Nebraskiana Publications

Laureate Address of John G. Neihardt Upon Official Notification of His Choice as Poet Laureate of Nebraska

John G. Neihardt — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:02:13 PDT

I want to talk to you about the technique of Poetry and the relation of that art to education and the social process in general. In order that you may be able to judge as to the relevance of my remarks, I must first tell you what I understand by the word "education. "

Were the definition, that I hold, my own, I would not presume to offer it here; but I need only find the proper words with which to express the common opinion of many seers in many times and countries; and this, unfortunately, seems now to be necessary, for we have been living in one of the most materialistic ages that have ever been known, and of the many ideals that have suffered, that of education has not suffered least.

I would say that education is fundamentally a spiritual process. In its proper function it is concerned less with the problem of acquiring the means of life than with the far more difficult one of knowing what to do with life after one is in possession of the means to live. We have heard much of practical education; and there is no fault to find with the expression; for "practical" means that which will work, and surely only that which will work may be regarded as good. But there has been something radically wrong with our Understanding of the word "practical." Owing to the tremendous economic pressure of our individualistic social system, we have been forced to interpret the word as meaning that which contributes directly to material success; and for a great many people practical education has come to signify that mental training which is calculated to give the maximum of income in the minimum of time.
[...]
As a reaction against a barren formalism, the "new" poetry, as it is called, will no doubt serve a good purpose in the end; for experimentation is always necessary in a universe where rigidity is death. But formlessness can not survive; and already the inevitable reaction seems to be setting in. Thanks to the abnormal pressure of war-conditions, we have been driving in the general direction of Democracy (though we are still very far from it) -- a form of social organization never as yet realized upon this planet. Contrary to the opinions of many, Democracy connotes no free-and-easy mode of life, but intensive organization, the universal reign of law in the interest of the race as a whole. As we near the realization of that supreme social concept; our whole view of life and, consequently, of art, will be correspondingly modified. We shall come to insist more and more upon experts in all things. Respect for standards, love of order, will return. The petty personalism, that has long dominated us, will die away. Our poets will achieve the objective view of the world of men and things -- and it is out of that view that all great art, as all great life, must grow.

Nebraska: A Guide to the Cornhusker State (WPA Guide)

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:43:12 PDT

The guide to the “Cornhusker State” is full of many interesting photographs of the people and places of Nebraska. They portray a largely agrarian state of hard-working farmers. There is an interesting essay on the unicameral legislature of Nebraska. The guide sticks pretty close to the series format. Eight cities are given detailed descriptions. There are 13 detailed tours of the state.

SOME of us in Nebraska know what it is to have made the first wagon track across an unbroken sea of grass into a new land, with no guide but the sun, the distant hilltops, and our own resolution. I remember more than one such road. We had to find our way, discover our own fords, devise our own gully crossings, and leave a trail which others could follow and improve. This book is another road starter. It is the first attempt to put into one compact handy volume the story of Nebraska's land and its people and a guide to every part of the State. It is the first Nebraska Baedeker. Its preparation has called into the Federal service more than one hundred writers, researchers, draftsmen, and photographers, for a period exceeding two years. In the course of their work they have handled thousands of books, newspapers, and manuscripts, and have traveled Nebraska from the black prairie soil along the Missouri to the pine tree ridges beyond the sandhills. The Superintendent and staff of the Nebraska State Historical Society have had the privilege of assisting in an advisory and critical capacity.

Contents

FOREWORD, By Addison E. Sheldon, Nebraska State Historical Society v
PREFACE
GENERAL INFORMATION
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
The State in Review
MODERN NEBRASKA
NATURAL SETTING: Geography and Climate; Geology and Paleontology; Animal Life, Plant
Life, Natural Resources and Their Conservation
INDIANS: Prehistoric Culture; Historic Indians
HISTORY: Period of Exploration, Territorial Organization, Settlement, Statehood
GOVERNMENT: The Unicameral Legislature
AGRICULTURE AND THE FARMER
INDUSTRY AND LABOR
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION
ETHNIC ELEMENTS
FOLKLORE AND FOLKWAYS
EDUCATION AND RELIGION
ART AND Music
ARCHITECTURE
THE PRESS
LITERATURE

II. Cities and Towns
BEATRICE
FREMONT
GRAND ISLAND
HASTINGS
LINCOLN
NORFOLK
NORTH PLATTE
OMAHA

III. Tours

TOUR 1. (Sioux City, Iowa)-South Sioux City-Tekamah-Omaha-Nebraska City-Falls City (Hiawatha, Kans.) , 205 m
TOUR lA. Omaha-Bellevue, 5.5 m.
TOUR 1B. Junction with US 73-75-Rock Bluffs 6 m.
TOUR 2. (Sioux City, Iowa)-Winnebago-Fremont-Lincoln-Beatrice-(Marysville, Kans.) ; 200 m
TOUR 3. (Yankton, S. Dak.)-Norfolk-Columbus-York-Fairmont-Hebron-(Belleville, Kans ), 235.8 m.
TOUR 4 (Fairfax, S. Dak.)-Butte-O'Neill-Bartlett-St Paul-Grand Island-Hastings-Red Cloud-(Lebanon, Kans.) ; 241.4 m.
Tour 5. (Colone, S. Dak )-Springview-Bassett-Taylor-Ansley-Kearney-Elm Creek-Holdrege-Alma-(Woodruff, Kans ) , 257 m.
TOUR 6. (Hot Springs, S. Dak )-Chadron-Alliance-Bridgeport-Sidney-(Sterling, Colo.) ;
174 m.
TOUR 7. (Sioux City, Iowa) -South Sioux City-O'Neill-
Valentme-Chadron-Harrison-(Lusk, Wyo.) ;
TOUR 8. (Missouri Valley, Iowa)-Fremont-Grand Island-Kearney-North Platte-Sidney-(Cheyenne, Wyo.) ; 447.7 m.
TOUR 8A. Maxwell-Fort McPherson National Cemetery-Cottonwood Canyon, 5.1 m.
TOUR 8B. North Platte-Maywood-McCook, 75.7 m.
TOUR 9. (Council Bluffs, Iowa ) -Omaha-Lincoln-Hastings-Holdrege-McCook-Imperial-(Holyoke, Colo.); 389.2 m. [us 6]
TOUR 10, (Sidney, Iowa) -Nebraska City-Lincoln-Grand Island-Alliance-Crawford-(Ardmore, S. Dak.) ; 525.6 m.
TOUR 11. (Rockport, Mo.)-Brownville-Beatrice-Franklin-
Trenton-(Wray, Colo.); 386.3 m.
TOUR 12. Ogallala-Oshkosh-Bridgeport-Scottsbluff-(Torrington, Wyo ) , 155.5 m.
TOUR 12A. Bridgeport-Chimney Rock-Genng-Scotts Bluff National Monument-Horse Creek Treaty Monument-Wyoming Line, 59.4 m.
TOUR 13. Junction with US 20-Ponca-Niobrara-Lynch-Butte-(Burke, S. Dak.); 169.3 m

IV. Appendices
CHRONOLOGY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Illustrations
CORN IN FLOWER
CHALK BLUFFS, NIOBRARA RIVER
SKELETON OF LARGEST MAMMOTH, NEBRASKA STATE MUSEUM, LINCOLN
PHEASANT
SUTHERLAND POWER HOUSE
IRRIGATION
SPOTTED TAIL
OMAHA INDIAN VILLAGE
WINNEBAGO INDIAN WOMEN
OMAHA INDIANS, MACY
WHITE-FACED CATTLE
STEAMBOAT ARRIVAL, OMAHA CITY (1868)
OX TEAM, 1887
LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER, STATE CAPITOL
CUTTING WHEAT
FARMSTEAD COOPERATIVE MEETING, FALLS CITY
POWER FARMING, WESTERN NEBRASKA
GANG PLOW, PINE RIDGE
STOCKYARDS, OMAHA
PACKING APPLES
PEELING PINE FOR FENCE-POSTS
OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT BY FRED L. KIMBALL
BUILDING THE UNION PACIFIC
INITIATION OF Zephyr, NOVEMBER 12, 1934
JOSLYN MEMORIAL, OMAHA
ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL, STATE CAPITOL
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING BUILDING
THE PIONEER
OLD JULES SANDOZ
BLUE RIVER, BEATRICE
FISHING IN SAND PIT, FREMONT
CATHEDRAL, GRAND ISLAND
FARMSTEADER'S SON WITH PRIZE 4-H CLUB CALF, FAIRBURY
AIRVIEW, LINCOLN
HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM
ART DEPARTMENT, MORRILL HALL
CAPITOL
STATE CAPITOL
DECORATION, STATE CAPITOL
MAIN HALL, STATE CAPITOL
O STREET, LINCOLN
SHIPPING CATTLE AT NORFOLK
SHANTYTOWN KID
WORKERS ALLIANCE MEETING
MORMON MONUMENT, BY AVARD FAIRBANKS, FLORENCE
UNION STATION, OMAHA
SOUTH OMAHA BRIDGE
NEBRASKA'S LAST VIRGIN TIMBER
THRESHING
ARBOR LODGE
DROUGHT, 1934
WHEAT IN SHOCKS
STOLLEY STATE PARK
MAILBOX, KEARNEY FARMSTEADS
SOD HOUSE
CHADRON STATE PARK
POTATO CELLAR
SANDHILL HAYFLAT
CATTLE AT SANDHILL LAKE
BUFFALO IN GAME REFUGE NEAR VALENTINE
LAKE MINNECHADUZA
SNAKE FALLS
CROW BUTTE
SMILEY CANYON
HARVESTING POTATOES
LONE TREE MONUMENT
FORT KEARNEY MONUMENT
PONY EXPRESS STATION, GOTHENBURG
IRRIGATION DITCH
AIRVIEW OF SUTHERLAND PROJECT IRRIGATION DITCH
TABLELINE
GRETNA FISH HATCHERY
COMBINES AT WORK
BLOWOUT WITH YUCCA ROOTS
EARLY MORNING, SANDHILLS
TOADSTOOL PARK
DANIEL FREEMAN AT FREEMAN STAGE STATION
CUT-OVER LAND
CHEESE CREEK RANCH, 1864
EZRA MEEKER AT CHIMNEY ROCK
WILDCAT HILLS RECREATIONAL AREA
MITCHELL PASS

Nebraska: Her Resources, Advantages, and Development

Joseph Garneau, Jr. — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:39:35 PDT

Almost midway between the two greatest oceans of the world, its eastern boundary marked by the rapid flowing Missouri, the westernmost counties shadowed by the towering ranges of the Rockies, with the land of the Dakotas to the north and the great agricultural state of Kansas to the south, lies the garden spot of that vast and shadowy country (which but a few short years since was only known as The Great American Desert).

Today it is the State of Nebraska, the happy home of one million and a half of thrifty, industrious and prosperous people. In less than a third of a century—only a moment in the life of a nation—the rolling prairies, the well watered valleys and the undulating slopes of Nebraska hare been reclaimed from the dominion of the Indian and the stampedes of the buffalo. The early explorers who traversed the continent seem to have been blind to the possibility of a civilization between the Missouri River and the Golden Shores beyond the Rockies. Later on the gold seekers crossed the plains with their bull-trains and heeded not the unbroken land that asked only to be tickled with hoe to smile a harvest.

Later again a few pioneers ventured to this unknown country and, notwithstanding privations that now seem impossible to endure, they sent such glowing accounts of Nebraska, as an agricultural paradise, that the greatest wave of immigration known in the history of America set in from east to west, and the Great American Desert became only a name and a tradition. The virgin soil of Nebraska proved from the beginning especially suitable for corn, and the early settler had a crop harvested in such a short time that the bounty of nature seemed to him to pass belief when he saw the marvelous result of his first labor. What one man did, so did another. Corn was crowned king of Nebraska, and in 1891 there were no less than four million six hundred thousand acres devoted to his service in the State.

The corn crop of Nebraska may well be deemed a guarantee given by nature to the pioneers, insuring them a living while they were settling the State, for those who were to follow them, and making ready the land to produce a wealth and variety of crops the bare enumeration of which almost taxes belief.

Before dealing with the unequalled resources of Nebraska in detail, it may be well to say that the life of the State has developed with marvelous rapidity. It has been no mushroom growth, but a rational, logical advance in all things that go to make up a free and liberal commonwealth. Railroads gridiron eighty-one of its ninety counties. Cities have been born and have grown with healthy vigor. Education is amply provided for in schools whi9ch dot every township. Churches of all denominations rear their spires and cupolas to the clear sky. The city and county governments are enlightened and progressive. Even the advantage of climtate is added, and no clearer air can be breathed, no such regularly diversified seasons, each with its own importance to the State, can be enjoyed as in this, the most generously blessed of all the States—Nebraska.

It is the purpose of this pamphlet to show very briefly, and without the wearying addition of statistics some of the advantages and resources of Nebraska. The State extends a hearty welcome to all who make it their home, relying upon the co-operation of every immigrant to make Nebraska the model State of the West.