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During World War II, the rationing of gasoline meant that families on the home front could not travel the way they might have wanted to. After the war, the end of rationing and higher salaries put Nebraskans on the road in record numbers. America’s love affair with the automobile was renewed, as family cars and hot rods became indispensable parts of 50s life and culture. The car culture spawned businesses, like drive-in restaurants and movie theatres.
With more people on the ... Read more
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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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In late 1950, Nebraska Governor Val Peterson told the press that he had compiled a list of suspected subversives, who were to be rounded up in the event of a national emergency. Peterson’s list supposedly named many suspected communists in Nebraska, but he told the State Defense Council, only one had a job working for the state. The Governor said it was his duty to defend the state.
Critics of Peterson’s action said the list had little practical significance and may ... Read more
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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
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Another influential figure during the efforts to secure federal approval and funds for the project was U.S. Senator George W. Norris of McCook, Nebraska. Senator Norris played a pivotal role in guiding the project through the federal government’s bureaucratic maze. Senator Norris personally intervened on behalf of the Tri-County Project on several occasions. His efforts to convince Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and President Franklin Roosevelt, with whom he had a good working relationship, that the project was ... Read more
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There are very few people who have seen an atomic bomb explode — or who would want to. But in 1955, there were several Nebraskans who were among the 5,800 civilian and military witnesses to an atomic test blast. The civilians were there by choice, while most of the military observers had been ordered there. The experiment was known as Operation Cue.
Operation Cue was not the first attempt to test the effects an atomic explosion would have on buildings and ... Read more
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As Nebraska entered the 20th century, its ranchers had learned from ranching experiments of the 1870s and 1880s and the Depression of 1898. Ranchers did well with their improved herds and high demand. Meatpacking was by far the state’s leading business. Cattle ruled Nebraska’s economy.
But there were also big problems.
The jobs provided by the expanding stockyards and packing plants attracted a wave of new immigrants to South Omaha. And particularly during ... Read more
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Construction of the Tri-County Project began on March 13, 1936. Kingsley Dam was completed in 1941.
Part 1: Digging & Filling in the Dam
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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William Jennings Bryan was a prominent force throughout his political life from the 1890s to the 1920s. During his early career, he had supported a variety of progressive measures, but prohibition was not at the top of his agenda. In his private life, he did not drink alcohol, had taken a temperance pledge as a child, and felt prohibition would contribute to the moral improvement of the individual and to civic progress. He stressed temperance and opposed the ... Read more
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There was a shortage of housing in Hastings because of the number of people who were moving there for jobs. In November, 1942, the construction company brought in about 100 Chippewa and Sioux Indians to work at the construction site.
Hidden racism in Hastings caused residents to assume that different racial groups needed separate housing. Even the local newspaper printed insults about the Sioux workers. As a result, a group of Sioux lived at the plant in tents.
Reba ... Read more
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When the 37th Congress met on July 1, 1861, members returned to an unfinished capitol building, several unfinished laws, and news of the first battles of the Civil War. But even during those awful times, three major laws were passed that affected the history of Nebraska. Why did Congress and President Abraham Lincoln turn their attention to homesteading, the creation of land grant colleges, and the transcontinental railroad in a time of war?
Before the Civil War, Northern states had wanted ...
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Arthur Kirk was a farmer who became a tragic symbol of the desperation in agriculture in 1984. Kirk farmed land near Cairo, Nebraska, that had been in his family for three generations. In the early ’80s, he owned about 2,000 acres, but over the years, he had lost all but 240 acres.
In 1984, he and his wife Deloris owed over $300,000 to Norwest Bank in nearby Grand Island. As in most farm loans, the money was "secured" by the value ... Read more
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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
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Life in Nebraska during the 1950s and 60s was determined, in large part, by what happened here during World War II. Life in the atomic age was really a legacy of the war.
For instance, nuclear scientists from Nebraska helped create the Atomic Age as part of the secret "Manhattan Project" that built the first A-bombs during World War II. The planes that dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were built in Omaha. The air base ... Read more
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Despite the surprising victory in the Nebraska legislature, anti-suffrage forces did not give up. They decided to use a weapon they had previously opposed — the initiative and referendum petition drive — to overturn the action of the legislature and governor.
Progressives had added the initiative and referendum amendments to the Nebraska constitution in 1912. Just two years later, suffragists had used the initiative petition to place the woman suffrage amendment on the ballot for the general election. (The ... Read more
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There was a government savings bond program before the second world war began. It was a way for the federal government to borrow from its citizens to help finance the cost of preparing for war. After December 7th, savings bonds became "War Bonds." Individual citizens — even children — were encouraged to buy bonds. Nebraskans responded. Between the attack on Pearl Harbor and 1943, Nebraskans bought $240-million worth of bonds.
The state government also adopted a policy of investing all available ... Read more
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Under the reservation system, American Indians kept their citizenship in their independent tribes, but life was harder than it had been. The reservations were designed to encourage the Indians to live within clearly defined zones. The U.S. promised to provide food, goods and money and to protect them from attack by other tribes and white settlers. Also, some educators and protestant missionaries felt that forcing the Indians to live in a confined space would make it easier to "civilize the ... Read more
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Technology and innovation dramatically changed beef in the first quarter of the 20th century. Improvements to railroad cars ended the days of shipping live cattle. Initially, railroads had been resistant to change because of their large investments in a system of corrals where they could feed and water cattle in transit to the Omaha or Wyoming stockyards.
But live cattle took up a lot of space in a rail car, lost weight in transit, and occasionally injured each other. Moreover, when ... Read more
