I | INTRODUCTION |
Nebraska, state in the West North Central United
States. Nebraska is bounded by South Dakota on the north, Kansas on the south,
the Missouri River and the states of Iowa and Missouri on the east, and Wyoming
and Colorado on the west. From the eastern boundary of Nebraska many explorers,
fur traders, and adventurers started their trek across the plains and the Rocky
Mountains to the Pacific Coast. Later, settlers moved into the area, seeking
inexpensive or free farmland or better opportunities in a growing region. The
first land claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 was made in Nebraska (see
Homestead Laws), and the eastern terminus of the first transcontinental
railroad was Omaha. Nebraska entered the Union on March 1, 1867, as the 37th
state. Lincoln is the state capital. Omaha is the largest city.
Midway between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, Nebraska is a land of transition. Climate, soils, vegetation, and
landforms change considerably across the state. The large urban centers of the
eastern part of the state give way to small rural communities farther west,
where there are large wheat fields and vast expanses of grazing land. Gently
rolling hills and forested valleys in the east contrast sharply with the
treeless plains and intermittent streams farther west. The Platte River and its
tributaries drain most of the state, and the Platte’s broad valley serves as a
transportation corridor linking cities with farms and west with east. The river
has also indirectly given the state its name, because Nebrathka, meaning
flat water, was the Oto name for the Platte River. Nebraska is called the
Cornhusker State in reference to its primary agricultural crop.
II | PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY |
Nebraska ranks 16th among the states in area,
covering 200,346 sq km (77,354 sq mi), including 1,246 sq km (481 sq mi) of
inland waters. From east to west, in a line extending from Omaha to the western
boundary of its Panhandle, Nebraska measures 687 km (426 mi). The distance from
north to south is 333 km (207 mi).
With the exception of the Panhandle to the
west, the state is rectangular. It slopes gently to the southeast and elevation
increases at an average rate of 2 meters per kilometer (10 feet per mile) from
the Missouri River to Nebraska’s western boundary. The lowest elevation, 256 m
(840 ft), is along the Missouri River in the southeast, and the highest point,
1,653 m (5,424 ft), is in the Panhandle in southwestern Kimball County. The mean
elevation is about 790 m (2,600 ft). Although Nebraska is considered a plains
state, there is considerable local relief.
A | Natural Regions |
Two major physiographic divisions, or
natural regions, of the United States are represented in Nebraska. They are the
Central Lowland and the Great Plains, both of which are subdivisions of the
Interior Plains. The eastern fifth of Nebraska is in the Central Lowland, and
the remainder of the state forms part of the Great Plains. The Dissected Till
Plains of the Central Lowland, which average about 110 to 130 km (about 70 to 80
mi) in width, parallel the Missouri River. This area was blanketed by ice during
the early ice ages several hundred thousand years ago. Later it was covered by
various thicknesses of loess, or wind-deposited material, and roughened by
erosion. The hills of loess-covered glacial deposits are severely dissected, or
eroded, by rivers enlarging their valleys near the Missouri River. This
dissection has created bluffs that are visible along much of the river.
The Great Plains natural region covers
about four-fifths of the state. This region is composed of four distinct areas:
the High Plains, the Sand Hills, the Loess Hills and Canyons, and the Loess
Plains.
The High Plains in western Nebraska
consist of a large expanse of high flat tableland with some rough broken areas.
In many areas the soil and mantle are thin and the bedrock is exposed. A rather
prominent feature of the landscape in this region is the Pine Ridge Escarpment,
a cliff of 300 m (1,000 ft) in elevation. The Sand Hills in central and north
central Nebraska consist of grass-covered sand dunes. This region makes up about
one-quarter of the state. The sand dunes have been completely grassed over,
except for occasional blowouts, which are areas of exposed sand that may cover
more than a hectare. Throughout the region there is little variation in
composition or in texture of the soil. The Sand Hills are extremely porous, and
there is little surface runoff. Most streams in the Sand Hills are fed by
springs or artesian wells and have little seasonal fluctuation. The underlying
rock strata hold large amounts of usable water, and wells may be dug
successfully anywhere within the Sand Hills.
The central and southwestern parts of the
Great Plains in Nebraska are made up of loess hills and canyons. Most of south
central Nebraska is composed of a slightly dissected loess plain. Most of the
southeastern half of the state is capped by loess, ranging in depth from about 1
to more than 90 m (about 3 to more than 300 ft). The thickest deposits are found
in central Nebraska, from 60 to 160 km (40 to 100 mi) north of the Kansas
border. The loess is windblown unstratified material that often stands nearly
vertical in cliffs or road cuts. Soils develop rapidly on loess and are among
the most productive in the world.
B | Rivers, Lakes, and Irrigation |
Nebraska has one of the best supplies of
surface and underground water in the nation. All of its rivers and streams
eventually drain into the Missouri River, flowing in an easterly and
southeasterly direction. The state’s principal river, the Platte, is formed by
the confluence of the North Platte and South Platte rivers, both of which rise
in the Rocky Mountains. The Platte River flows through central Nebraska to the
Missouri River. The Sand Hills are drained by the Niobrara, Elkhorn, and Loup
rivers. The Republican and Big Blue rivers drain the southern part of the state,
flowing south into Kansas, where they enter the Kansas River. While there are no
large natural lakes in the state, hundreds of small natural lakes are found in
the Sand Hills.
Nebraska depends on irrigation for a
substantial part of its crop production, and 26 percent of all cropland is
irrigated. Much of the irrigated land is in the broad valley of the Platte.
Because of the abundant surface and underground water supplies, the valley has
been given the nickname “Irrigation Way.”
One of the first United States Bureau of
Reclamation projects, the North Platte Project, was built in Nebraska and
Wyoming. Water impounded and stored in Wyoming is used for irrigation in
southeastern Wyoming and Scotts Bluff and Morrill counties in Nebraska.
A large privately financed irrigation
project, the Tri-County Project, uses Platte River water. The state’s largest
dam, Kingsley Dam, and largest reservoir, Lake McConaughy, are parts of the
Tri-County Project. Three other reservoirs, Lewis and Clark Lake, Harlan County
Lake, and Swanson Lake, each have an immense storage capacity. Other major
reservoirs in Nebraska include Harry Strunk Lake, Hugh Butler Lake, Enders
Reservoir, and Sherman Reservoir.
Nearly four-fifths of the irrigated land
in Nebraska, however, uses groundwater pumped from deep wells, rather than
surface water supplied from reservoirs. Nebraska possesses enormous groundwater
reserves. The Ogallala aquifer, an underground-water bearing layer stretching
south as far as Texas, lies under much of central Nebraska. Well irrigation
first became important in the late 1930s, but the number of wells increased
sharply in the 1950s and 1970s. In the mid-1990s there were more than 60,000
irrigation wells in the state, with the greatest concentrations found in the
central and lower Platte valleys, in south central and southwestern Nebraska,
and in much of the north central part of the state. The growth in irrigation has
put pressure on groundwater supplies and has led to declining water tables in
some areas, particularly in the Big Blue River basin and in the southwestern
counties. When water tables decline quite rapidly, various restrictions may be
put into place by natural resource districts to limit the rate of pumping for
irrigation.
C | Climate |
Nebraska has a typical continental climate
with wide seasonal variations in temperature.
C1 | Temperature |
Winter temperatures below -20°C (0° F)
and summer temperatures in the upper 30°s C (lower 100°s F) are common.
The average January temperature varies
from about -7° C (about 20° F) in the northeast to about -2° C (about 29° F) in
the southwest. The average for July, the hottest month, ranges from about 26° C
(about 78° F) in the south central section to about 20° C (about 68° F) along
the western tip of Nebraska.
C2 | Precipitation |
Nebraska is fortunate in that
approximately three-fourths of its precipitation falls during the April through
September growing season. Normally, May and June are the wettest months and
December and January are the driest. Average snowfall normally ranges from about
500 to 1,000 mm (about 20 to 40 in) with the heaviest snows in late winter.
Blizzards are common. The blizzard in 1888 claimed thousands of livestock and
many lives, and the blizzard in 1949 required the aid of United States armed
forces. Precipitation in the northwest averages about 360 mm (about 14 in)
annually, increasing to more than 860 mm (34 in) in the southeast. Along the
100th meridian, which bisects the state, annual precipitation averages about 500
mm (about 20 in).
Severe storms, with damaging winds,
hail, and torrential rains of 100 mm (4 in) or more, are common. Tornadoes occur
every year, but their number and intensity vary. Hailstorms are very severe in
western Nebraska, which probably has the highest hail frequency in the country.
During dry years, dust storms occasionally develop in the Panhandle and in the
southwestern part of Nebraska.
C3 | The Growing Season |
The growing season ranges from 130 days
in the west to more than 170 days in the east. The last killing frost is usually
in late April or early May, and the first killing frost generally occurs in late
September or early October.
D | Soils |
Light precipitation, rich parent material,
and grasses have been the major ingredients in providing Nebraska with some of
the most fertile and productive soils in the world. The rich parent material,
particularly the soil-like loess, has accelerated soil formation. The grass
cover has increased fertility by providing large amounts of humus in the
topsoil. Light precipitation has limited leaching, or the washing away of
valuable organic matter. The high degree of productivity of the land is a major
reason why nearly 95 percent of the land area of the state is in agricultural
use.
The soils of Nebraska can be divided into
five major groups: the prairie soils in the southeast, chernozem in the central
and northeastern areas, chestnut in the west, the Sand Hills soils in north
central Nebraska, and rich alluvial soils along the floodplains of the major
rivers. With the exception of the Sand Hills soils, all the soils are
intensively cultivated.
E | Plant Life |
Originally, grasslands covered about 98
percent of the state and forests only 2 percent. Bluestem and switch grass were
the major grasses in the east. Blue grama, side oats grama, and a shorter
variety of bluestem were common in central Nebraska, with shorter gramas and
buffalo grasses prevailing in the west. Bluestem and sand dropseed were found
principally in the Sand Hills. Cultivation and grazing have to a large extent
changed their composition and stands. Many invaders, such as thistle, cactus,
and yucca, can be found in the grasslands of the Sand Hills where grazing has
outrun the growing capacity of the grasses. In central and eastern Nebraska
overgrazed pastures are experiencing an increase in cool-season grasses, such as
bluegrass and bromegrass, to the detriment of the native grasses. Serious
invasions of noxious weeds such as leafy spurge and spotted knapweed are
occurring across the state.
Currently forests cover just 2 percent of
Nebraska’s land area. Trees are found along the river valleys and on some of the
higher tablelands in the west. These are primarily deciduous trees. The
cottonwood, elm, ash, maple, oak, and willow are the most common species. On the
rougher and higher lands in the west large stands of coniferous trees are found.
The predominant species are ponderosa pines and redcedars. Since the late 1800s
the Eastern redcedar has been expanding throughout the state. Along the bluffs
of the Missouri River and in the eastern third of Nebraska oak, black walnut,
and hickories are occasionally found.
F | Animal Life |
Bison (American buffalo), mule deer,
white-tailed deer, pronghorn, coyote, beaver, prairie dog, jackrabbit, skunk,
and squirrel were found in large numbers by the first settlers. Bison, in
particular, were hunted indiscriminately and were eliminated by the 1880s. Other
species have survived and prospered. Pheasant, quail, sharp-tailed grouse,
prairie chicken, and wild turkey are also abundant. Wildlife has increased
considerably in recent years as conservation practices have been applied to the
land and as farmland has been converted to grassland. Many migratory waterfowl,
varieties of shorebirds, and the nearly extinct whooping crane use Nebraska
waters during the fall and spring migrations. Thousands of sandhill cranes stop
along the central Platte River every year during their migration. Crappie,
perch, pike, catfish, bullhead, bass, bluegill, and trout abound in Nebraska’s
lakes and streams. Fish hatcheries may be found near Benkelman, North Platte,
Valentine, and Burwell.
G | Conservation |
Nebraska has implemented numerous programs
to protect its natural resources, especially soil and water. Contour farming,
whereby crops are planted to follow the contour of hills; strip-cropping, or
alternating close-growing forage crops that retain and rebuild the soil with
cash crops; and grazing controls are commonly used to prevent soil erosion.
During the 1930s many shelterbelts were planted across the state to reduce wind
erosion and protect crops. Many watershed projects have been developed to
minimize flooding, especially in southeastern Nebraska. The largest project is
the Salt-Wahoo, which provides protection for Lincoln and for other parts of
Lancaster County. Upstream dams in the Dakotas and Montana have reduced
large-scale flooding along the Missouri River. Flooding on the Republican River
is largely controlled by five reservoirs in Nebraska, as well as by others in
Colorado and Kansas.
The use of underground water is regulated
through a system of natural resources districts. The 23 natural resources
districts conduct water quality planning programs. The Department of
Environmental Quality, established in 1971, is responsible for air and water
pollution control, solid and hazardous waste management. Laws concerning
drinking water standards and radiation control are administered by the
Department of Health.
In 2006 Nebraska had 12 hazardous waste
sites on a national priority list for cleanup due to their severity or proximity
to people. Between 1995 and 2000, the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into
the environment increased by 52 percent.
III | ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES |
Since its early settlement in the mid-19th
century, Nebraska has had an economy based on agriculture, specifically the
raising of livestock and the growing of corn (for feed) and wheat. During the
1930s the economy suffered from the effects of the Great Depression and an
extended drought. Widespread use of irrigation wells in the second half of the
20th century has been responsible for the increased area of farmland under
irrigation. Although farming is still extremely important, services and
manufacturing have expanded rapidly in recent decades. Nebraska, the home to
many national insurance companies, receives an unusually large share of its
gross state product from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector.
In the early and mid-1980s Nebraska
suffered through its worst agricultural crisis since the Great Depression. As in
other farm depressions, many farmers had taken large loans to purchase land and
modernize operations and were driven into bankruptcy when crop prices dropped
and land values fell. Many farmers lost their land, and some banks with
extensive farm loans followed them into insolvency. The metropolitan economies
of Omaha and Lincoln escaped the worst effects of the farm crisis, but rural
areas, heavily dependent on farming and farm-related business, suffered. By the
late 1980s the economy began to recover. To further promote growth and recovery,
the state in the late 1980s adopted a package of tax incentives to provide new
and expanding businesses with income tax credits, sales tax refunds and credits,
and in some instances personal property tax exemptions.
Although large, older Omaha-based companies
continued to influence the state’s economy, new smaller companies scattered
across the state in the telecommunications, insurance, health care, and tourist
industries became increasingly important in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The
proliferation of these businesses fueled the state’s economic revival. As a
result Nebraska’s economy grew steadily in the 1990s, enabling the state to
avoid most of the effects of a national recession in the early years of the
decade. In the late 1990s most sectors of Nebraska’s economy continued to grow
at a steady rate.
Nebraska’s unemployment rate fell below 3
percent in the early 1990s and remained one of the lowest in the nation for the
rest of the decade. A long-term labor shortage forced companies and civic groups
to launch campaigns to recruit workers from out of state. Nebraska has become
attractive to workers because wages and income have risen steadily while the
cost of living and crime rate have remained well below national averages. In
2006 there were 974,000 jobs in Nebraska. Of those, 36 percent were in services;
20 percent in wholesale or retail trade; 17 percent in federal, state, or local
government, including positions in the military; 11 percent in manufacturing; 7
percent in farming, including agricultural services; 18 percent in finance,
insurance, or real estate; 21 percent in transportation or public utilities; 5
percent in construction; and just 0.1 percent in mining. In 2005, 8 percent of
Nebraska’s workers were members of labor unions.
A | Agriculture |
In 2005 there were 48,000 farms in
Nebraska, 74 percent of which had annual sales of $10,000 or more. One-third of
the farms had annual sales of over $100,000. In the eastern third of the state
farms are much smaller than the state average, while those in the Sand Hills and
the Panhandle are substantially larger. Farmland occupied 18.5 million hectares
(45.7 million acres), of which 49 percent was cropland. The rest was mostly
pasture and range. Some 26 percent of the cropland (mostly used to grow corn)
was irrigated each year.
Most of the people working on farms in
the 1990s were the farm operators or members of their families. Although some
Nebraska farms are quite large, most are owned and operated by individuals and
only a very few are owned by non-farm corporations. In 1982 Nebraska adopted
Initiative 300, commonly called the Family Farm Preservation Act, a
constitutional amendment that protects family farmers from the economic pressure
of large agricultural corporations by prohibiting individual farmers from
selling their land to nonfamily-farm corporations.
The sale of livestock and livestock
products accounted for 62 percent of Nebraska’s farm income in 2004. Sales of
cattle and calves make up four-fifths of farm income from livestock, although
hogs are also important. One-fourth of total farm receipts are from the sale of
corn, although much corn is fed to livestock on farms where it is raised. In
1997 it was the state’s leading crop, raised on 3.4 million hectares (8.3
million acres) of land. Other important crops included soybeans, wheat, hay,
grain sorghum, dry beans, and sugar beets. In 1997, Nebraska ranked fourth in
the nation in total farm sales, second in livestock sales, and seventh in crop
sales. The state ranked third in the value of cattle and calf production, third
in corn and grain sorghum, seventh in hogs, and seventh in soybeans.
A1 | Patterns of Farming |
There are considerable regional
differences in farming activities in Nebraska. In the northwestern and north
central parts of the state, cattle grazing dominates. In the northeast and in
the central Platte Valley, farmers grow corn and raise feeder cattle and hogs.
Large-scale wheat production is concentrated in the southern Panhandle and the
southwest, while in the North Platte Valley farmers specialize in irrigated
sugar beets and dry beans. Irrigated corn production is most concentrated south
of the Platte River. In some of these counties, more than three-fourths of the
cropland is planted in corn. Sorghum is raised in the southern part of the state
on unirrigated lands.
Clearly, irrigation plays an important
role in the agricultural production of Nebraska. The Platte Valley, much of the
south central and southwestern parts of the state, and the eastern fringe of the
Sand Hills are the leading areas under irrigation. In many of these areas center
pivot irrigation systems are the most common means of delivering water to
fields. This device typically consists of a water pipe 400 m (one-quarter mi)
long and lined with sprinklers. Elevated on wheels above the field, the pipe is
anchored at one end at a center pivot, and the entire assembly turns on this
pivot as the pipe slowly rotates around a field, sprinkling the crop below.
Because they can be used to irrigate porous sandy soils and land that is not
level, center pivots have greatly increased the amount of farmland that can be
irrigated. Nebraska has more center pivot irrigation systems than any other
state.
B | Mining and Forestry |
The greatest share of mining activities
in the state is focused on crushed stone, sand and gravel, and portland cement.
Limestone, which is used for liming soils and in several cement plants, is
produced in a number of eastern counties. Petroleum accounted for one-quarter of
the state’s income from mineral production in 1997, but the state does not rank
high nationally in oil production. Red Willow, Kimball, Cheyenne, and Banner
counties in western Nebraska produce most of the state’s petroleum.
Nebraska has very little lumber
production, mostly from small operations in the northwest.
C | Manufacturing |
Food processing is by far Nebraska’s most
important industry, accounting for one-fourth of the state’s industrial income
annually. The leading food-processing industry is meat-packing. Other food
products include canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, flour, cereal,
beverages, dairy products, livestock feeds, vegetable oils, and pasta. Corn
processing yields a variety of products.
Other leading industries produce
instruments, chemicals and drugs, machinery, and electrical equipment. Many of
these industries are associated with agriculture; the state is an important
producer of irrigation equipment and farm machinery. Printing and publishing are
significant. Nebraska also produces transportation equipment, rubber and plastic
goods, fabricated metals, and primary metals. Omaha is the chief manufacturing
center. The second most important center is Lincoln.
D | Electricity |
Nebraska’s entire electrical power system
is publicly owned. Most of the farms were electrified with the assistance of the
Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Thermal power plants burning fossil
fuels, primarily coal, generate 69 percent of Nebraska’s electricity. Another 28
percent of Nebraska’s electricity is generated by nuclear power plants at
Brownville and Fort Calhoun. The state’s small share of hydroelectric power
comes from the Bureau of Reclamation’s dams on the Missouri River, in addition
to hydroelectric plants in Colorado and Wyoming. The largest hydroelectric power
plant in the state is located at Gavins Point.
E | Transportation |
The Platte River valley has served as the
major route across the Great Plains since the establishment of the Oregon Trail
and Mormon Trail. The Union Pacific Railroad, U.S. Highway 30, and National
Interstate Highway 80 all parallel the Platte. Several major railroads cross the
state, and in 2004 trackage totaled 5,597 km (3,478 mi). Farm products account
for 65 percent of the freight originating in the state. Much of the freight
passing through the state by rail is coal, being hauled from mines in Montana
and Wyoming to Midwest power plants.
By 2005 Nebraska had 150,169 km (93,311
mi) of public roads and highways. There were 776 km (482 mi) of national
interstate highways. By 2007 there were 8 airports in the state. The majority of
them were privately owned. Nearly 1.7 million passengers passed through the
airport in Omaha in 1996.
IV | THE PEOPLE OF NEBRASKA |
A | Population Patterns |
Nebraska’s population in 2000 was
1,711,263, ranking it 38th among the states. From 1990 to 2000 the population
increased by 8.4 percent. Nebraska has a population density of 9 persons per sq
km (23 per sq mi). Most of the population is concentrated in the eastern
one-quarter of the state and in a belt along the Platte and North Platte
rivers.
The population of Nebraska is 89.6 percent
white. Blacks, most of whom live in the Omaha metropolitan area, constitute 4
percent of the population, Asians 1.3 percent, Native Americans 0.9 percent, and
those of mixed heritage or not reporting race 4.2 percent. Native Hawaiians and
other Pacific Islanders numbered 836. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 5.5
percent of the people. Much of the state’s population is descended from European
immigrants who came to Nebraska in the late 19th century. Germans, Czechs,
Swedes, Danes, Irish, and Italians were especially numerous and often remain
concentrated in close-knit communities today. The black population is found
primarily in Omaha and Lincoln; Hispanics are mostly in the Platte River Valley
and Omaha. Native Americans are concentrated in Omaha, and in Knox and Thurston
counties.
In 1920 Nebraska was almost 70 percent
rural, but by 1960 the majority had shifted. Currently 70 percent of Nebraskans
are urban dwellers. People have been leaving rural areas because of the growing
employment opportunities in towns and cities and due to economic pressures
favoring larger, but fewer, farms.
B | Principal Cities |
Only two cities, Omaha and Lincoln, have
been designated metropolitan areas in Nebraska. Together these areas contain
more than one-half of the state’s population. The largest city, Omaha, with a
2006 population of 419,545 in the city proper, is Nebraska’s principal
manufacturing center, and it also dominates the state’s retail and wholesale
trade. The Omaha metropolitan area had a population of 822,549 in 2006,
including people living around Council Bluffs in Iowa. Omaha contains a number
of home and branch offices of the nation’s large insurance companies. Within a
few miles of the city, at Offutt Air Force Base, is the center of operations of
the United States Strategic Command.
Second in size is Lincoln, which had a
population of 241,167 in 2006. Lincoln is the state capital and contains the
University of Nebraska’s major campus and two other major colleges. Many
insurance companies have home offices in the city, and for this reason, Lincoln
has sometimes been called the Hartford of the Midwest. Grand Island, with 44,632
residents, is a railroad and distribution center for the surrounding
agricultural area. Nebraska’s other principal cities and their 2006 populations
are Bellevue, with 47,594 inhabitants; Kearney, with 29,385; Fremont, with
25,417; North Platte, with 24,386; and Hastings, with 25,144.
C | Religion |
Roman Catholics form the largest single
religious group, representing nearly one-third of those attending a church. Of
the Protestant denominations, the largest are the Lutherans and the
Methodists.
V | EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS |
A | Education |
Nebraska’s first schools were conducted by
missionaries for Native Americans. By 1820, Fort Atkinson had a school, and in
1849, Bellevue opened its first school. In 1855 the territorial legislature
passed a free-school law, and it later chartered numerous colleges, of which
only the one at Peru is still in operation. Secondary education was largely
confined to private schools in the eastern towns of Nebraska until 1875. In 1869
the first state legislature created the University of Nebraska, which opened in
1871. In 1872 the first church-supported college, Doane College, was established
at Crete (Kríti). School attendance in Nebraska is compulsory for all children
between ages 6 and 18.
The present school system is supervised by
the state Department of Education, which consists of an elected eight-member
board and a commissioner appointed by the board. Nebraska’s total of 681
districts in 1997 was the fifth highest in the nation, behind only Texas,
California, Illinois, and New York. Many of these are rural districts, some
still with one-room schools. Private schools enroll 15 percent of the state’s
children.
In the 2002–2003 school year Nebraska spent
$9,371 on each student’s education, compared to a national average of $9,299.
There were 13.6 students for every teacher (the national average was 15.9
students). Of those older than 25 years of age in 2006, 89.5 percent had a high
school diploma, while the country as a whole averaged 84.1 percent.
A1 | Higher Education |
Nebraska had 15 public and 24 private
institutions of higher learning in 2004–2005. Among the most notable of these
schools were the University of Nebraska with campuses in Lincoln, Omaha, and
Kearney; Peru State College, in Peru; Creighton University, in Omaha; Hastings
College, in Hastings; Nebraska Wesleyan University, in Lincoln; and Wayne State
College, in Wayne.
B | Libraries |
Most of Nebraska’s population is served by
one of 275 tax-supported public library systems. The statewide extension
services of the Nebraska Library Commission supplement the activities of the
local libraries. The state’s public libraries annually circulate an average of
8.7 books for each resident. The oldest library is the Nebraska State Library,
which is chiefly a law library. The largest library belongs to the University of
Nebraska at Lincoln. Other large collections are in the Omaha Public Library,
Lincoln City Libraries, and the libraries of Creighton University and the
University of Nebraska at Omaha.
C | Museums |
Joslyn Art Museum is one of the nation’s
outstanding visual arts centers. It has a noted collection of western art and
artifacts, which are housed in a striking marble structure in Omaha. Another
noted art museum is the University of Nebraska Art Galleries in Lincoln, which
specializes in American art. Also located on this campus is the University of
Nebraska State Museum, which has natural history displays, including one of the
world’s largest mammoth fossils. The Museum of Nebraska History in Lincoln has
exhibits covering the history of the state.
Fossil collections may also be seen at the
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Harrison. Outstanding pioneer history and
natural history collections are displayed in the Oregon Trail Museum at the
Scotts Bluff National Monument and in the Hastings Museum of Natural and
Cultural History in Hastings. In Minden is a fine private museum, Pioneer
Village. History collections may also be seen at the headquarters of the various
county historical societies, in the Museum of the Fur Trade near Chadron, in the
Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, and in the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie
Pioneer in Grand Island.
D | Communications |
The first newspaper printed in Nebraska
was the Nebraska Palladium and Platte Valley Advocate, printed in
Bellevue in 1854. The Evening Herald, established in 1885 by Gilbert M.
Hitchcock, became the World-Herald four years later. In 1894 its editor
in chief was William Jennings Bryan, three times a candidate for the United
States presidency. In 1901 Bryan started his own weekly newspaper, the
Commoner, in Lincoln.
There are 16 daily newspapers published in
the state. The leading daily is the Omaha World-Herald, followed by the
Lincoln Journal Star. The Nebraska Farmer is a widely
circulated agricultural paper that has been published since 1859.
The first commercial radio station in
Nebraska, WOW in Omaha, was licensed in 1923. KMTV and WOW-TV in Omaha, the
state’s first commercial television stations, began operations in 1949. In 2002
Nebraska had 43 AM and 70 FM radio stations and 26 television stations.
E | Music, Theater, and Literature |
The Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency,
has stimulated a wide range of cultural activities, as have the state’s higher
education institutions. The Lied Center for Performing Arts, at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, presents groups of national and international renown.
Lincoln is also the home to the Lincoln Community Playhouse, the Lincoln Friends
of Chamber Music, and Abendmusik: Lincoln. Omaha is a major center for the arts
in Nebraska. In the city are the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and Opera Omaha, a
well-respected regional opera company. Also in the city are the Omaha Theater
Company for Young People and the Nebraska Wind Symphony, a community concert
band. The Omaha Community Playhouse is the largest community theater in the
United States, and has a professional touring company, the Nebraska Theatre
Caravan. Many smaller cities and towns present multidiscipline arts series.
Excellent music and theater programs are found at many universities and
colleges, in particular the Nebraska Wesleyan University, Creighton University,
and the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Many Nebraskans have contributed
significantly to the literary life of the nation. One of the greatest American
novelists, Willa Cather, grew up on a farm near Red Cloud and later attended the
University of Nebraska. Her earliest novels, especially O Pioneers!
(1913) and My Ántonia (1918), were inspired by life on the prairies.
Nebraska poet John Gneisenau Neihardt wrote the acclaimed Black Elk
Speaks (1932) and a cycle of epic poems about the West. Other important
regional novelists include Mari Sandoz, Wright Morris, and Bess Streeter
Aldrich.
VI | RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST |
Nebraska has a wide range of scenic
attractions. Its recreational assets are its numerous reservoirs, lakes, and
rivers, including the Republican River and the Platte River system. All parts of
the state offer hunting and fishing as well as opportunities to observe
wildlife.
A | National Monuments and Forests |
Although Nebraska has no national parks,
there are historic sites and monuments, two national forests, a national
grassland, and five wildlife refuges administered by the federal government.
Chimney Rock is a national historic site. This rock formation, near Bayard, is a
lofty spire and was a prominent landmark for those who traveled the Oregon
Trail. Another symbol of the trail is Scotts Bluff National Monument, near
Gering. The wheel ruts of wagon trains that passed through this area may still
be seen. Mitchell Pass, providing access through the bluff, was the route used
by wagons and stagecoaches after 1852 and by the Pony Express. Homestead
National Monument of America, near Beatrice, is the site of the first land
claimed under the Homestead Act of 1862. Another national park unit is Agate
Fossil Beds National Monument, in Sioux County. This area, along the Niobrara
River, is rich in fossils of prehistoric animals and has been studied by the
Carnegie Museum and the University of Nebraska since the early 1900s. Fort
McPherson, south of Maxwell, is the smallest national cemetery in the
nation.
Some of the state’s most impressive
scenery is in the Nebraska and Samuel R. McKelvie national forests. The section
of Nebraska National Forest in Thomas and Blaine counties was entirely
hand-planted. Oglala National Grassland is located in Dawes and Sioux counties.
Lakes in eastern Cherry County and in central Garden County are national
wildlife refuges.
B | State Parks |
Nebraska has 95 state parks and
recreation areas. Among the most important state historical parks are Fort
Robinson, near Crawford; Fort Kearny, the outpost that protected travelers on
the Oregon Trail; Buffalo Bill’s Ranch, the home of William F. Cody for 30
years, in North Platte; and Arbor Lodge, the stately mansion of J. Sterling
Morton, a territorial governor and originator of Arbor Day, in Nebraska
City.
C | Other Places to Visit |
Among the points of interest near Omaha
are Fontenelle Forest; Mormon Cemetery, the burial place of those who perished
in the winter of 1846 to 1847; Fort Omaha, established in 1868; and Girls and
Boys Town, a famous community established by Father Edward J. Flanagan for
homeless or neglected girls and boys. The restored home of William Jennings
Bryan, the U.S. political figure and three-time candidate for the U.S.
presidency, is located in Lincoln. Red Cloud, the small town setting for many
novels by the Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, has 26 sites listed in the
National Register of Historic Places. Other historic sites in the state include
Fort Atkinson, the first military post in Nebraska; the Gothenburg Pony Express
station; and the historic town of Brownville, on the Missouri River.
D | Annual Events |
Ever since Buffalo Bill started his
famous Wild West Show in the 1880s, rodeos have been a popular spectator sport.
From the Nebraskaland Days and Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte to Nebraska’s
Big Rodeo in Burwell, the tradition has been kept alive. A summer season of
county fairs and horse races culminates in early September at the Nebraska State
Fair in Lincoln. Many festivals are linked to the countries of origin of
Nebraska’s early residents. A Czech festival in Wilber in August, Swedish
festivals in Oakland and Stromsburg in June, an Italian festival in Omaha in
July, Cinco de Mayo in May in Scottsbluff, and a Danish Christmas in Dannebrog
are all part of Nebraska’s diverse character. Native American powwows include
the Santee Sioux in June, Winnebago in July, and Omaha (at Macy) in August.
In Omaha the Rodeo and Stock Show in
September is sponsored by the civic organization Ak-Sar-Ben, which is “Nebraska”
spelled backward. One of the state’s liveliest events is the Ak-Sar-Ben Festival
in October. Included in this festival are an elaborate parade and coronation
ball.
VII | GOVERNMENT |
Nebraska is governed under a constitution
that was adopted in 1875. It has been amended many times. One amendment adopted
in 1912 provides for amendments to the constitution through initiative and
referendum. The constitution limits the state’s power of taxation and forbids
the state to incur bonded indebtedness, except for the purpose of highway
construction.
A | Executive |
The executive branch is headed by a
governor and a lieutenant governor, who are jointly elected for four-year terms.
Both officials may serve any number of terms, but no more than two terms in
succession. Other elected officers are the secretary of state, the attorney
general, the treasurer, the auditor, and the members of the board of education,
the board of regents of the University of Nebraska, and the public utilities
commission.
B | Legislative |
By an amendment adopted in 1934,
Nebraska became the first and only state with a unicameral, or one-chamber,
legislature. The single house has 49 members. They are elected without
designation of political party for four-year terms. Legislators may not serve
more than two terms in succession. Regular sessions are held in January of each
year, and special sessions may be called by the governor or at the request of
two-thirds of the members of the legislature. A three-fifths majority can
override the governor’s veto.
C | Judicial |
The judicial branch consists of a
supreme court, with seven justices who serve six-year terms, and district
courts, with judges serving six-year terms. The 93 county courts function as
parts of the district court system. Omaha and Lincoln each have a municipal
court and separate juvenile courts.
Nebraska has adopted a nonpartisan
system for the election of all judges. Whenever a vacancy occurs on the supreme
court, district court, or some of the juvenile and municipal courts, a
nonpartisan nominating commission submits a list to the governor, who makes an
appointment from the list. At the first general election taking place three
years after the appointment, the judge stands unopposed for election on the
basis of the record. If the voters do not approve the judge, the vacancy is
filled again by the governor. If elected, the judge may seek reelection.
D | Local Government |
The state has 93 counties. The most
populous counties have an assessor, a clerk of the district court, and a
register of deeds. All the counties have a clerk, a sheriff, a treasurer, an
attorney, a surveyor, and a superintendent of schools. These officials are
elected to four-year terms.
Other units of local government are
cities, villages, and townships. Any city with a population of 5,000 or more may
adopt a home-rule charter. Most of the cities, including Omaha and Lincoln, are
governed by a mayor and council. Some cities use the city manager plan, and one
is governed by commission. Each of the villages is administered by a board of
trustees, elected by popular vote for two-year terms.
E | National Representation |
In addition to two senators, Nebraska
elects three Representatives to the Congress of the United States, giving the
state a total of five electoral votes in presidential elections.
VIII | HISTORY |
A | Early Inhabitants |
The first humans in what is now
Nebraska appeared at least 10,000 years ago. These first people were apparently
related to those of the Folsom culture first identified near Folsom, New Mexico,
but very little is known about them. Sometime between ad 400 and 600 a people who hunted and
did simple farming lived in Nebraska, and were replaced between 1200 and 1500 by
a more sedentary people who practiced intensive agriculture in addition to
hunting and fishing. It is not known what happened to these people.
When Europeans first arrived, the
Pawnee lived in central Nebraska and occupied the valleys of the Republican,
Platte, and Loup rivers. Mainly farmers, the Pawnee lived in semipermanent earth
lodges and grew corn, pumpkins, beans, and squash. They were also hunters,
however, and twice a year they left their villages to hunt buffalo and other
large game. The Pawnee owned many horses, as did most of the other Plains
people.
A number of semisedentary people
speaking Sioux languages lived near the Missouri River, including the Oto, Iowa,
Missouria, Omaha, and Ponca. The Teton Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and
possibly the Kiowa roamed in western Nebraska. They depended entirely on hunting
for their livelihood, and vigorously defended their hunting grounds against both
the Pawnee and whites.
B | European Discovery and Exploration |
The Spanish explorer and conqueror
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado entered present-day Kansas in 1541 and claimed the
entire territory for Spain, including Nebraska, although the Spaniards built no
settlements. In 1682 the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La
Salle, finished a journey down the Mississippi River by claiming all the land
drained by the river for France, which included the Nebraska area. The French
then built an extensive fur-trading network along the Mississippi and its
tributaries, and as part of that effort sent traders and explorers into the
lower Missouri River Valley to win the friendship of the people there.
The first recorded European exploration
of part of Nebraska itself took place in 1714 by the French adventurer Étienne
Veniard de Bourgmont. He explored the Missouri River Valley as far north as the
Platte River and built a trading post among the Native Americans there. In 1720
the Spaniards, now concerned about French activity in land claimed by Spain,
dispatched a small force under Pedro de Villasur from Santa Fe in Spanish New
Mexico to drive out the French. After the Pawnee attacked and killed Villasur’s
men near the Platte River, the French took undisputed possession of the Missouri
Valley region, and continued to explore and to trade with the native
inhabitants. In 1739 Pierre Mallet and Paul Mallet crossed Nebraska while
exploring the country between the Missouri River and Santa Fe.
In 1763 France lost nearly all its
North American possessions, following its defeat by Great Britain in the French
and Indian War (1754-1763), the last in a series of wars between the two
countries for domination in North America. But in 1762 France had secretly ceded
all its lands west of the Mississippi (called the Louisiana Territory) to Spain,
France’s ally in the war. France then regained the land in 1800 under an
agreement with Spain, and in 1803 the United States bought the area of Nebraska
from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. During the period of Spanish
control, French and Spanish traders, operating under the authority of Spanish
officials in St. Louis, traded merchandise among the peoples of the Missouri
River Valley as far north as what is now North Dakota.
C | Early 19th Century |
C1 | Louisiana Purchase |
In 1804 U.S. President Thomas
Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to map the vast new
territory west of the Mississippi River, catalog its plant and animal life,
establish relations with the native inhabitants, and collect information about
their cultures. The first part of their journey in 1804 took them up the
Missouri River along Nebraska’s eastern border. In 1806 Zebulon Montgomery Pike
crossed south central Nebraska while exploring the newly acquired territory. In
1820 Stephen H. Long followed the Platte River through much of Nebraska. Long
later reported that the Great Plains consisted of a huge desert and predicted
that white settlement would be confined to the area east of the Mississippi
River.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
greatly stimulated interest in the fur trade of the Far West. The American
trader Manuel Lisa launched his first expedition on the Missouri River in 1807,
and in 1812 he established Fort Lisa north of present-day Omaha, Nebraska. The
American Fur Company established in 1810 a temporary post in the region at
Bellevue. The U.S. Army built Fort Atkinson on what is now the site of Fort
Calhoun to protect the fur trade from hostile Native Americans.
In 1823 the first permanent
settlement in Nebraska was built at Bellevue, which soon became the center for
the fur trade along the Missouri and Platte rivers. It was also a center of
missionary activity and later for the administration of affairs with Native
Americans. Peter Sarpy, an agent for the American Fur Company, was the dominant
figure at Bellevue from the 1830s until the creation of the Nebraska Territory
in 1854.
Stephen Long’s pessimistic reports
about the possibilities for white settlement of the Great Plains, including
Nebraska, solved a problem for the federal government: what to do about Native
Americans who blocked white settlement east of the Mississippi River. The U.S.
government decided to remove them to what whites came to call Indian Territory,
land on the western side of the Mississippi including most of present-day
Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, although few eastern peoples were resettled in
what is now Nebraska. In 1830 the Indian Removal Act allowed the federal
government to force Native Americans to live west of the Mississippi; in 1834
the Trade and Intercourse Act prohibited whites from trespassing on the land
reserved for Native Americans and created a series of federal agents to oversee
relations between Native Americans and whites.
But Nebraska rapidly became more
important to whites as part of the trade and immigrant routes leading to the Far
West, and settlers and traders began staying in the Nebraska area, obtaining
permits or remaining illegally. The Oregon Trail system (which included the
Mormon Trail) followed the Platte River and in the 1820s and 1830s was used by
fur traders. Reports from the exploration of John Charles Frémont in 1842
popularized the route for white settlers heading west. Each year after 1843
thousands of emigrants went through the Platte River Valley and on to
present-day Oregon, California, and Utah, and later to Colorado and Montana.
Passing through lands near the semisedentary tribes in eastern Nebraska was not
terribly dangerous for whites, but settlers passing through western Nebraska
risked attacks by the Cheyenne and Sioux, who strongly resented the intrusion.
To protect the travelers, the U.S. government built Fort Kearny on the Missouri
River in 1846. In 1848 the fort was moved 300 km (187 mi) west, to the
southernmost point of the big bend of the Platte River. Further protection was
provided by Fort Laramie (now in Wyoming), built in 1849.
The semisedentary people negotiated
treaties with the United States exchanging their land for new land in Kansas or
Oklahoma largely without violent resistance, and most of eastern Nebraska had
been ceded to the government by 1854. The nomadic peoples in western Nebraska,
however, particularly the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the Brulé and Oglala Sioux,
strongly resisted white encroachment on their hunting grounds, and when whites
began to kill the bison herds on which the nomadic people depended, these native
people became more hostile. In 1851 at Fort Laramie several of these Native
American groups signed a treaty with the United States that permitted the U.S.
government to build forts and roads along the settler trails, but that, too,
failed to end hostilities.
C2 | Nebraska Territory |
As migration to the Pacific Coast
increased, politicians began to realize the importance of crossing Nebraska. In
1844 U.S. Representative Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois began a campaign to
organize the Nebraska Territory to encourage the construction of a railroad to
the Pacific Coast. By allowing white settlement on what had been Native American
land, Douglas and other Northern leaders hoped to build a transcontinental
railroad through their states rather than through the South. He was supported by
politicians from Iowa and Missouri, whose people were already moving into
Nebraska and who also realized the possibilities for regional growth a
transcontinental railroad might bring.
In 1854, after prolonged debate, the
Congress of the United States passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which created the
territories of Kansas and Nebraska and opened much of the land to legal white
settlement. The act also provided that the residents of each territory could
decide if they would permit slavery, a provision that repealed the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in the area north of
36°30′.
In 1854 U.S. President Franklin
Pierce appointed Francis Burt of South Carolina as the first governor of the
Nebraska Territory. Burt died eleven days after arriving at Bellevue, however,
and Territorial Secretary Thomas B. Cuming of Iowa became acting governor.
Cuming chose Omaha, which had been laid out during the summer of 1854, as the
territorial capital. The Nebraska Territory comprised a vast region bordered on
the north by the 49th parallel (the Canadian frontier) and on the south by the
40th parallel (just north of Kansas) and extended from the Missouri River to the
Rocky Mountains.
Most of the early settlements were
located along the Missouri River in the east and along the Platte River. Early
immigrants were much more interested in reaping quick profits from land
speculation than in farming. Land speculation was encouraged by the debate over
which town along the Missouri River would become the eastern terminus of a
transcontinental railroad. Until the construction of a railroad connecting
Council Bluffs to the East, however, the territory depended on Missouri River
steamboats for contact with the rest of the country, and Omaha and Nebraska City
prospered from the trade in goods brought up the Missouri on steamboats and
shipped in wagons to military posts and mining camps in the West.
Although violence quickly broke out
in Kansas over whether or not slavery should be permitted in the Territory,
there was little interest in establishing slavery in Nebraska. The census of
1860 showed only 82 blacks in the Nebraska Territory, two-thirds of whom were
free. Nebraskans concentrated on settling the land, later encouraged by the
Homestead Act of 1862, which promised 65 hectares (160 acres) to families that
resided on the land for five years. The first Homestead Act farm was near
Beatrice, Nebraska. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln also signed the Pacific
Railroad Act, which authorized the building of a transcontinental railroad that
would pass through Nebraska. The act gave to the Union Pacific Railroad huge
tracts of land along the proposed railway. The railroad then sold this land to
settlers, thereby encouraging immigration and providing money to build the
railroad at the same time. Under these two laws and subsequent acts about half
of Nebraska’s public lands were transferred to white settlers (see
Homestead Laws).
C3 | Statehood |
During the Civil War (1861-1865),
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln realized Nebraska’s voters would be a political
asset in the struggle with the Confederacy, and in 1864 the U.S. Congress passed
an act enabling the people of Nebraska to draw up a constitution and seek
admission to the Union. Nebraskans were divided on the desirability of
statehood, with opponents (mostly Democrats) arguing that the expense of state
government would offset any benefits. Voters rejected statehood in 1864, but in
1866 they narrowly approved a constitution that had been drafted by the
territorial legislature. They also elected people to fill posts in the new
state, including two U.S. senators. Because Democratic opposition to the Civil
War and to the homestead laws had alienated many Nebraskans, all but one of
these officials were Republicans. However, President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat
who had become president after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, vetoed the act
admitting Nebraska to the Union, arguing that the admission process violated the
Constitution of the United States. But Congress granted statehood over Johnson’s
veto, and on March 1, 1867, Nebraska became the 37th state of the Union. In 1867
a special commission selected the village of Lancaster, located on the banks of
Salt Creek, as the new state capital and renamed it Lincoln. The principal state
offices were moved to Lincoln at the end of 1868.
D | Late 19th Century |
D1 | Native American Warfare |
Although almost all eastern lands in
Nebraska had been ceded to whites by 1854, the Sioux and the Cheyenne remained
the owners of the western lands. In the early 1860s an Oglala Sioux chief, Red
Cloud, fought to keep the U.S. Army from opening the Bozeman Trail, which led to
the Montana goldfields and crossed an important Oglala hunting area in Nebraska
and South Dakota. In 1866 Red Cloud assumed leadership of a group of Sioux and
Cheyenne that opposed the construction that year of three army forts to protect
travelers on the Bozeman Trail. For two years Red Cloud and his allies besieged
these forts, and after long negotiations, in 1869 Red Cloud and the U.S.
government signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie, under which the United States
agreed to abandon the Bozeman Trail. The U.S. government, however, deceived Red
Cloud; the treaty also included a provision that relocated the Sioux from
Nebraska to a reservation in what is now South Dakota. Many Sioux, who opposed
the agreement, refused to move to the reservation and continued fighting.
In 1874 Lieutenant Colonel George
Armstrong Custer led mining experts on an expedition into the Black Hills of
South Dakota and discovered gold; whites poured into the area. To keep their
land free of occupation by white settlers, Crazy Horse, an Oglala Sioux leader,
and Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Sioux leader, joined forces. On June 25, 1876,
Custer and the Seventh Cavalry attacked the camps of Crazy Horse and Sitting
Bull on the banks of the Little Bighorn River in what is now Montana. In the
ensuing Battle of the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse and his warriors killed Custer
and most of his cavalry. The U.S. Army then pursued Crazy Horse, who finally
surrendered in northwestern Nebraska on May 6, 1877.
Ultimately almost all the Native
Americans remaining in Nebraska were removed to reservations outside the state,
most in what is now Oklahoma. The exceptions were the Santee Sioux in Knox
County, the Omaha in Thurston County, and the Winnebago in Cuming County.
D2 | White Settlement |
Nebraska’s population grew rapidly
after the Civil War, especially as the threat of attacks from Native Americans
decreased. In 1860 the population had been less than 30,000; in 1890 it was
close to 1 million. Union veterans of the Civil War constituted a large part of
the new population, which also included immigrants from Germany, Sweden, and
other countries of northern and central Europe. The two most important factors
in the growth of population and in the settlement of the state were the
railroads and the land policies of the federal government.
The Union Pacific Railroad, so
closely associated with the organization of Nebraska Territory, was completed in
1869, with its eastern terminus at Omaha. The Burlington, the state’s second
major railroad, began building west from the Missouri River at Plattsmouth in
1869, and by 1881 it had reached Benkelman, near the state’s southwest border.
The federal government granted nearly 17 percent of Nebraska’s land to various
railroad companies; the Union Pacific and Burlington received more than
seven-eighths of the total amount. These two railroads advertised their lands in
the eastern United States and sold them to settlers at low prices in order to
promote population growth and agriculture, and thereby generate more traffic for
the railroads.
D3 | Post-Civil War Economy |
In the eastern and south central
parts of the state most of the settlers raised livestock, corn, wheat, and other
grains. In the west, particularly in the Sand Hills, which constitute about
one-quarter of the state’s area, ranching became the dominant economic activity.
Nebraska’s ranches originally were stocked with cattle driven up from Texas in
the years following the Civil War, and Ogallala, for a time the northern
terminus of the trail from Texas, later gained some fame as one of a number of
so-called cow towns.
Nebraska settlers found life
difficult. Wood and water were scarce in most of the state; as a result,
settlers often had to cut bricks of sod out of the ground to build houses. These
sod houses ranged from simple dugouts built into the side of a hill to elaborate
two-story buildings. On the High Plains, away from the streams, it was
frequently necessary to drill wells more than 100 m (330 ft) into the ground to
find water.
The lack of water made agriculture,
which had quickly become the state’s principal economic activity, especially
difficult. Periodic droughts, particularly in the 1870s and 1890s, drastically
reduced crop yields. In 1874 and 1875, crops in many areas were destroyed by
huge swarms of grasshoppers. In addition, the expansion of farm production
around the world had lowered crop prices after the Civil War, often making it
impossible for Nebraska’s farmers to make ends meet even when harvests were
good. These problems were worsened by the fact that most farmers had little
money and often found it necessary to mortgage their land to purchase the
machinery needed to cultivate it. Low crop prices often made it impossible for
farmers to repay the loans, and many lost their land.
D4 | Farm Politics |
The importance of agriculture meant
that problems of farmers dominated the politics of the new state. The program of
the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, a fraternal society established
in 1867 to advance the social, economic, and political interests of farmers and
commonly called the National Grange, sought to help farmers by encouraging the
cooperative manufacture and distribution of farm machinery and other goods and
by urging state regulation of railroad rates, which farmers felt were excessive.
The cooperative manufacturing and distribution enterprises did not succeed, but
the state constitution of 1875, adopted under Granger influence, authorized the
state to regulate railroad fares, severely restricted state taxing and spending
powers, and restricted the legal amount of state government debt.
When economic conditions improved
somewhat in the late 1870s, the Granger movement declined, but in the late 1880s
farmers faced the same problems once again. Low crop prices, high operating
costs, and high interest rates made it difficult for farmers to operate at a
profit. Farmers’ Alliances, farmers’ organizations founded to advance their
social, educational, financial, and political interests, were organized in
Nebraska in 1880. The state legislature, despite constitutional authorization,
had failed to take any effective regulatory action against the railroads. The
Farmers’ Alliance, which was convinced that high freight rates and other
railroad pricing practices were the primary causes of agricultural distress,
began a campaign against the railroad companies that soon widened into an attack
on grain-elevator operators, bankers (for refusal to reduce interest rates), and
other businessmen who were perceived as greedy.
D5 | Populism |
Dissatisfied with the Republican
Party, which had dominated state government since 1867, and having no confidence
in the Democrats, the Farmers' Alliance created a new political organization,
the Populist, or People’s Party. Populists achieved notable victories in
Nebraska and in other Great Plains states, and in 1892 the party held its first
national convention at Omaha, nominating James B. Weaver of Iowa for
president.
Although the Populists continued to
be a force in Nebraska politics throughout the 1890s, their lack of national
success led them in 1896 to support the Democratic presidential nominee, William
Jennings Bryan, a Lincoln lawyer and from 1891 to 1895 a representative in the
U.S. Congress from Nebraska. Bryan was defeated by the Republican candidate,
Ohio Governor William McKinley. The Democrats again nominated Bryan for
president in 1900 and 1908, but on both occasions he was defeated. In 1901 Bryan
founded the Commoner, an influential weekly paper, in Lincoln, and later
as secretary of state for President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), Bryan negotiated
30 treaties of arbitration with foreign countries before resigning in 1915 to
protest what he considered was the administration’s bias against Germany.
If unsuccessful as a nationwide
party, however, the Populist Party was largely responsible for the adoption in
Nebraska of the secret ballot; the initiative, which allowed citizens to enact
laws through the ballot box; the referendum, which allowed citizens to vote on
laws the legislature had passed; laws regulating public utilities; and other
reforms. Agrarian reformers, however, failed to override Democratic Governor
James Boyd’s veto of a bill to lower railroad rates in 1892.
E | 20th Century |
By the beginning of the 20th century,
agricultural conditions had improved slightly and the Populists generally
drifted back into either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. From 1900
to the beginning of World War I in 1914, however, both political parties in
Nebraska were characterized by a growing belief that more government action was
required to meet individual needs. Nebraska enacted a direct primary for the
nomination of political candidates, and in 1912, George W. Norris, a Republican
who also believed in an active government, was elected to the first of his five
successive terms in the U.S. Senate.
E1 | World War I and the Depression |
World War I had a profound effect on
Nebraska. The state’s farmers, aided by bountiful rains and high prices for
crops, reached new heights of prosperity and additional land was brought under
cultivation. Nebraskans took pride in the fact that U.S. generals John J.
Pershing and Charles G. Dawes were both from Lincoln. But many Nebraskans also
doubted the loyalty of the state’s large German American population, many of
whom spoke German in everyday conversation and read local German-language
newspapers. Nebraska’s State Council of Defense was given broad powers of
investigation to ensure uniform support for the war and created an atmosphere of
persecution for German Americans and those who opposed the war or expressed
radical political views.
In the 1920s Nebraska saw some degree
of prosperity, but farmers suffered. Wartime demand had increased the amount of
land under cultivation. When demand disappeared after the war ended, crop prices
dropped sharply. In addition, operating costs steadily increased. As a result,
in the 1920s farmers did not prosper to the degree that other segments of the
population did.
The depression that followed the
stock market crash of 1929 hit Nebraska particularly hard. Few Nebraskans lost
much money in the stock market, but crop prices, which had been relatively low
in the 1920s, fell even lower after the crash, and in December 1932 crop prices
reached the lowest point in Nebraska history. Droughts then aggravated the
distress of farmers, causing low yields and severe dust storms. In response,
desperate farmers began vigilante activities, trying to keep products off the
market to increase prices. Produce trucks were halted on the roads to Sioux
City, Iowa, and milk trucks were overturned along roads leading into Omaha.
Farmers also organized penny auctions to allow farmers to rebuy farms that banks
had taken over. After foreclosing on a farm, a bank would try to recover its
costs by selling the farm at auction. At a penny auction, farmers offered
ridiculously low bids and intimidated other would-be buyers so that the farmer
could buy back the farm at an extremely low price. Finally, in February 1933
farmers marched on the capitol in Lincoln to demand that the government place a
moratorium, or a temporary freeze, on foreclosures; three weeks later, a
foreclosure moratorium bill was enacted. Crop prices improved somewhat in the
late 1930s, but drought hampered farm production throughout the decade. The
number of people in Nebraska on some form of government relief reached more than
15 percent of the population and did not diminish substantially until after
World War II began in 1939.
E2 | Agricultural Improvements |
The depression demonstrated the need
to solve some of the recurring problems faced by agriculture in Nebraska.
Federal government programs provided additional sources of credit for farmers
and helped to stabilize prices for the state’s basic commodities by paying
farmers to take land out of production. Irrigation had been practiced since the
1880s and more extensively after the National Reclamation Act of 1902 had set
aside proceeds from federal land sales in certain states to pay for irrigation
projects. The construction of large reservoirs and dams in the late 1930s,
however, dramatically expanded the use of irrigation. Complementing irrigation
was the development of hydroelectric power plants, which used the same water
that later filled the irrigation ditches. In 1933 the legislature authorized the
creation of public power and irrigation districts as political subdivisions. The
federal government also began an extensive program to encourage soil
conservation in the 1930s, and by 1950 all Nebraska farms and ranches belonged
to soil-conservation districts.
E3 | World War II |
During World War II, as during World
War I, Nebraska’s principal contribution was the production of food. However,
many of the state’s small industries produced a wide variety of war equipment,
and heavy bombers were assembled in Omaha. Three ordnance plants and a large
naval ammunition depot were built in the state, and 11 large air bases provided
training facilities for the army. After the war the worldwide headquarters of
the Strategic Air Command (now called the U.S. Strategic Command) were located
at Offutt Air Force Base.
E4 | Postwar Prosperity |
World War II brought unprecedented
prosperity to Nebraska’s agriculture. Federally-assisted construction of dams
helped farmers in Nebraska and other states drained by the Missouri River by
controlling floods and providing water for irrigation. Thereafter the farmers
remained generally healthy and prosperous as a result of adequate rainfall,
improved farming methods, irrigation, conservation, and relatively stable prices
for farm products. Center-pivot irrigation, in which a long pipe with sprinklers
moves around a circular field like the large hand of a clock, spread rapidly
after the 1970s. By the mid-1990s some 80,000 wells had been sunk to pump water
from the huge system of aquifers below the state to the thirsty fields above.
Agriculture became increasingly mechanized and the size of farms increased while
their number decreased, reducing the need for farm workers, many of whom moved
to the cities. The rural unemployment was partly offset by the development of
oil fields (most of which are now closed), and Nebraska remains primarily an
agricultural state.
E5 | Politics |
Although normally a Republican state,
in difficult times Nebraska voters have occasionally abandoned the Republican
Party. From 1901 to World War I, Democrats and Republicans rather evenly divided
control of the state, and William Jennings Bryan played a major role in the
state’s political affairs. In the 1920s state officers were generally
Republican, although the Democrats did continue to elect some U.S.
representatives. In the 1930s the Democrats controlled the state’s political
offices.
In the 1920s and the 1930s the single
most influential politician in Nebraska was U.S. Senator George Norris.
Nominally a Republican, his support of an active government role in alleviating
social and economic problems attracted votes from Republicans and Democrats
alike. In 1924 Norris publicly supported Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, the
Progressive Party presidential candidate, against Republican President Calvin
Coolidge (Coolidge won), and subsequently fought Coolidge’s policies in the
Senate. His support for Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Delano
Roosevelt of New York greatly irritated the national Republican Party. By 1936
neither Norris nor the Republican Party wanted each other; in his last two
campaigns that year and in 1942 he ran as an independent.
Nebraskans also experimented with
their form of government. In 1934 the state constitution was amended to provide
for a unicameral legislature of 43 members elected on ballots that did not list
party affiliation. The first session of the unicameral legislature convened in
1937. In 1963 the membership was increased to 49.
From 1940 until 1959 Nebraska elected
only Republican governors. A period of Democratic control began in 1959 and
lasted until 1967, when a Republican became governor after the first election
for a four-year term. The state elected a Democrat in 1970 and reelected him in
1974. A Republican was elected in 1978 and a Democrat in 1982.
In 1986 Republican Kay Orr, a former
state treasurer, and Democrat Helen Boosalis, a former Lincoln mayor, competed
for the governorship—the first time in the nation’s history that both major
parties had nominated women for the highest office in any state. Orr won,
becoming the first female Republican governor in U.S. history. In 1990, however,
Orr was defeated by Democrat Benjamin Nelson, an insurance executive who
attacked Orr for raising taxes and supporting a proposed low-level nuclear waste
dump. Nelson was reelected in 1994. In 1998 Republican Mike Johanns was elected
governor.
E6 | Economic Development |
Nebraska continued its traditional
dependence on agriculture in the late 20th century, sustained by underground
water sources and heavy government subsidies. Between 1945 and 1990, the amount
of irrigated land in the state increased from 364,230 hectares (900,000 acres)
to almost 3,237,600 hectares (8,000,000 acres). Federal farm subsidies are an
important part of Nebraska agriculture. From 1985 to 1989 Nebraska farmers
received almost $4.3 billion in federal subsidies, 45 percent of net
agricultural income (compared to 33 percent for farmers nationally).
In the early and middle 1980s
Nebraska suffered through its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
As in other farm depressions, many farmers had taken large loans to purchase
land and modernize operations and were driven into bankruptcy when crop prices
dropped and land values fell. Many farmers lost their land, and some banks with
extensive farm loans followed them into insolvency.
The metropolitan economies of Omaha
and Lincoln escaped the worst effects of the farm crisis, but rural areas,
heavily dependent on farming and farm-related business, suffered. Unable to find
jobs, young people fled the state in large numbers—83 of 93 counties lost
population in the 1980s.
In 1982 Nebraska adopted Initiative
300, a constitutional amendment that seeks to protect family farms by
prohibiting individual farmers from selling their land to corporations.
Initiative 300 does not appear to have significantly slowed the continued
consolidation of Nebraska farms, but it has withstood all constitutional and
political challenges.
In 1987 land prices began to recover.
To further promote growth and recovery, the state that year adopted a package of
tax incentives. Pressured by the agriculture corporation ConAgra, which
threatened to move its headquarters out of Omaha if the state did not modify its
tax laws, the legislature lowered its highest individual income tax rate from
9.5 percent to 7 percent, exempted certain kinds of business equipment from
property taxes, and gave tax breaks to companies that created jobs.
Although the large, older Omaha-based
companies—such as ConAgra, the Union Pacific Railroad, and Mutual of
Omaha—continued to influence the state’s economy, new smaller companies
scattered across the state in the telecommunications, insurance, health care,
and tourist industries became increasingly important in the late 1980s and early
1990s. Businesses with fewer than 100 employees accounted for three-quarters of
Nebraska’s nonfarm employment and the proliferation of these businesses fueled
the state’s economic revival. As a result Nebraska’s economy has grown steadily
in the 1990s, enabling the state to avoid most of the effects of a national
recession in early years of the decade. In addition, all but 20 of the state’s
counties halted their population losses in the early 1990s.
Despite the economic expansion,
Nebraska retains its heavy reliance on agriculture. Education and medical costs
have increased in the 1990s, property taxes remain high, and the population in
some rural areas continues to decline. But the effects of these problems have
been greatly eased by the state’s buoyant economy.
The history section of this article
was contributed by Donald R. Hickey. The remainder of the article was
contributed by Bradley H. Baltensperger.
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