CONTENTS The Cornhusker State 4 Quick Facts 6 Geography 8 Climate and Weather 12 Plants and Animals 14 History 18 Did You Know 24 People 26 Cities 30 Transportation 34 Natural Resources 36 Industry 38 Sports 40 Entertainment 42 Timeline 44 Glossary 46 Index 48
NEBRASKA THE CORNHUSKER STATE In 1820 United States Army explorer Major Stephen Long journeyed through the Great Plains including today’s Nebraska The major gazed at the vast treeless plains and saw a barren land unfit for farming Major Long called the plains The Great Desert He thought the area was a poor place to settle He couldn’t have been more wrong Today thanks to irrigation and hard-working farmers Nebraska is a fertile land that feeds the nation The state is beautiful in its own way Endless rows of corn recede into wide-open spaces Newly planted trees their branches waving in the prairie wind protect the soil from erosion Ponds and rivers shelter millions of migratory birds in one of nature’s most awe-inspiring spectacles Nebraska is full of people who love their state and its history They are also crazy for their university football team the Cornhuskers for whom the state is named Cornhusking is the manual stripping of husks from fresh corn Nebraska’s most important crop Each spring thousands of sandhill cranes stop at Nebraska’s Platte River on their annual northerly migration 4 NEBRASKA
At 800 feet 244 m high the towering Scotts Bluff is a famous Nebraska landmark
