publications

Highways, Named

There were twenty-five or so “name” highways in Nebraska and on its periphery when the highway map first made its appearance. By 1924 Nebraska had instituted a series of numbers to designate principal highways. When the C and M Company copyrighted a “Mileage Map of the Best Roads of Nebraska” in 1924, it printed both highway numbers and the names of certain highways. Some of the roads listed on the 1924 map are:



Black Hills-Sioux Trail–Hot Springs, South Dakota, to Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Winner, Norfolk, and southeast. Cornhusker Highway–Wymore through Lincoln, Lyons, and Sioux City.



George Washington National Highway–Sioux City south to Fremont. Blue Pole Highway–Harrison, Chadron, Valentine, O’Neill, and southeast.



Detroit-Lincoln-Denver–Denver, Sterling, Colorado, through McCook, Hastings, Lincoln, and Omaha.



Goldenrod Highway–east from McCook, Red Cloud, and Fairbury. Midwest Highway–east and west through Fairbury.



Grainfield Highway–paralleling Platte River on north side, east of Central City. Lincoln Highway–through Kimball, Ogallala, North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Columbus, and Fremont.



Meridian Highway–north from Hebron to York, Columbus, Norfolk, Yankton, and South Dakota. North and South Pike–Franklin north through Kearney, Taylor, and Bassett.



North Platte Valley Highway–from Wyoming through Scottsbluff, Oshkosh, and North Platte. North Star Route–Sidney north through Bridgeport.



Potash Highway–east of Alliance through Antioch, Hyannis, Mullen, Thedford, and Broken Bow. Red Star Highway–north from Kansas through Arapahoe and Lexington.



Seward-York-Aurora–connecting towns named. Upland Highway–across lower Sand Hills from Broadwater through Arthur and Tryon.

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Other Publications

The Bachelors’ Protective Union of Kearney

When the Bachelors' Protective Union gave a gala reception for two of its newly married, former members and their brides in March of 1890, the social club for young, ...

U.S. Weather Bureau in 1890s Nebraska

The U.S. Weather Bureau was established by an act of Congress on October 1, 1890. It took over the weather service that had been established in the office of the Chief ...

Canning the Way to Victory

During American participation in World War I the U.S. Food Administration, under the direction of Herbert Hoover, launched a massive campaign to persuade Americans to ...

The Shoemaker’s Ashes

"Edward Kuehl, one of the most peculiar characters that ever lived in Omaha, or anywhere else, was found dead in his bed last night in the back room of his place of ...

Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger Foreward

Red Dog, an Oglala Lakota who lived at the Red Cloud Agency, Nebraska, 1876-77 (Nebraska State Historical Society RG2955.ph).   In the summer of 1876, following the ...

Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979), a native Nebraskan, produced some of Hollywood's most important and controversial films. He helped found 20th Century Fox ...

The Burlington’s Profitable Pork Special

Nebraska railroads were much concerned with developing an adequate economy in the areas they served. The Burlington, for example, had a long history of caring for the ...

Bungalow Filling Stations

After the giant Standard Oil Company was broken into thirty-four separate companies in 1911, the newly independent Standard Oil of Nebraska dominated the state's market ...

The Bull Fight

This is the perfect time of year for a visit to the old fishin' hole. But a group of fisherfolk from Plainview discovered that this bucolic pastime sometimes has ...

Buffalo Soldiers West

African-American soldiers on the western frontier are the focus of an exhibit at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln. Buffalo Soldiers West, on loan from the Colorado ...

Protection for Buffalo

The extermination of the buffalo on the Plains occurred largely between 1870 and 1885. The Nebraska State Journal of Lincoln on February 1, 1874, editorialized in vain ...

Buffalo Hunting

In late October 1877 young Rolf Johnson and three friends left their homes in Phelps County, Nebraska, for a buffalo hunt in northeastern Colorado. The hunt was not very ...
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