Nebraska Highway 21 (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Native American tribes in Nebraska have included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and various branches of the Sioux. Long before the Lewis and Clark Expedition, French-Canadian explorers traversed the territory of Nebraska, including the Mallet brothers in 1739, on their way to trade in Santa Fe. European-American settlement did not begin in any number until after 1848 and the California Gold Rush. On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory, divided by the Parallel 40 North. The territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha. In the 1860s, the first great wave of homesteaders poured into Nebraska to claim free land granted by the federal government. Many of the first farm settlers built their homes of sod because there were so few trees on the prairies. Nebraska became the 37th state in 1867, shortly after the American Civil War. At that time, the capital was moved from Omaha to Lancaster, later renamed Lincoln after the recently assassinated President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.