New Mexico, and elsewhere that date from that era.There is some evidence that human beings may have lived here even earlier, but that evidence is disputed. Most scientists believe the ancestors of today’s Native Americans walked across a "land bridge" from Asia to ... Read more

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First Farmers

Activities: Pre-1500: Nebraska's First Farmers - Grade Level [4-12]

One Thousand Years Ago

"Which came first — the chicken or the egg?"

This is an age-old question that may not have a good answer. Neither may this question:

"Which came first — farming or a major increase in the Native American population during the Plains Woodland period?"

On the one hand, farming gave the native peoples a better way to feed themselves. On the other hand, more people were needed to maintain the ... Read more