Railroad Ecology
As the Union Pacific Railroad built its road west through the Platte Valley and began service, the supply of water and fuel for their steam locomotives was of great ...
water
What We Found
The Rhyming Recipe
There once was a time when a homemaker's reputation depended, in good measure, on herability to produce a good loaf of bread. Here's a rhyming 1903 recipe designed to ...
Saving the State’s Money
An official review of Nebraska state expenditures in early 1908 uncovered several questionable purchases. The Nebraska State Journal on January 28, 1908, noted that the ...
Sod Schooldays
Many Nebraskans learned their readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic in a schoolhouse built from sod.Arta Ethlyn Kochen of North Platte taught in such a school in 1901. She ...
Water Shortage
The economically devastating years of the early 1890s created hardship for many Nebraska residents. In 1893, for example, crops in Nebraska were almost totally destroyed ...
Well Digging, by F. J. Coil
Old, deteriorating wells in early Nebraska were dangerous for the unwary. An accidental fall into such a well was described in Nebraska History (January-March 1943) by ...
Lives Risked for a Drink of Water
"Forty miles to water, thirty miles to wood, twenty miles to hell, and I've gone there forgood." Plains author Mari Sandoz quotes this inscription, left behind by a ...
Dowsing for Water
Locating a suitable well site was of paramount importance on the Nebraska frontier. Everett Dick noted in Conquering the Great American Desert, published in 1975 by the ...
Fuel and Water — The Housewife’s Needs
By the late 1800s, new household conveniences were available to lighten some of a homemaker's manual tasks. Examples are the sewing machine, first patented in the 1850s, ...
Water, A Frontier Problem
The gradual decrease in average yearly rainfall from east to west in Nebraska was reflected in the difficulty of securing water for domestic use. The first settlers ...
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