What makes a state special?
It could be the history, a unique feature, natural beauty, the people.
Here we offer a few reasons why Nebraska and Iowa are special places. Some of the reasons are things every schoolchild learns. Others are hidden gems.
WHAT MAKES NEBRASKA SPECIAL
DOWNSIZED GOVERNMENT: The nation's only one-house legislature meets at the State Capitol Building in Lincoln. The building, however, was constructed for two houses, which the state had until 1937.
BELLY UP TO THE BAR: The World's Largest Kool-Aid Stand is set up every year during Kool-Aid Days in Hastings. Fourteen flavors are served at any time, two of them sugar-free.
FAMOUS TREE: Ansel Ash on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus has more than 2,200 fans on its Facebook page. Speaking of trees, the nation's first Arbor Day celebration was April 10, 1872, in Nebraska. In 1885, Arbor Day became a legal holiday in the state and its date was moved to April 22, the birthday of J. Sterling Morton, a Nebraskan who first proposed a day to celebrate trees and tree-planting. Nebraska now marks Arbor Day on the last Friday in April.
STONEHENGE REVISITED: Carhenge in Alliance pays tribute to the Druids' ancient sculpture in England. Nebraska's version is made from car bodies.
TRULY ANCIENT HISTORY: Ashfall State Historical Park is a world-class collection of several hundred prehistoric fossils buried in a bed of ash created more than 10 million years ago by a gigantic volcanic eruption. The park near Royal is a working archaeological dig.
ECUMENISM IN ACTION: The Little Church or Keystone Community Church in Keystone has pews with hinges on their back to switch from facing a Catholic altar at one end to facing a Protestant altar at the other end. The church was dedicated in 1908. The last services there were in 1949. The church is on the National Register of Historic Places.
MASSIVE PORCH SWING: Although it doesn't hang on a porch, this huge swing is on Jefferson Avenue in Hebron. How big is it? Supposedly, 24 people can swing simultaneously.
GROUNDBREAKER: The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument at Kearney was the first history museum or monument in the U.S. to be allowed to lease airspace over a federal Interstate highway. The archway spans I-80.
CHALK IT UP AS AN ADVENTURE: Tours are available at the Happy Jack Chalk Mine in Scotia. The mine is one of two underground diatomic mines known to have existed in the United States, and the only one that is open to the public. The mine is Nebraska's only underground adventure.
KING OF THE HILL: What's the oldest animal at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo? Gigantor, an alligator snapping turtle that lives in the zoo's Kingdoms of the Night exhibit, is believed to have hatched in 1955. That would make Gigantor 56 years old.
MY, WHAT BIG TUSKS YOU HAVE: The world's largest exhibited elephant skeleton, a 14-foot male mammoth, is displayed at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Morrill Hall on the Lincoln City Campus. A rancher and his wife found the skeleton in 1922 in Lincoln County. The bones are from the late Pleistocene era. The couple gave the fossil to the museum for exhibit and research.
SEE IT SPARKLE: Borsheims Fine Jewelry in Omaha is the largest independent jewelry store in the nation.
HUGE SANDBOX: The Sand Hills are the biggest grass-covered sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere. They cover about one-fourth of the state.
SORTING THE CARS: Union Pacific's Bailey Yard in North Platte is the largest rail classification complex in the world. The massive yard, named in honor of former U.P. President Edd H. Bailey, covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of eight miles.
EARLY HOMESTEADER: Daniel Freeman claimed one of the nation's first homesteads near Beatrice. The National Homestead Monument of America sits on that early homestead.
HISTORY REVISITED: The first fort built west of the Missouri River was Fort Atkinson, erected in 1819 east of the present-day town of Fort Calhoun. Fort Atkinson State Historical Park is a National Historic Landmark. The fort presents living history weekends monthly from May through October.
FOR SMALL CRIMES, PERHAPS: The Friend Police Station once was listed in "Ripley's Believe It or Not" as the world's smallest police station. The building started as a toolshed for the construction crews who built U.S. Highway 6. The station's size was doubled in the 1960s so that the Nebraska State Patrol also could use it. The building still is believed to be the smallest combination police station in the world and is a tourist attraction. However, the real reason the station has remained at its original location is the view for about one mile east and west on U.S. 6 and a clear view of Main Street.
MEDICINE WOMAN: The nation's first Native American woman to earn a medical degree was Susan LeFlesche Picotte, who was born in 1865 on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska. Omaha Public Schools has an elementary school named for her.
GREEN SPACES: The Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands include two national forests, three national grasslands and a tree nursery. Hand-planted forests — Bessey Ranger District and Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest in the Sand Hills, with their combined grassland and forest — are unique to the National Forest System. The Charles E. Bessey Nursery is the nation's oldest federal tree nursery.
BUT FEWER PEOPLE: Nebraska's Cherry County is larger in physical size than Connecticut.
Sources: The World-Herald; Henry Doorly Zoo; Omaha Convention & Visitors Bureau; kool-aiddays.com/; www.fs.fed.us/; nebraskastudies.org; nebraskalegislature.gov/; ci.friend.ne.us/tourism.htm; arborday.org; lasr.net/; nps.gov/nr/; happyjackchalkmine.com/; museum.unl.edu/; up.com/
WHAT MAKES IOWA SPECIAL
THOSE BRIDGES: Ah, Madison County's covered bridges. They were made famous by "The Bridges of Madison County," the 1992 best-selling novel by Robert James Waller and the 1995 film of the same name starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Imes Bridge is the oldest of Madison County's six bridges, but the Holliwell Bridge is the longest bridge in the county.
DANISH, IF YOU PLEASE: Elk Horn is known as a center of Danish ethnicity and is home to the Danish Immigrant Museum. Along with the nearby village of Kimballton, the community makes up the largest rural Danish community outside Denmark.
NOTED NAME: The Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City honors the only man to die during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Based on his journal and others', Sgt. Charles Floyd Jr. most likely died from a ruptured appendix.
A BERRY BIG DISPLAY: In the 40-plus years of its existence, Strawberry Point's claim to the largest strawberry has never been questioned. Nor has its draw. The town's Jaycees dreamed up the big berry in 1966. The fiberglass monument is 15 feet tall, 12.5 feet wide, weighs 1,430 pounds and stands on a 15-foot pedestal in the middle of town.
ALL ABOARD: A monument to the First Train Robbery in the West stands in Adair. The monument features the actual section of track that Jesse James separated to derail the train July 21, 1873.
MUSEUM TO A ROAD: Vintage road signs cover the outside of the old gas station that is the Lincoln Highway Museum in Belle Plaine.
TWICE AS WIDE: The original Kate Shelley High Bridge, about three miles west of Boone, was the highest double-track railroad bridge in the United States. The bridge was designed by George S. Morison for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway and was constructed from 1899 to 1901. The bridge stands 185 feet above the Des Moines River with a length of 2,685 feet. The bridge was renamed in 1912 to honor Kate Shelley. Then a new bridge was constructed. It is 2,813 feet long and 190 feet high. It also is designed for two trains traveling 70 mph to move across it at the same time. When asked if the new bridge would still be named for Kate Shelley, Union Pacific CEO James Young said: "It is only fitting that the new bridge is given the name of the structure it replaced, Kate Shelley, to honor a person who helped save so many lives when she was able to help warn an oncoming passenger train that a bridge had washed out during a stormy night in 1881."
HE WALKED A CROOKED MILE: Snake Alley in Burlington might be the world's most crooked street. It has so many turns that the brick road is closed in winter.
... AND INTO THE FIRE? Brandon is home to Iowa's largest frying pan. It has a 9-foot rim, a 5-foot handle and an 8-foot base. The pan's inspiration comes from Brandon's twice-a-year Cowboy Breakfasts, fundraisers for the town's community club.
PASS THE SALT, PLEASE: The Traer Salt and Pepper Shaker Gallery opened in April to house Ruth Rasmussen's collection of more than 14,500 shakers. The Traer resident once held the Guinness record for the number in her collection, which began in 1949.
TAKE YOUR PICK: Carter Lake has many claims to fame. It is the only Iowa city west of the Missouri River. The town owns less than a third of the lake and is surrounded by Nebraska on three sides. Carter Lake also has the shortest highway in Iowa, State Highway 165, which measures one-half mile with official State of Iowa welcome signs on either side.
AMERICAN REGIONALIST: The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art houses the largest collection of Grant Wood artwork. A visit to the original Grant Wood Studio, located just blocks from the museum, lets visitors take a guided tour of the space where Wood lived and worked from 1924 to 1934. Alas, Wood's famous "American Gothic" is not in the museum's collection. It's in the Art Institute of Chicago.
THIS TOWN IS AN ISLAND: Sabula, Iowa's only town on an island, sits on a clump of land in the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois. Sycamore Street connects Sabula to the rest of Iowa, but residents need a boat to reach Illinois from the town.
Sources: roadsideamerica.com/location/ia/all; co.boone.ia.us/; wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_db1c15c8-4f51-5139-8039-d19a84cf8d3b.html; easterniowalife.com/2011/03/23/more-than-16000-sets-on-display-at-traer-salt-and-pepper-shaker-gallery/; carterlake.org/history/odd.html; www.crma.org/
Contact the writer: 402-444-1165, sue.truax@owh.com
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