50 Fun Facts About Nebraska

What is Nebraska's most populous city, sitting on the Missouri River?

Omaha is Nebraska's largest city by a wide margin: the 2020 census counted about 486,000 residents inside the city limits, well ahead of any other city in the state.

Nebraska became the 37th state on March 1 of which year?

Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state on March 1, 1867, two years after the Civil War ended, after Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson's veto of the statehood bill.

The name Nebraska comes from Otoe and Omaha words meaning what?

Flat water is the meaning of the Otoe and Omaha words behind the state's name; both describe the wide, shallow river that crosses the whole state from west to east.

What makes the Nebraska Legislature unique among US state legislatures?

It is unicameral and nonpartisan: voters approved a 1934 amendment merging the house and senate, and the single chamber, whose members are titled senators, first met in 1937.

How many members does the Nebraska Legislature have, making it the smallest in the country?

Nebraska's single chamber has 49 senators, the fewest of any state legislature; they serve four-year terms and, since a 2000 amendment, are limited to two consecutive terms.

Which soft drink, invented in Hastings in 1927, is Nebraska's official state soft drink?

Kool-Aid was created by Edwin Perkins in Hastings in 1927 as a powder that was far cheaper to ship than his bottled syrup; Nebraska made it the official state soft drink in 1998.

What was the liquid concentrate that Kool-Aid was developed from?

Fruit Smack was Edwin Perkins's bottled fruit syrup; in 1927 he dehydrated it into a powder sold in paper packets, far cheaper to ship than glass bottles that often broke in transit.

Which holiday was founded in Nebraska City by J. Sterling Morton?

Arbor Day was proposed by J. Sterling Morton, a Nebraska City newspaper editor, and first observed across Nebraska on April 10, 1872; it became a legal state holiday in 1885.

Roughly how many trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day in 1872?

One million trees is the figure usually given for that first Arbor Day, April 10, 1872, when prizes were offered to the counties and individuals that planted the most.

Nebraska and which other state split electoral votes by district in the 2024 election?

Maine has split its electoral votes by congressional district since 1972 and Nebraska since 1992; each gives two votes to the statewide winner and one to the winner of each district.

Nebraska is split between which two time zones?

Central and Mountain: most of Nebraska runs on Central Time, while the Panhandle and a few neighbouring counties in the west observe Mountain Time.

Warren Buffett, the 'Oracle of Omaha', paid how much for his longtime Omaha house in 1958?

$31,500 bought Warren Buffett his stucco house in Omaha's Dundee neighbourhood in 1958; he was born in Omaha in 1930, the son of congressman Howard Buffett.

Which four Fortune 500 companies were headquartered in Omaha on the 2025 list?

Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha and Kiewit all made the 2025 Fortune 500, with Berkshire Hathaway inside the top ten; the construction firm Kiewit qualifies despite being employee-owned.

Which annual NCAA championship event has made its home in Omaha?

The College World Series has been played in Omaha each June since 1950, first at Rosenblatt Stadium and, from 2011, at the downtown ballpark later renamed Charles Schwab Field.

Which of these sandwiches is claimed as an Omaha invention?

The Reuben is said to have been created at Omaha's Blackstone Hotel in the 1920s and named for grocer Reuben Kulakofsky, a regular at the hotel's weekly poker game.

Omaha hosted a World's Fair in 1898 under what name?

The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition ran from June to October 1898 on Omaha's north side, drew about 2.6 million visitors, and was presided over by banker Gurdon Wattles.

Which US Air Force organisation moved to Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha in 1948?

Strategic Air Command moved its headquarters from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Offutt in November 1948; its successor, US Strategic Command, was based there from 1992.

Omaha hosted the first official performance of whose Wild West Show in 1883?

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West gave its first official performance at the Omaha fairgrounds in May 1883; Cody's Scout's Rest Ranch at North Platte later became a state historical park.

What was the state capital called before it was renamed for the assassinated president?

Lancaster was a tiny village when it was chosen as the new state capital and renamed for the assassinated Abraham Lincoln; it is the seat of Lancaster County, and the University of Nebraska was chartered there in 1869.

Nebraska's State Capitol, completed in 1932, ranks where among US capitols by height?

Second-tallest: Bertram Goodhue's 400-foot tower, topped by Lee Lawrie's bronze statue The Sower, is exceeded among US capitols only by Louisiana's 450-foot building in Baton Rouge.

Which Japanese company opened a motorcycle assembly plant in the state capital in 1974?

Kawasaki opened the Lincoln plant in 1974, the first Japanese-owned motorcycle factory in the United States; it later expanded into personal watercraft, all-terrain vehicles and rail cars.

Which regional fast-food chain, known for its bread-pocket sandwiches, began in the state capital?

Runza opened its first stand in Lincoln in 1949, selling the bread pocket stuffed with beef, cabbage and onions that founder Sally Everett adapted from a German-Russian family recipe.

How many national championships have the Nebraska Cornhuskers won in football?

Five: 1970 and 1971 under Bob Devaney, then 1994, 1995 and 1997 under Tom Osborne, the last shared with Michigan after the AP and coaches' polls split.

Nebraska's record home-football sellout streak at Memorial Stadium began in which year?

1962 was Bob Devaney's first season as coach; the streak began with a loss to Missouri at Memorial Stadium on November 3 that year and grew into the longest in college football.

What is Nebraska's football defense nicknamed?

The Blackshirts name dates to 1964, when Bob Devaney's staff began giving the first-team defense black pullover practice jerseys so coaches could tell them apart from the offense.

Which three Cornhuskers have won the Heisman Trophy?

Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch won the Heisman in 1972, 1983 and 2001 respectively; Rozier rushed for 2,148 yards in his 1983 season.

The 1971 Nebraska-Oklahoma clash, won by top-ranked Nebraska, is remembered by what name?

The Game of the Century was played on Thanksgiving Day 1971 in Norman; a 72-yard first-quarter punt return put Nebraska ahead and Jeff Kinney's late touchdown sealed a 35-31 win.

Chimney Rock, a landmark on the Oregon Trail, rises how far above the North Platte valley?

Over 300 feet: the spire and its conical base rise about 325 feet above the North Platte valley near Bayard, and the landmark appears with a covered wagon on Nebraska's 2006 state quarter.

What is Carhenge, near Alliance?

A Stonehenge replica built from old cars: Jim Reinders and his family assembled the grey-painted vehicles to match Stonehenge's dimensions and dedicated it at the summer solstice in 1987.

How many cars make up Carhenge's circle?

39 vehicles make up the circle, about 96 feet across, with a Cadillac standing in for the heel stone; three foreign cars are buried on site beneath a mock epitaph.

The Sandhills of north-central Nebraska are the largest what in the Western Hemisphere?

Grass-covered sand dune region: the Sandhills cover about 19,300 square miles, roughly a quarter of Nebraska, and the dunes are held in place by mixed-grass prairie that is grazed rather than farmed.

The Ogallala Aquifer, named for a Nebraska town, lies beneath how many states?

Eight: the aquifer underlies parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, about 174,000 square miles in all, with its thickest saturated section under Nebraska.

Which bird makes the central Platte River valley its most important migration stopover each spring?

The sandhill crane: around 80 percent of the world's population, more than half a million birds, stages on the central Platte between Kearney and Grand Island each March before flying north.

Bailey Yard in North Platte holds what world record?

Largest rail classification facility: Bailey Yard covers about 2,850 acres and handles some 10,000 rail cars a day, sorting them over two humps into trains bound across the continent.

Which 1854 act of Congress created the territory, drawing its southern line at the 40th parallel?

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, signed by Franklin Pierce in May 1854, split the region into two territories and let settlers vote on slavery, repealing the Missouri Compromise line of 1820.

Which famous mail service ran through Nebraska along the Platte in 1860-61?

The Pony Express carried mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861, following the Platte across Nebraska until the transcontinental telegraph made it obsolete.

Which Illinois-born politician represented Nebraska in Congress and ran for president three times?

William Jennings Bryan, born in Salem, Illinois, served two terms in the House from Nebraska, lost the 1896, 1900 and 1908 presidential races, and was Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State.

Which future US president was born in Nebraska but moved away shortly after birth?

Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Nebraska's largest city on July 14, 1913; his mother left his abusive father within weeks and raised him in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

As of the 2020 census, roughly how many people lived in the state?

About 1.96 million: the 2020 census counted 1,961,504 Nebraskans, ranking the state 37th in population; roughly 40 percent of them lived in the two largest cities combined.

Which outdoor retailer had its national headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska?

Cabela's grew from a 1961 kitchen-table mail-order business into an outdoor-gear giant headquartered in Sidney until Bass Pro Shops bought the company in 2017.

Where did the first US Army post west of the Missouri River stand, established in 1819?

Fort Atkinson, near present-day Fort Calhoun, stood on the Council Bluff where Lewis and Clark had met the Otoe and Missouria in 1804; it was garrisoned from 1819 to 1827 and later reconstructed as a state historical park.

Where is one traditional marker for where 'the West' begins in Nebraska?

A red brick star at 13th and O Streets in Lincoln is set into the downtown intersection to mark where 'the West begins'; rival claims put the line at the Missouri River, the 100th meridian or Chimney Rock.

Nebraska holds which unique geographic distinction among US states?

Only triply landlocked state: from Nebraska you must cross at least three other states or Canadian provinces to reach an ocean, gulf or bay, a distinction no other US state shares.

How many counties does Nebraska have?

93: Nebraska's counties range from Cherry County in the Sandhills, larger in area than Connecticut, to Sarpy County in the east, the smallest by area but among the most populous.

How high is Panorama Point, Nebraska's highest point?

5,424 feet is the long-cited elevation of Panorama Point, a gentle rise on a private bison ranch in Kimball County at the state's southwest corner, a short drive from the Colorado and Wyoming lines.

Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney are known collectively as what?

The Tri-Cities are central Nebraska's three mid-size hubs, all within about 50 miles of each other; Grand Island is the largest, and Kearney hosts the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Who invented the Vise-Grip locking pliers in Nebraska in 1924?

William Petersen, a Danish-born blacksmith in De Witt, patented the locking pliers in 1924; the Vise-Grip factory stayed in the town until production moved to China in 2008.

Which Sandhills cattle operation is one of Nebraska's oldest and largest?

Spade Ranch was founded in 1888 by Bartlett Richards in the Sandhills near Ellsworth and grew to run tens of thousands of cattle; it was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Which novelist, raised in Red Cloud, set My Ántonia on the Nebraska prairie?

Willa Cather moved from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, aged nine, and drew on the Red Cloud area for O Pioneers! and My Ántonia; she won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours.

How many US states share a border with Nebraska?

Six: South Dakota to the north, Iowa and Missouri across the Missouri River to the east, Kansas to the south, and Colorado and Wyoming to the west.