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The Platte River has been described in folklore as "a mile wide and an inch deep." The writer Washington Irving said it was "the most magnificent and useless of rivers." Still, many tried to use the river to transport cargo even though it was shallow, had many channels, and it looked deeper than it really was.
In spite of the references to the river being worthless, the navigability of the Platte was continually discussed until railroads rendered much of the river ... Read more
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As the evening of October 23, 1984, wore on, Arthur Kirk became more and more desperate and angry. Negotiations over the phone had broken down. His wife, Deloris, had talked with him at around 9:30 P.M., and she had urged him to hang up the phone and remember "the plans" they had. (She never explained what she meant by the phrase.) Moments later she wrote a note to an acquaintance standing next to her that said her husband would never ... Read more
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On March 24, 1942, Joan Catalano was the first woman inspector to be hired by Martin-Nebraska. Women were later hired as inspectors in receiving, detail manufacturing, general assembly, finishing and planting, hangars and flight test, and modifications departments at the plant.
However, there were ominous indications that these gains might ... Read more
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Plains Indians exhibited great skill and ingenuity in turning the natural materials they found around them into tools and materials to help them survive. They used stones, bones, shells, clay, hides, hair, and wood to make tools and implements. But, one of their greatest natural resources was the bison.
The Native Americans of eastern Nebraska in the late 1600s and early 1700s developed a system of seasonal travel carefully planned to put them at the right place at the right time ... Read more
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Chimney Rock was one of the best-known landmarks on the Oregon and Mormon Trails. About 350,000 pioneers passed by Chimney Rock. Fur trader Warren A. Ferris left the oldest known written description of Chimney Rock. On May 26, 1830, his party reached " ‘Nose Mountain,’ or as it is more commonly called, the ‘Chimney,’ a singular mound, which has the form of an inverted funnel." Joseph Hackney, a "Forty-Niner" on his way to the California gold fields, described Chimney Rock ... Read more
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The Central Plains Village Tradition period (from 900 -1450 CE) saw a rapid increase in population on the plains and, in one sense, was the culmination of the changes that began during the Plains Woodland period. Archaeologists estimate that there were more people in the region during the period than at any other time before or since. In other words, there were more people living on the plains than there are even now. About 5,000 archaeological sites have been discovered ... Read more
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Even before the United States was dragged into World War II on December 7, 1941 food was always something that could be sold on a large scale, a strategic commodity. Through the Lend-Lease program established in March of 1941, the United States was already providing critical food to Allied Nations like England, France, China, and the Soviet Union. The Russians particularly enjoyed a canned beef specialty, tushonka millions of which were created at the Omaha Cudahy Plant.
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When people are faced with frightening situations, they will take amazing precautions — even if the perceived threat never happens. People in coastal cities facing a possible hurricane will stock up on food, store water in their bathtubs and board up their windows. Just before the century changed to the year 2000, people were worried that computers around the world would shut down, bringing down power grids, ATM machines, gasoline stations, health care, transportation systems, financial and governmental services. Many ... Read more
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The Oto and Missouria have left impressive archaeological sites, including the Oto-Missouria village near Yutan.
The Otos immigrated into eastern Nebraska about 1700, building the Yutan village about 1775; remnants of the Missourias joined them in the 1790s.The village was occupied until 1837. It was the first major Indian settlement seen by fur traders on the journey up the Platte to western bison-hunting and beaver-trapping ranges. Spanish correspondence from 1777 noted the presence of this site that was named after the ... Read more
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Most of us take road maps for granted. It is easy for today’s travelers to get a clear map to guide them on their way. This was not true with early voyagers across Nebraska’s "sea of grass." They had to make their own maps, and one of the most significant chart-making explorers was Captain John C. Fremont.
In 1841 Congress appropriate $30,000 to pay for a survey of the Oregon Trail and named Lt. John C. Fremont to head the expedition. ...
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Each geographic area presented its own challenges and the settlers learned to adapt to the environment. Water was one of the first considerations in selecting a homestead, especially in Nebraska.
Early settlers first established claims near streams and rivers to take advantage of surface water. But these homesteads were quickly claimed, and so later settlers would have to go to new depths to find water.
That meant digging a well. Often a new settler would dig a test well on a potential ... Read more
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Unfortunately, a time machine does not exist that would enable you to take a journey back 12 million years ago. But, the Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park may be the next best thing.
The park is located between Royal and Orchard in Antelope County in northeast Nebraska. Inside, the animals are still locked in their death-poses and are amazingly well preserved skeletons. Michael Voorhies and his colleagues made the decision to excavate the site and leave the animals in their ... Read more
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Settlers on the Great Plains had to contend, both physically and psychologically, with what to them was a wilderness. They faced a featureless land that many described as "a sea of grass."
Europeans and Americans brought their own way of thinking about land with them, based on a system of longitude and latitude developed in the 18th century. Property lines were drawn on pieces of paper — maps — dividing one ... Read more
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Throughout the war, Nebraskans were constantly bombarded with propaganda to help keep morale high, and those on the front lines were bombarded with propaganda intended to beat morale down.
"We were all the good guys. We did everything right and the Germans and the Japs, they looked awful and they sneered and they said lousy things. They were bad! It was really propaganda. I just accepted it. What else did I know?"
— Rose Marie Murphy Christensen, Columbus, grade school student.
Our ... Read more
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The Posse Comitatus was a right-wing extremist group that contended that the true intent of the country’s founders was to establish a Christian republic where the individual was sovereign, and that the Republic’s first duty was to promote, safeguard, and protect the Christian faith. They saw farmers as the victims of a Jewish-led, communist-supported conspiracy that had infiltrated the government. They thought the conspiracy would rob the farmer of his land through manipulation of ... Read more
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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
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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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In the early 1700s, Spain claimed as their exclusive territory most of the Central Plains including Nebraska. They were very concerned with protecting their rights to what they saw as a potentially enormous trade with the Native Americans on the plains. But it had been a Frenchman, Bourgmont, who had reached the Platte first and who named it. And the Spanish in New Mexico were seeing more and more evidence of French trade with tribes like the Apache, ... Read more
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In response to this change in taste, ranchers began to "up breed" their herds. But cattle like Hereford and Angus needed more tending than Longhorns did. They needed hay supplied to them in winter. They needed easy access to water. They often needed help calving, and especially ... Read more
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In other western states like Wyoming, the collision of the visions of land use between cattle barons and grangers erupted into range wars. In Nebraska, these wars were waged in the legislature and courtrooms.
In 1885, the federal government passed legislation outlawing the enclosure of public lands. That law, without enforcement, was toothless and widely ignored until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt ordered that fences around public lands had to be removed, and took particular aim at Read more
