🌾Nebraska

The Cornhusker State

Nebraska is the only U.S. state with a unicameral (single-house) legislature, a reform adopted in 1934 at the urging of George Norris. It is also the only state whose rivers flow only out of the state and never into it — the Missouri, Platte, Republican, and Niobrara all carry Nebraska water south and east. The state is the heart of the Great Plains and the corn belt.

Platte River Highway

For 30 years the Platte River valley served as the main highway of westward migration. The Oregon, California, and Mormon trails all followed the Platte across Nebraska. Landmarks — Chimney Rock, Courthouse Rock, Scotts Bluff — were celebrated by pioneer diarists. Fort Kearny and Fort Laramie (just over the Wyoming line) protected the route. Nebraska became a state in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended.

Homesteads and Sod Houses

The Homestead Act of 1862 promised 160 acres of public land free to anyone who would live on and improve it for five years. Nebraska was the Homestead Act's showcase. Settlers built sod houses from prairie turf because lumber was unavailable on the treeless plains. Many homesteads failed in droughts and grasshopper plagues, but many succeeded and their descendants still farm the same ground. The Homestead National Historical Park near Beatrice preserves the site of the first claim ever filed.

Corn, Beef, and Huskers

Nebraska ranks near the top of U.S. states in corn and beef cattle production. Most of that corn feeds those cattle, and Nebraska beef is sold worldwide. Omaha is home to the Union Stock Yards (now mostly closed) and to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. The University of Nebraska's "Cornhuskers" football team earned the state its official nickname and has 46 conference championships and five national titles.

One House

In 1934, Nebraska voters approved a constitutional amendment championed by Senator George Norris to abolish the state House of Representatives and leave only a Senate — making Nebraska the only U.S. state with a single-chamber, or unicameral, legislature. The body's members are elected on nonpartisan ballots.

Nebraska Facts

• Nebraska is the only U.S. state with a unicameral and officially nonpartisan legislature.
• Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska in 1927. The state's official soft drink is Kool-Aid.
• The Sandhills region of north-central Nebraska is the largest sand dune formation in the Western Hemisphere — now covered in grass and grazed by cattle.
• Nebraska is the only U.S. state with an official state fossil, the mammoth.
• Ted Sorensen — John F. Kennedy's speechwriter — was born in Lincoln.

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