Nebraska

Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.

Page Toppers

Beautiful Nebraska
I'm Going Back to Old Nebraska
Omaha is My Own Town
What They Got in Omaha?

Nebraska Symbols

Nicknames: The Tree Planter's State, The Cornhusker State; The Blackwater State; The Beef state
Slogan: Genuine Nebraska
Previous Slogan: Nebraska, the Good Life
Motto: Equality before the law
Song: Beautiful Nebraska (words by Jim Fras and Guy G. Miller, music by Jim Fras)
Ballad: A Place Like Nebraska
Folk Dance: Square Dance
Mammal: White Tail Deer
Bird: Western Meadowlark
Fish: Channel Catfish
Insect: Honeybee
Tree: Cottonwood
Flower: Goldenrod
Grass: Little Bluestem
Gem Stone: Blue Chalcedony (Agate)
Fossil: Mammoth
Rock: Prairie (Blue) Agate
Beverage: Milk
Soft Drink: Kool-Aid
Poet: William Kloefkorn
Poet Laureate: John G. Neihardt

Facts About Nebraska

Capital: Lincoln
Residents: Nebraskans
State Name Origin: from a French word meaning "broad river" or an Oto Indian word meaning "flat water"
Admitted to Statehood: 1 Mar 1867
Order of Admission: 37th state
Length: 430 miles
Width: 120 miles
Area: 77,354 square miles
Size Rank: 16
Number of Counties: 93
Streams and Rivers: 81,573 miles (reported to be more miles than any other state)
Nebraska has more underground water reserves than any other state in the continental U.S.
Geographic Center: 10 miles NW of Broken Bow in Custer Co.
Mean Elevation: 2,600 feet
Highest Point: Panorama Point (in Kimball Co.), 5,424 feet
Lowest Point: Missouri River, 480 feet
Agricultural Products: food products, rye, corn, soybeans, sorghum, wheat, hay, cattle, hogs
Commercial Products: meat-packing, clothing, farm machinery, chemicals, transportation equipment, industrial machinery
Average Annual Rainfall: varies by area
Average Winter High Temperature: 19 degrees
Record Low Temperature: -47 degrees (12 Feb 1899 Camp Clarke)
Average Summer High Temperature: 79 degrees
Record High Temperature: 118 degrees (24 Jul 1936 Minden)
More information about Nebraska

Quotes

What largely runs Nebraska is...the weather. (John Gunther)

Hail Varsity

(Nebraska Fight Song)

Hail to the team
The stadium rings as everyone sings,
The Scarlet and Cream.
Cheers for a victory, echo our loyalty;
So, on mighty men,
The eyes of the land, upon every hand,
Are looking at you.
Fight on for victory
Hail to the Men of Nebraska U

Dear Old Nebraska U

There is no place like Nebraska
Dear old Nebraska U.
Where the girls are the fairest,
The boys are the squarest,
Of any old school that I knew.

There is no place like Nebraska,
Where they're all true blue.
We'll all stick together,
In all kinds of weather,
For Dear old Nebraska U!

Items of Interest

Nebraska was once called "The Great American Desert".
Omaha is home to the world's largest indoor rain forest.
Nebraska is the birthplace of the Reuben sandwich.
Nebraska is the only state in the union with a unicameral (one house) legislature. Members are elected to it without party designation.
Nebraska was the first state to complete its segment of the nations mainline interstate highway system.
Nebraska is both the nation's largest producer and user of center pivot irrigation.
Nebraska's Chimney rock was the most often mentioned landmark in journal entries by travelers on the Oregon Trail.
The 911 emergency communications system was developed and first used in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Lincoln County is the origin of the world's largest Wooly Mammoth fossil.
Weeping Water is the nations largest limestone deposit and producer.
The University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football team has been to a record 27 consecutive bowl games and has produced more Academic All-Americans than any other Division I school.
The Union Pacific began its transcontinental railroad at Omaha in 1865.
J. Sterling Morton, a U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, started Arbor Day in 1885. That year, people in his state planted one million trees.
More varieties of grass, valuable for forage, grow in Nebraska than in any other state in the nation.
The largest porch swing in the world is in Hebron - it can seat 25 adults.
The world's only museum dedicated to Fur Trading is located at Fort Atkinson near Blair.
Chevyland USA near Elm Creek, Nebraska is the only museum dedicated to a single line of cars.
The largest Kolache Festival in the world is located in Prague, Nebraska
Cozad, Nebraska is located on the 100th Meridian where the humid east meets the arid west.
In Nebraska in 1986 for the first time ever two women ran against each other for governorship of a state.
Buffalo Bill Cody held his first rodeo in North Platte, Nebraska July 4, 1882.
Kearney, Nebraska is located exactly half way between Boston and San Francisco.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

Grace Abbott (1878-1939) - social reformer, helped write the Social Security Act (Grand Island)
Grover Cleveland Alexander (1887-1950) - baseball pitcher (St. Paul)
Fred Astaire (1899-1987) - actor, dancer (Omaha)
Max Baer - boxer (Omaha)
Bil Baird - puppeteer (Grand Island)
George Beadle - geneticist (Wahoo)
Marlon Brando (1924-2004) - actor (Omaha)
Warren Buffett (1930- ) - investor (Omaha)
Johnny Carson - television host (grew up in Norfolk)
Dick Cavett - television entertainer (Gibbon)
Montgomery Clift - actor (Omaha)
James Coburn - actor (Laurel)
Sandy Dennis - actress (Hastings)
Mignon Eberhart - author (Lincoln)
Dr. Harold Edgerton - invented the strobe light (Fremont)
Ruth Etting - singer, actress (David City)
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846- ) - buffalo hunter, Army scout, rancher, Wild West showman
Father Edward Flanagan - founded Boys Town in Omaha in 1917
Henry Fonda (1905-1982) - actor (Grand Island)
Gerald Rudolph Ford (1913- ) - 38th U.S. President (Omaha)
Jay W. Forrester - inventor (Climax)
Bob Gibson - baseball player (Omaha)
Hoot Gibson - actor (Tememah)
Joyce C. Hall (1891-1982) - founder of Hallmark Cards (David City)
Howard Hanson - composer, conductor (Wahoo)
Leland Hayward - producer (Nebraska City)
David Janssen - actor (Naponee)
Susette La Flesche - artist (Omaha)
Francis La Flesche - ethnologist (Omaha)
Frank W. Leahy - football coach (O'Neill)
Harold Lloyd - actor, film maker
Irish McCalla - actress (Pawnee City)
Dorothy McGuire - actress (Omaha)
J. Sterling Morton (1832-1903) - Secretary of Agriculture, founded Arbor Day in 1872 (Nebraska City)
Nick Nolte - actor (Omaha)
Kay Orr - first female Republican governor)
Edwin E. Perkins - invented the Kool-Aid in 1927
Roscoe Pound - educator, legal scholar (Lincoln)
Red Cloud (1822-1909) - Sioux leader, rights advocate
Mari Sandoz - author (Sheridan county)
Standing Bear - native American rights advocate, leader
Inga Swenson - actress (Omaha)
Robert Taylor - actor (Filley)
Paul Williams - singer, composer, actor (Omaha)
Don Wilson - announcer (Lincoln)
Julie Wilson - singer, actress (Omaha)
Malcolm X (1925-1965)- religious leader, civil rights activist (Omaha)
Darryl F. Zanuck - film producer (Wahoo)

The Nebraska State Flag
Nebraska adopted a state banner in 1925 but did not have a state flag until 1963. The flag's background is national blue. In the center is a reproduction of the state seal. The seal has symbols of transportation (train, steamboat), agriculture (wheat), settlers (cabin), industry (blacksmith). At the top of the seal is the state motto (Equality Before the Law), and around the edge are the words "Great Seal of the State of Nebraska, March 1st, 1867".

You know you are from Nebraska if...

"Vacation" means going to Omaha for the weekend.
You use your life savings to go to the Nebraska-Colorado game.
You know the Woodmen Tower is not made of wood.
You know you cannot tube "upstream."
You know what the "sea of red & white" i
You wake up when it's dark, and go to bed when it's still light.
You can tell it's really a farmer working late in his field, and not a UFO.
You know the difference between field corn and sweet corn when they are still on the stalk.
You pick up all the free stuff at the State Fair.
You can eat an ear of corn with no utensils in less than 20 seconds.
You fly your American flag at halfmast when the Cornhuskers lose a football game.
You know how to pronounce Beatrice, Norfolk and Kearney.
You think Highway 6 is more scenic that I-80, which you think is the best thing to come out of Iowa.
You don't understand why other states even bother to try raising beef.
You believe that the worst steak in Nebraska is still better than any other steak, anywhere.
You believe that vegetarians should be banned in Nebraska.
You don't have to be told what Aksarben is or that it's Nebraska spelled backward.
You take pride in knowing that on Saturdays, Memorial stadium is the third largest city in the state.
Kitty Clover potato chips and Robert's Milk were are the best part of a meal.
You know that the statue on the dome of the state capital is actually sowing seed - not bowling.
You know what a Runza is.
You call lunch "dinner" and dinner "supper."
You think it's normal to get a side of spaghetti at a steakhouse.
You avoid Omaha because you're afraid of getting mugged.
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Nebraska.