Nebraska Fun Facts and Trivia

NEBRASKA LEGENDS

Nebraska Fun Facts & Trivia

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Buffalo Bill (William Cody) started his famous Wild West Show near his ranch in North Platte. The first rodeo was held in North Platte on July 4, 1882.

The area, mistakenly called the "Great American Desert" by European Explorers, is one of the top farming areas in the world.

It is illegal to go whale fishing in Nebraska.

Hay bales were used to build the only church in the U.S. made of this unusual building material.

Many Indian tribes native to the area were forced out by the U.S. government. At the same time, others were pushed into Nebraska.

Borsheims in Omaha has the largest jewelry store in the nation.

Elephant Hall, a museum in Lincoln, has the biggest collection of elephant skeletons in the world. The biggest mammoth fossils ever discovered were found in Lincoln County.

Buffalo Bill Cody in 1903

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

In Waterloo, barbers are forbidden from eating onions between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Arbor Day was started in Nebraska City in 1872 by Sterling Morton to encourage tree planting.

The westward journey of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark in 1804 took these explorers up the Missouri River. The Missouri River makes up the eastern border of Nebraska.

Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in 1927 in Hastings. He changed his soft drink syrup, Fruit Smack, into a powder to make it easier to ship.

Valentine, a small town of about 3,000 people, gets many requests for cards postmarked from the town on February 14th.

Second Wind Ranch, near Comstock, has more water-pumping windmills (about 125) gathered together than any other place on Earth.

Sioux, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Missouri, Omaha and Ponca Indians were some of the first people to live in the area.

Twice-yearly migrations of millions of cranes, ducks and geese turn the Platte River area into an amazing sight.

The Niobrara is one of the top canoeing rivers in the country. It has more than 90 waterfalls.

The Great Plains is a large, mostly flat area of grassland prairie in the center of the continent. Nebraska is a Great Plains State.

The Unicameral is the name of the only state legislature with only one branch. All other states have two branches, usually a senate and a house of representatives. The Unicameral is also different in that when candidates run for office, they do not run on a certain party's ticket.

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, courtesy Great Platte River Road Archway Monument

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument grabs travelers' attention near Kearney. Inside are exhibits about this area as the gateway to the West.

The High Plains Aquifer is a big underground layer of rocks and other materials that are filled with water. Most of this aquifer is beneath Nebraska, giving it more underground water than any other state.

Many ranches are giant-sized, covering more than 100,000 acres.

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha.

The Sand Hills are the biggest grass-covered sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere. They cover about one-fourth of the state. Only the Sahara and the Arabian deserts have bigger areas of sand.

The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha has the world's biggest indoor rain forest exhibit.

Johnny Carson grew up in Norfolk.

The state nickname used to be the "Tree Planter's State", but was changed in 1945 to the "Cornhusker State".

Nebraska Sand Hills

Nebraska Sand Hills, photo courtesy Nebraska Game and

Parks Commission

The Naval Ammunition Depot located in Hastings was the largest U.S. ammunition plant providing 40% of WWII's ammunition.

The Union Pacific's Bailey Yards, in North Platte, is the largest rail classification complex in the world.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln weight room is the largest in the country. It covers three-fourths of an acre

Chevyland USA near Elm Creek, Nebraska is the only museum dedicated to a single line of cars.

Union Pacific Railroad's museum is headquartered in Nebraska.

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