NEBRASKA The Good Life, and More.

**This information was provided by the NEBRASKAland Foundation, Inc.

Belly up to the bar for sarsaparilla and buffalo burgers at the Crystal Palace Revue in Ogallala. Or settle in for a relaxed brunch of "Bagels and Bach" at Omaha Joslyn Art Museum.  

Nebraska is a place where urban sophistication serves as a counterpoint to its rugged pioneer history. Nebraska is a land of exciting contrasts. It's a state that has been called a 77,000 square-mile museum without walls, where the spiciness of the Old West still survives.

Nowhere but in Nebraska can you wander in the eerie moon-like landscape of Toadstool Park near Crawford, observe the nation's only unicameral legislature, be dwarfed by the world's largest elephant fossil in Lincoln's Morrill Hall, stroll through Father Flanagan's Boys and Girls Town near Omaha, or witness the world's largest concentration of sandhill cranes during their annual spring migration.

Practically anywhere travelers go in Nebraska they will encounter reminders of America's westward expansion. The state is crisscrossed by the Oregon and Mormon Trails, the Pony Express, the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Texas-Ogallala Trail and the Sidney-Deadwood Trail.

Progress, irrigation, industry and down-to-earth know-how of a resilient people have turned what 1819 explorer described as a land "almost wholly unfit for cultivation" into a fertile oasis, a bounteous breadbasket for the world.

It's still a land of promise, a land to be discovered, where one can get lost in endless space beneath big skies and find oneself as well as the "Good Life."

-John Hanlon, Lincoln

NEBRASKA'S SIGNIFICANCE IN HISTORY AND MODERN TIMES

Nebraska is a leading food producer. It's the nation's chief beef producer and ranks high in production of alfalfa meal, popcorn, beans, corn, winter wheat, hay, hogs and sugar beets. Nebraska is the nation's largest processor of chicken eggs. The Nebraska capitol building was declared the fourth ranking modern architectural wonder of the world by the American Institute of Architects.

• Headquarters for the STRATCOM (formerly SAC) is located at Offutt AFB, Bellevue.
• Nebraska is home of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney
• Creighton University, a Jesuit institution, is in Omaha.
• The world's most famous tractor testing laboratory is at the University of Nebraska College of Engineering.
• Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska.
• The world's largest elephant fossil was found in south central Nebraska.
• Elephant Hall, one of the top five paleontological (fossil) museums, is at the University of Nebraska, and two of the nation's richest fossil beds are in Nebraska at the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, and the Ashfall Fossil Bed State Park.
• Nebraska is both the largest producer and user of center pivot irrigation.
• Fort Atkinson, north of Omaha, was the first military post west of the Missouri River (1820) and had the first school in the state.
• Many pioneer and cattle trails crossed Nebraska using such landmarks like Scottsbluff (National Monument) and Chimney Rock.
• The first paved transcontinental highway (1915), Lincoln Highway (Route 30), goes through Nebraska.
• Union Pacific, the railroad that linked the east and west coasts with the Golden Spike has its headquarters in Omaha.
• Nebraska was the first state to complete its segment of the mainline interstate system, (I-80) 455 miles.
• Nebraska is the only state with a non-partisan unicameral, a one-house legislature.
• American Legion Post No. 3 in Lincoln is the world's largest American Legion post.
• Arbor Day was founded by J. Sterling Morton. The National Arbor Day Foundation has its headquarters near his home in Nebraska City.
• The first Forest Service nursery in the nation was planted at Halsey in the world's largest hand-planted forest (1 million trees).
• The greatest concentration of sandhill cranes occurs each spring when a half-million birds from several southern states gather for six weeks in a 40 mile stretch of the Platte River before fanning out across Canada.
• The University of Nebraska athletic programs have produced national champions in football, basketball and volleyball, with strong programs in all sports.
• Five Nebraskans are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame: Sam Crawford, Wahoo; Grover Cleveland Alexander, St. Paul; Bob Gibson, Omaha; Arthur (Dazzy) Vance, Hastings, and Richie Ashburn, Tilden.
• The USS Nebraska Trident submarine was commissioned in 1993. The last capital ship named after the state was an early 1900’s battleship.
• Omaha has been the home of the NCAA College Baseball World Series (baseball) since 1950.
• Lincoln is the headquarters of the U.S. Amateur Confederation of Roller Skating and frequently hosts the national championship competition. The organization's museum is also in Lincoln.
• Bailey Yard at North Platte is the country's largest railroad classification yard (Union Pacific).
• The University of Nebraska was the first Land Grant college west of the Missouri River to offer a graduate course.
• America's first rodeo was held by Buffalo Bill at his Scouts Rest Ranch at North Platte to celebrate the Fourth of July in 1882.
• Homestead National Monument near Beatrice marks the site of the claim of Daniel Freeman, the first entry under the Homestead Act.
• Nebraska was the first state to begin foreign market development of wheat in Europe and South America (1957).
• Nebraska has 11,000 miles of flowing streams, hundreds of lakes, and the huge underground Ogallala Aquifer.
• Nebraska is proud of its Nobel Prize winners: George Beadle, Wahoo, for science, 1958; Val Finch, Merriman, for physics, 1980; Lawrence Klein, Omaha, for economics, 1980.
• Nebraska has the largest area of sandhill grasslands, one of the nation's greatest cattle raising areas.
• Nebraska was the home and/or birthplace of such famous persons like: William Jennings Bryan, Henry Fonda, Willa Cather, Mari Sandoz, John J. Pershing, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Daryl F. Zanuck, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Margaret O'Brien, Gerald Ford, Robert Taylor, Sandy Dennis, Dick Cheney, Bess Streeter Aldrich, Malcolm X, James Colburn, Nick Nolte, Dorothy McGuire and many others.
• Nebraska led the Prairie States Forestry Project in planting over 4,000 miles of trees for shelterbelts during the "dust bowl" days.
• One of the finest zoological attractions in the nation is the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. The zoo has the world’s largest indoor rain forest, swamp, desert and aquarium.
• The 911 emergency system, now used nation-wide, originated in Nebraska and was first established in Lincoln.
• Research and development of air ambulance service first began in Nebraska.
• Charles Lindbergh learned to fly in Lincoln when it was a major center for airplane manufacturing.
• The nation's first authorized off-premise banking, with teller machines at grocery store courtesy counters, was developed in Lincoln.
• Nebraska has numerous national rankings, but its number one asset is still its honest, hard-working, friendly people.
• "Carhenge," an automotive replica of Stonehenge, located near Alliance, is constructed of old cars.
• Fort Robinson near Crawford was a World War II German POW camp.
• One of the largest independently owned jewelry stores in the nation is the famous Borsheim’s located in Omaha.
• The nation’s first Native American woman doctor was Susanne LeFlesche Picotte (Omaha Tribe).
• The Hall brothers, founders of Hallmark cards, came from Norfolk.
• Whittier Jr. High in Lincoln was the first junior high school in the nation.
• The National Liars’ Hall of Fame is located in Dannebrog, Nebraska. (Honest!) It was founded by folklorist, author and television celebrity, Roger Welsch of Danneborg.
• The Vice-Grip was invented in DeWitt.
• In 1986, Nebraska was the first state to have two women, Kay Orr and Helen Boorsalis, run against each other for governor.
• One of the nation’s first female pilots, mail carrier Evelyn Genevieve Sharp, was from Nebraska.
• The only member of the British royalty buried in the state, Lady Evelyn Brodstone Vestey, is at perpetual rest in her hometown of Superior.
• Black cavalry men, or “Buffalo Soldiers,” were stationed at Fort Robinson during the Plains Indian Wars. They were first called Buffalo Soldiers by Native Americans because their hair reminded the Indians of buffalo hair.
• The largest gathering ever of Native Americans (more than 100,000) was in 1851 at Horse Creek near Morrill.
• Northeast Nebraska Zoo in Royal has Reuben, a chimpanzee that knows sign language.
• The strobe light was invented by Nebraska native, Dr. Harold Edgerton.
• Crazy Horse was killed at Fort Robinson.
• "World’s Biggest Hamburger" is a Sioux Sundries in Harrison, Nebraska.

STATE DESIGNATIONS