Becoming Arbor Lodge
By David L. Bristow, Editor
Arbor Lodge State Historical Park in Nebraska City features a small house that became a 52-room mansion. It belonged to Arbor ...
Arbor Day
What We Found
Public Holidays
Arbor Day originated in Nebraska in 1872, when the State Board of Agriculture adopted J. Sterling Morton's resolution that April 10 of that year be set aside for tree ...
Should the Government Plant Trees?
The question of government support for tree planting projects was one which has frequently arisen since the inception of Arbor Day in 1872. J. Sterling Morton, founder ...
Arbor Day
J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, wrote to the Omaha Herald on the occasion of the first celebration of the day in 1872. Discussing trees and their relation ...
Arbor Day at Crete, 1896
Arbor Day has over the years been widely observed in Nebraska schools. The Cultivator (Omaha), May 1, 1896, reprinted an article from the Crete Herald describing ...
Arboreal Bureau
J. Sterling Morton, the father of Arbor Day in Nebraska, and a longtime member of the Nebraska State Historical Society, early recognized the devastating effects of ...
Touring Nebraska Orchards in 1872
Well before the emergence of Arbor Day as a state holiday dedicated to tree planting, southeast Nebraska had a number of thriving orchards. The Nebraska State ...
Morton’s College Years
J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, spent his college years at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where his record was not entirely unblemished. James C. ...
J. D. Calhoun on Arbor Day
  "The Herald observed Arbor Day duly and regularly," reported editor J. D. Calhoun in the Lincoln Weekly Herald on April 26, 1890. In honor of the holiday Calhoun ...
Timeline Tuesday: Bird Day
Bird Day was first observed on May 4, 1894, in Pennsylvania, and by 1910 was widely celebrated, often in conjunction with Arbor Day. Observances of the two holidays ...
Plant Trees, Get Land for Free
March 3: On this date in Nebraska (and U.S.) history the Timber Culture Act became federal law. The 1873 provision allowed homesteaders to acquire 160 acres of land by ...
Happy Birth-Arbor-Earth Day
Black and White Photograph of Joy Morton II, Mark Morton, Betty Morton, Mrs. Joy Morton, Joy Morton, and Sterling Morton Standing in Front of the J. Sterling Morton ...
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