Nebraska
State in central USA; nicknamed Cornhusker State/Blackwater State
Area:
200,400 sq km/77,354 sq mi
Capital:
Lincoln
Towns and Cities:
Omaha, Grand Island, North Platte
Physical:
Rocky Mountain foothills; tributaries of the Missouri; prairies; Mission
River; Platte River, with the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat ;
Nebraska national forest
Features:
A 206-km/128-mi stretch of the Oregon Trail, including Scotts Bluff
national monument, Chimney Rock national historic site, and Courthouse
and Jail Rocks; Buffalo Bill Ranch state historical park; Willa Cather
Historical Center and Cather Memorial Prairie, Red Cloud; Homestead
national monument; Boys Town, founded 1917 for homeless boys; Fremont
and Elkhorn Valley Railroad; Strategic Air Command Museum, Bellevue.
Industries:
Cereals, livestock, processed foods, fertilizers, oil, natural gas
Population:
(1995) 1,637,100
Famous People:
Fred Astaire, William Jennings Bryan, Johnny Carson, Willa Cather,
Henry Fonda, Harold Lloyd, Malcolm X
History:
Exploited by French fur traders in the early 1700s; ceded to Spain
by France 1763; retroceded to France 1801; part of the Louisiana
Purchase 1803; explored by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
1804-06; first settlement at Bellevue 1823; became a territory
1854 and a state 1867 after the Union Pacific began its transcontinental
railroad at Omaha 1865. Nebraska's farm economy was weakened in
the 1930s by the Great Depression and dust storms, but World War
II brought military airfields and war industries. Much of the
industry developed since that time is related to agriculture.
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