Nebraska Trivia & Tidbits
Looking for Nebraska trivia? Try our list Nebraska little know facts, tidbits and trivia.
—At 100, Mildred Heath may the nation’s oldest working journalist. She’s on the job full time gathering news for The Beacon-Observer in Overton (pop. 646) and began her newspaper career in 1923 on a Linotype machine.
first appeared: 5/18/2008
—In 1975, Harold Davisson of Seward (pop. 6,319) filled a 20-by-8-by-6-foot concrete vault with some 5,000 relics, remembrances and reminders from his lifetime. Billed as the world’s largest time capsule, the vault will be opened in 2025.
first appeared: 5/4/2008
—The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 brought prosperity and traffic to Sidney (pop. 6,282) as the city served as the railhead for equipment and supplies bound for mining camps in the Dakota Territory.
first appeared: 3/9/2008
—Thousands of fourth-graders have experienced a day of school, 1888-style, at Flowerfield School in Harrisburg (pop. 75). Students visiting the pioneer log school read from McGuffey’s Readers, work on penmanship and do arithmetic on individual slate boards.
first appeared: 2/24/2008
—Danny Woodhead, running back for Chadron (pop. 5,634) State College, became college football’s all-division career rushing leader last October in a game against Western New Mexico in Silver City where he surpassed the previous record of 7,353 yards.
first appeared: 2/10/2008
—Little bluestem is the official state grass, designated in 1969. The native prairie grass grows in bunches in central and western Nebraska and sometimes is called “bunch grass” or “beard grass.” Little bluestem is an important native hay and forage grass.
first appeared: 1/27/2008
—Completed in 1939, the Rulo Bridge across the Missouri River near Rulo (pop. 226) can be seen in the 1973 movie Paper Moon.
first appeared: 1/13/2008
—Fort Robinson State Park near Crawford (pop. 1,107) served as an active military post from 1874 to 1948. The park encompasses more than 22,000 acres and is popular with horseback riders.
first appeared: 12/30/2007
—The state’s smallest incorporated village is Monowi with a population of one. Elsie Eiler fills the roles of mayor and city clerk, posting legal notices in her tavern. She’s also the most generous person in town, having founded a public library with her late husband’s books.
first appeared: 12/2/2007
—The state’s first ethanol-blended fuel station was the Earl Coryell Co. station in Lincoln in 1933. The station sold “corn alcohol” gasoline.
first appeared: 11/18/2007
—Indian Cave State Park at Shubert (pop. 252) is famous for its prehistoric drawings of wildlife and nature carved into the cave’s soft sandstone walls.
first appeared: 11/4/2007
—An earthen lodge like those used 1,000 years ago by groups of American Indians that archaeologists call the Upper Republican Culture has been reconstructed at the Dancing Leaf Cultural Learning Center in Wellfleet (pop. 76).
first appeared: 10/21/2007
—The state’s oldest surviving high school building is the former Valentine (pop. 2,820) High School. Today, the 1897 school houses the Centennial Hall museum, with exhibits in all 12 rooms.
first appeared: 10/7/2007
—More than 600 acres of native grassland at the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie near Red Cloud (pop. 1,131) offer a glimpse of the land that inspired the settings and characters for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who grew up in Red Cloud.
first appeared: 9/30/2007
—Found in the Sandhills, the endangered blowout penstemon grows only in blowouts—depressions created by wind erosion. The plant is a milky-blue or lavender perennial.
first appeared: 9/9/2007
—Incorporated in 1886, Strang (pop. 32) is named for a windmill salesman, A.L. Strang, who offered the community, formerly known as Media and Bixby, a free windmill if they would name the town after him.
first appeared: 8/26/2007
—One of the famous 25 Big Boy steam engines—Number 4023—built by Union Pacific from 1941 to 1944 is permanently parked at Kenefick Park in Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha. The massive 132-foot-long locomotives weighed 1.2 million pounds and were built to pull a 3,600-ton train. Because of their length, the frames of the Big Boys were “hinged,” or articulated, allowing them to negotiate curves.
first appeared: 8/19/2007
—O’Neill (pop. 3,733) was proclaimed the state’s official “Irish Capital” in 1969. The town is named after Gen. John O’Neill, who led groups of Irish settlers to the area in the 1870s.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
—After a farmer bought a tractor that didn’t live up to its advertised claim, the Nebraska Tractor Test Law was passed in 1919. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln established a test laboratory to ensure that farmers got a fair deal when buying any model of tractor sold in the state. Today, visitors to the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test and Power Museum at the university can see vintage tractors and other farming tools on display.
first appeared: 7/15/2007
—When co-workers asked Joleen Richwine to teach them to crochet, she organized the Creighton University Crochet and Knit Group on the Omaha campus. Since 2000, the group has stitched and donated some 1,800 hats, gloves, scarves, lap robes and afghans to people in need.
first appeared: 7/1/2007
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