Web Page

Nickel Auctions

An auction in a rural community is a complex social, economic and even political event. It is also an emotional event. A farm auction usually means that the farmer is leaving — either by choice or because he or she can no longer make it financially. Neighbors gather to look through and bid on household items and equipment. In one moment, they’re looking for bargains. In another moment, they’re celebrating the life of their neighbor. They catch up on community ... Read more

Web Page

Foreclosures Lead to Violence

Activities: 1975-1999: Foreclosures Lead To Violence - Grade Level [4-12]

As farmers got in trouble, banks, the FDIC and sheriffs had to serve foreclosure papers. Some farmers met the Sheriff with a gun. Some offices were burned.
From the 1990 NET program, After the Last Harvest

By the 1980s, the situation in agriculture was worse. At least a third of Nebraska farmers were in danger of loosing their farms. Banks were foreclosing on loans to farmers, and auctions were increasing, selling off ... Read more

Web Page

The Creation of SAC

Activities: 1950-1974: The Creation of SAC - Grade Level [4-12]

The atomic bomb made SAC’s early missions historic.
From the 1990 NET Television program, Cold Warriors Never Die

On September 18, 1945, the last of 531 Omaha-produced B-29s rolled out of the final assembly hall of the Martin Plant. On April 1, 1946, the Martin Company’s last 100 workers left the plant. The bomber plant was used for storage of machine tools from 1946 to 1948. Fort Crook, which was where the ... Read more

Document

Web Page

Civil Defense

Lesson Plan & Activities: 1950-1974: Civil Defense - Grade Level [4-12]

Duck and Cover was produced in 1951 for use in elementary schools. Kids were taught how to "duck and cover" — diving below their desks or against a wall if a bright flash of light appeared.
U.S. Civil Defense

Former Nebraska Gov. Val Peterson was head of the Federal Civil Defense Administration when he warned citizens against the dangers of massive fallout from the hydrogen bomb.

A New Look at the H-Bomb
Former ... Read more

Web Page

Early TV

Television developed quickly in Nebraska during the 1950s and ’60s.
From the 1992 NET Television program, Changing Channels.

When KFOR Television station began operations, they hired UNL to document the event on film in TV Comes to Town.
Produced circa 1953 by the University of Nebraska for KFOR-TV.

Television, more than anything else, changed the way Nebraskans viewed the world and spent their free time. As more and more television sets were purchased, the entire country could watch the same event or entertainment show. ... Read more

Web Page

Rural Shelters

Did farm homes in Nebraska need fallout shelters, even if they were located far away from the supposed targets of nuclear bombs?

What You Should Know about Biological Warfare
During the Cold War, civil defense officials thought that the U.S.S.R. might attack our farms with biological agents, 1955.
Produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration

"Shelters make good sense," declared Mrs. Lorraine Still, Custer County home agent, "even though farm families may live hundreds of miles from military targets or large population centers." In ... Read more

Web Page

Industrial Cattle Feeding

Like everything else in the beef industry, post World War II technology changed cattle feeding. Bigger tractors, fertilizers, herbicides, and advances in genetics meant that farmers could grow more corn. Mechanical corn-pickers replaced handpicked and husked corn, so fewer growers could produce more and more corn.

Feeding operations changed, too. Men in the back of a wagon used to shovel cracked corn into feed troughs. They were replaced with wagons and trucks that delivered exact amounts into longer feed bunks. This ... Read more

Web Page

Forces of Change: South Omaha

Since the 1920s, the major meatpackers (Swift, Armour, Cudahy, and Wilson, called the "Big Four") held a near monopoly on beef production. And Omaha’s Union Stockyards sprawled over two hundred acres and was a city unto itself. The dominance of the Big Four and pre-eminence of the stockyards would eventually fade away.
From the 2008 NET Television program, Beef State

After World War II, South Omaha’s stockyards and packing houses were caught up in a postwar hunger for beef. In 1949, the ... Read more

Web Page

Beef State

Introduction

Lesson Plans: 1950-1974: Beef State - Grade Level [4]

Nebraska has had only two official state names:

• The Tree Planter State, 1895 - 1945 and
• The Cornhusker State, 1945 - present. (Many outsiders may think that this last title derived from the football team, rather than the other way around.)

However, beef had become so important to Nebraska’s economy by the 1950s that from 1956 through 1965, the Nebraska license plate carried the motto,

The Beef State

That title was never an official state name ... Read more

Web Page

The End of the Cold War

Fall of Berlin Wall
After the Berlin Wall came down, there was still a lot of military hardware left on both sides.
From the 1990 NET program, Cold Warriors Never Die

In the late 1980s, the Cold War came to a dramatic end. The economies of nations behind the Iron Curtain were in trouble. People in East Germany, for instance, could see the prosperity and wealth of their West German neighbors. In Russia, there were long lines of people waiting to buy food. ... Read more

Web Page

The North Platte Canteen

One day after the Kansas troop train misunderstanding, a young, 26-year-old woman, Rae Wilson, wrote to the North Platte Bulletin (now North Platte Telegraph) and suggested running a canteen for soldiers traveling through North Platte.

"During World War I the army and navy mothers, or should I say the war mothers, had canteens at our own depot. Why can’t we? . . . I say get back of our sons and other mothers’ sons 100%. Let’s do something and do ... Read more

Web Page

Loved Ones Lost

"Outside of the death of one’s own child, I think sending a boy to war would be the most difficult."
—Marialyse Hager Knobel
Fairbury High School Student

What happened to Corporal William E. Green is one of the many stories of a mother experiencing both the anxiety of sending her son to war, and then, the pain of losing him there. Bill Green was in Europe only a few months before he was killed at the Siegfried Line between Luxemburg and Germany on ... Read more

Web Page

Bank Failure in Verdigre

Verdigre is a small, close-knit Nebraska community of around 600 people near to the South Dakota border. In September, 1984, the Bank of Verdigre closed and its assets and outstanding loans were seized by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC. The FDIC, of course, was set up in the 30s to protect the depositors in a bank, and so when a bank has bad loans, the FDIC tries to recoup as much ... Read more

Web Page

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

Web Page

Hispanic Migration

Modern-day vaqueros still possess remarkable skills in roping, branding, and rounding up cattle. Find out more about the Spanish influence on cowboy culture at a Mexican Rodeo in Springfield, Nebraska. From the 2003 NET Television series Next Exit

The story of beef is the story of a migration from south to north. Cattle came to North America with the Spanish in 1493. The large herds that roamed the Texas plains descended from the Spanish cattle, and many of those cowboys who ... Read more

Web Page

A Cold War & a Hot Bomb

After World War II, the Soviet Union propped up Communist governments in eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain had descended, and the U.S. responded with a policy of deterring further expansion.
An excerpt from Cold Warriors Never Die.
Courtesy 1990 NET Foundation for Television

In 1950, the U.S. government adopted a new cornerstone of its foreign policy based on the finding that the Soviet Union was likely to launch a surprise attack on us "once it has sufficient atomic capacity." That assessment was included ... Read more

Web Page

Crisis in Agriculture

Lesson Plan & Activities: 1975-1999: Crisis In Agriculture - Grade Level [4-12]

Throughout the history of the central Great Plains region, there have been cycles and factors that affect the lives of those who live here. These factors have always produced results that we can see later.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, agriculture was in crisis.
From the 1990 NET Television program, After the Last Harvest

Some factors are natural — like the cycle of wet years and dry years. This "drought cycle" ... Read more

Web Page

The 134th in Alaska & Europe

Not all of the original Nebraska National Guard served with the 134th in Europe. Companies E, F, G, and H were transferred to the 197th Infantry and served in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

Few Nebraskans realized that an American possession and future state was invaded by Japan during World War II. Fewer still realized that a former Nebraska National Guard battalion was deployed to help stop Japanese expansion the area.

In 1942 the 134th Infantry Regiment’s Second Battalion was selected for ... Read more

Web Page

Bankers: Villains or Victims?

The resentment that many farmers felt against bankers reached the boiling point during the height of the farm crisis in the 1980s. Some bankers said they got the silent treatment on the street. A few were even assaulted by angry customers. Some farmers wore black armbands to protest foreclosures. Bankers became the target of bitter jokes making the rounds in Nebraska communities.

Question: What’s the difference between a dead skunk on the road and a dead loan officer?
Answer: There are skid ... Read more