History of Nebraska - Chapter 1



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CHAPTER I
NATURAL CONDITIONS -- GEOLOGY -- ARCHAEOLOGY -- CLIMATIC CONDITIONS -- 
VEGETATION -- FAUNA

   IN THE long run physical environment, such as soil, climate, and 
topography, shape the man and the society; but human character and social 
propensities, formed in older states and in other and older countries, 
have been transplanted into this new state, and while, according to a 
marked American instinct or characteristic, the people have been quick to 
adapt themselves to a somewhat important change of conditions, yet the 
time during which they have been subject to them has been too short 
appreciably to change their character or social aspect. If they had only 
the richest and most easily tillable soil in the world to conjure with, 
this might tend to breed mental and esthetic dullness; but they have been 
saved from this influence by the rarefied and bracing atmosphere, by the 
sunshine in which they are almost perennially bathed, as well as by 
certain adverse climatic conditions which challenge their vigilance and 
ingenuity. While the people of the Plains have missed the comforting 
companionship of brooks and hills and groves, whose friendly presence 
sustained the courage and inspired the esthetic sense of the settlers of 
the Mississippi valley, yet these Plains have a beauteous aspect of their 
own which often inspired the limiting pen of Irving and engaged Cooper's 
romantic eye. The illimitable expanse of landscape, the unrivaled beauty 
of morning and evening lights and shades, the marvelous clearness of the 
air, however monotonous, do not fail to excite the esthetic sensibility 
and widen the spiritual vision of the people.

   But when Irving undertook to estimate the material value, and to 
picture the future usefulness and development of this vast prairie empire, 
he looked with blindfold eyes and painted a dismal black:

   It is a land where no man permanently abides. . . Such is the nature of 
this immense wilderness of the far West, which apparently defies 
cultivation and the habitation of civilized life. Some portions of it 
along the rivers may partially be subdued by agriculture; others may form 
vast pastoral tracts like those of the East; but it is to be feared that a 
great part of it will form a lawless interval between the abodes of 
civilized man, like the waters of the ocean and the deserts of Arabia; and 
like them be subject to the depredations of the marauders.(1)

   And then, as this polished poet-historian continues to contemplate the 
lugubrious prospect, his style, in general the refinement of grace, 
dignity, and self-control, breaks into an almost grotesque delineation of 
the fate of a land which was destined within the space of a man's life to 
become "the home, the portion fair" of nearly ten million prosperous and 
happy people. And Cooper, the leading romanticist of that day, observes in 
The Prairie that the plains are "in fact a vast country incapable of 
sustaining a dense population in the absence of the two great 
necessities" -- wood and water. This great story-teller affected a 
knowledge of geology, but it was not pro-

(1. Astoria, pp. 258-259.)

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found enough to penetrate to the inexhaustible sheet of subterranean water 
which, fed by the eternal snows of the Rocky mountains, is coextensive 
with the great slope between these mountains and the Missouri river and 
within easy reach of the modern and post-Irving-Cooper windmills which now 
dot these plains in such profusion that they would set a whole legion of 
Don Quixotes in simultaneous frenzy. Nor could the lively imagination of

[image caption: Morrill Geological Expedition, 1900. ARIKAREE FALLS
Ten miles east of Valentine, Neb., fed by Sand Hill springs and leaping 
over a wall of Arikaree sand rock. First plunge, eighty-five feet; second, 
fifteen feet. These are the loftiest falls in the state.]

these great romancers foresee the practicability of the substitution for 
the lacking wood, of the great deposits of coal in the adjacent mountains 
and underlying a large part of these vast plains, because railroad 
transportation was beyond Irving's ken or fancy and Cooper's practicable 
view. As to this, Cooper skeptically remarks: "It is a singular comment on 
the times that plans for railroads across these vast plains are in active 
discussion, and that men have ceased to regard these projects as 
chimerical."

   And Long, in the story of his expedition of 1819, gives the following 
hopeless characterization to the Nebraska plains, which, in their easterly 
portion at least, for prolific production of live stock and of the forage 
which sustains them, including the staple cereals, and for ease of 
cultivation and lasting fertility, excel any other region of so large an 
area in the world:

   The rapidity of the current (of the Platte river) and the great width 
of the bed of the river preclude the possibility of any extensive 
inundation of the surrounding country. The bottom lands of the river rise 
by an imperceptible ascent, on each side, extending laterally to a 
distance of from two to ten miles, where they are terminated by low ranges 
of gravelly hills, running parallel to the general direction of the river. 
Beyond these the surface is an undulating plain, having an elevation of 
from fifty to one hundred feet, and presenting the aspect of hopeless and 
irreclaimable sterility.

   Logically Long's conclusion as to the hopeless sterility of the plains 
of the Platte should be an inference from the misstatement of fact by 
Marbois, made as late as 1830, in his history of Louisiana (p. 350): "On 
the two sides of the river 'Plate' are vast plains of sand from an hundred 
to an hundred and fifty leagues in extent where no indication of living 
creatures is to be found." The ignorance of Marbois is not as inexcusable 
or remarkable as the lame logic of Irving and Long, for the abundance of 
wild animals with which they perceived the plains were stocked, would have 
suggested to them that the region would be peculiarly adapted, under 
cutlivation [sic], for the sustenance of domestic animal life.

   When some phenomenon which may have

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[image caption: Photograph, Morrill Geological Expedition, 1895. BAD LANDS
Bad Lands of Brule formation (Oligocene) two and a half miles west of the 
Burlington & Missouri railway station at Adelia, Sioux county, Nebraska, 
looking northwest.]

[image caption: Photograph, Morrill Geological Expedition, 1895. PINE RIDGE
North face of Pine Ridge at Warbonnet canyon looking north across the Hat 
creek basin toward the Black Hills outlined in the distance. The pine 
covered cliffs are Arikaree formation. The white Patch in the distance is 
the Brule clay of the Little Bad Lands, Sioux county, Nebraska. Beyond the 
Brule clay the Pierre formation begins.]

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been an eternal fact or is a manifestation of an eternal law of nature, 
but which has been hidden from our imperfect understanding, is, from the 
changing point of view or in the natural course of events, suddenly 
revealed, we call it Providence, And so this vast hidden reservoir of 
water and the man-wrought miracle of the steam railroad, which opened the 
way for the waiting millions, were the Providence of these Plains. Because 
Irving and Cooper and their compeers failed mentally or physically to 
penetrate to the one and to divine the coming kingdom of the other, they 
consigned the whole region to the doom of eternal desolation. God indeed 
moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. This "wilderness which 
apparently defies cultivation and the habitation of civilized life" is the 
granary as well as the shambles of the world. Of two typical states -- 
Iowa and Nebraska -- which cut through the heart of the Plains, the first 
is the imperial agricultural commonwealth of the richest farming country 
of the world, and in the production of the great food staples the other 
lags but little behind.

   During incalculable numbers of centuries there was a like providential 
preparation on the surface of these plains of the richest soil in the 
world to cover so wide an area.

   GEOLOGY.(2) From a geological standpoint Nebraska doubtless stands as 
the most distinctly agricultural state in the Union, yet it is not without 
other resources of economic importance, Its rocks are undisturbed 
sediment, and its geology is apt to be regarded as simple in the extreme 
and its topography as that of an undiversified plain; but investigation 
shows the state to be diversified and interesting and even startling in 
the boldness of certain physiographic regions. The altitude varies from a 
general level of about a thousand feet along the Missouri river to that of 
over five thousand feet some four hundred miles further west in the state. 
At this distance the prairie lands of the eastern portion, which are 
sometimes level but often rolling, begin to merge into the tables and 
lofty buttes of the western edge of the state. The climatic conditions 
vary somewhat with the distance westward, and are comparable with those of 
Ohio and Indiana. In general the atmosphere is dry and considered quite as 
favorable to health and longevity as the more famous air of Colorado.

   The rainfall of the eastern portion is about twenty-three inches and 
the evaporation four feet, while the precipitation of the western portion 
may fall as low as twelve to fifteen inches with an evaporation of six 
feet. The geology of Nebraska is seemingly complex, chiefly because the 
strata are so deeply buried that they are not exposed for study. First, 
the strata sag or dip to the west, not appearing again until the flanks of 
the Rocky mountains are reached, thus forming a deeply buried trough. 
Second, the beds are covered by loose surface materials which are very 
distinct and generally recognized as bluff deposit or loess, glacial 
drift, and sand-hills. All of the southeastern half of the state is 
covered more or less deeply by loess, which is a sandy loam of glacial 
origin of a light yellow color and of inexhaustible fertility. The 
northwestern half is covered largely by sand-hills resulting from the 
action of wind in transporting and piling up the disintegrated sand of 
Tertiary rock. The loess being as thick in many places as one hundred 
feet, and the sand-hills as thick as three hundred, it is plain that 
Nebraska rocks are concealed, and that they are not to be found except 
where streams have trenched the superficial beds.

   Along the streams of southeastern Nebraska the limestones are found, 
which are well known because they are extensively quarried. These belong 
to the Coal Measure or the Carboniferous age, the oldest rock in the 
state. Though rich in beds of limestone and productive beds of valuable 
clays and shales, our Carboniferous rock is poor in coal, the best seam 
being scarcely more than eighteen inches thick and encased in tenacious 
shale. Exposures of Carboniferous rock are common along the streams in 
Richardson, Pawnee, Nemaha, Johnson, Otoe, Cass, Sarpy, Douglas, 

(2. For this description of the geology of Nebraska we are indebted to 
Erwin Hinckley Barbour, Ph.D., professor of geology in the University of 
Nebraska; state geologist and curator of the state museum.-ED.)

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and Washington counties, and in scattered patches as far west as Lancaster 
and Gage counties. From an economic standpoint this is the most important 
geologic formation in the state, since it yields the limestone for lime, 
rubble, riprap, building, smelting, sugar refining, and flint for ballast, 
as well as enormous amounts of excellent clay for brick, tile, and terra 
cotta.

   The Carboniferous is lost west of Lincoln by dipping under beds of the 
Cretaceous age and by sinking several thousand feet before again coming to 
the surface in the mountains. If the state could be divested of its great 
mantle of soil and sand, Cretaceous clays and shales would predominate. As 
it is, they occur in widely scattered patches along the courses of streams.

   Though enormously thick and broad in extent, our Cretaceous rock is 
known by small, local patches. The oldest Cretaceous layer, the Dakota, 
being the water-bearing bed, is the best known as well as the most 
important. It consists largely of rusty sands and beds of clay which may 
be traced from Jefferson county northeast to Dakota county and beyond. 
Economically, this formation of sparsely exposed rock is of the greatest 
importance to the Plains, yielding excellent water, including

[image caption: Morrill Geological Expedition, 1900. SCHLEGEL RAPIDS AND 
FALLS Southwest of Valentine, Cherry county, Nebraska, in the Arikaree 
formation. Plunge, about twelve feet; width, about fifty feet.]

artesian water, building stone (which, though ocherous and soft, is often 
put to use), and beds of superior clay, which furnish brick of all desired 
colors and kinds. It also furnishes a large amount of sand for building 
purposes, and, from a layer near its base, the best gravel in the state. 
Overlying the Dakota is the Benton Cretaceous, consisting essentially of a 
white layer of chalk rock overlying a layer of black shale. It may be 
traced along the Republican river from Harlan county to Hebron, Endicott, 
Milford, Niobrara, and westward along the Niobrara river to Boyd county. 
Economically this layer may become important. The chalk rock is quarried 
for lime and building purposes. Being very soft when "green," it is 
commonly cut into proper shape with ordinary hand-saws, and, after drying 
and hardening, is laid up with mortar in the usual way. In this layer is 
found also an undeveloped resource of great promise, in as much as the 
chalk rock, when properly tempered with the shale, gives an hydraulic 
cement of excellent quality. Next above the Benton comes the Pierre 
formation, ordinarily spoken of as Pierre shale because it consists 
essentially of shale throughout its extent. In western Nebraska it attains 
a thickness of several thousand feet. Though broad in extent, it is sel-

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dom seen save where exposed by the cutting of some river; and though four 
thousand to five thousand feet thick, it presents nothing of commercial 
importance, being destitute of water, gas, oil, coal, building stone, or 
anything else of economic value. At least two thirds of the state consists 
of Pierre shale, though covered from general view.

   Next above the Pierre come the Tertiary beds, which may be divided into 
a lower clayey layer eight hundred to one thousand feet thick known as the 
Bad Lands (Oligocene), and an upper layer five hundred to six hundred feet 
thick known as the butte sands (Arikaree, Miocene). Like the Pierre, the 
Bad Lands are without natural resources of the least economic value, save 
the valuable fossils, in digging and collecting which a considerable 
number of men are employed. It is necessary constantly to remind the 
general public that Bad Lands is a misnomer. They are not bad in the sense 
of sterility; but to drive over they are bad beyond question, being cut 
and washed into deep gullies and lofty pinnacles. There is a magnificence 
and grandeur about the Bad Lands which must attract tourists when suitable 
accommodations and comforts shall be provided. These beds, consisting 
essentially of marly clays of fresh-water origin, are peculiarly rich in 
vertebrate fossils and are the classic collecting grounds of America. 
Where the wash is not excessive the Bad Lands come readily under 
cultivation, being fertile and productive; but seen as they are by the 
average tourist, destitute of water and living things, trenched, bare, and 
baked, they seem to typify desolation and waste. Continuous with, and 
rising high above the Bad Lands are the butte sands of Arikaree formation.

[image caption: Morrill Geological Expedition, 1895. TOADSTOOL PARK, SIOUX 
COUNTY BAD LANDS Two miles west of Adelia on the Burlington & Missouri 
River railroad.]

   All of western Nebraska has a general altitude approaching five 
thousand feet. and here the magnificent buttes and tables add diversity 
and beauty to the landscape. Here also thousands of pine trees flourish 
and are the chief natural resource of this formation. Being sandy, it is 
productive of pure water, and its grazing lands are of the best. It lends 
itself to profitable and easy cultivation, especially where irrigated. In 
many places in southwestern Nebraska a still younger formation rests upon 
what is known as the "magnesia" or mortar beds (Ogalalla). All of the 
remaining beds are still more recent in time -- and con-

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sist of unconsolidated materials. The sandhill region which covers the 
northwestern half of the state is derived from the disintegration of 
Tertiary sands and their subsequent transportation by the wind. In the 
early history of the state, when herds roved unrestricted over the Plains, 
and when prairie fires were unchecked, the bare sands became shifting sand 
dunes, and grass, underbrush, and trees were destroyed, and the region 
presented the appearance of a desert, as it was then supposed to be. Now 
some of the best ranches, hay lands, and grazing lands are to be found in 
the heart of the sand-hill country. The Southeastern half of the state is 
covered, from a few feet to one hundred feet or more in depth, with a 
fine, light yellow loam of great fertility, known as the loess, or bluff 
deposit, from its habit of standing in vertical walls. Economically this 
constitutes the basis of the agricultural greatness of Nebraska. The 
eastern fifth of the state has a thin layer of glacial drift under the 
loess. West of Seward county evidence of glacial drift ceases. The 
material composing our drift is clay, gravel, sand, bowlders of granite, 
green stone, and the like from distant northern points, but more 
especially pink bowlders of Sioux quartzite from Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota. This formation is of little economic value, although its bowlders 
[sic], some of which are as much as twenty feet in diameter, are utilized 
to some extent for foundations and other building purposes.

   The youngest deposit in the state is the alluvium of our streams, 
useful chiefly because of its great fertility, and because it furnishes 
material for making a fair grade of brick where good clays are wanting.

   The known minerals of the state are of interest mineralogically rather 
than economically. Gold, native copper, meteoric iron, terrestrial iron, 
iron pyrite, marcasite, limonite, magnetic iron sand, pyrolusite, 
selenite, barite, celesite, calcite, agate, chelcedony, and turquoise are 
among the minerals recorded for the state. Among the mineral resources 
already developed or of probable utility are ocher, peat, bituminous coal 
of the Carboniferous, lignite coal of the Cretaceous, diatomaceous earth, 
natural pumice of volcanic ash in extensive beds, enormous amounts of 
clay, limestone, sand, gravel, flint, and material for manufacture of 
hydraulic cement.

   The preparation of the geological history of a state requires the 
closest inspection and study of past and present conditions in every 
quarter of it; and already it may be predicted with certainty that many of 
the natural resources of Nebraska, when they become better known, will be 
developed to such an extent that its present boasted agricultural products 
will not be its only source of wealth.

[image caption: FALLS OF THE NORTH LOUP RIVER Plunge about twelve feet; 
width, forty to fifty feet.]

   ARCHAEOLOGY.(3) The geographical position of Nebraska, situated as it 
is between the Missouri river on the east and the great Rockies on the 
west, is conducive to a complicated and interesting archaeology, as well 
as geology, fauna, and flora. We find the Stone Age implements distributed 
along the waterways so abundantly that we may readily conclude that 
primitive man gradually worked his way over the entire state by following 
the streams. The archaeology of the state can be determined only by the 
implements. The quantity of Stone Age material found, naturally divides 
itself into three classes. While these three classes overlap each other in 
many cases, yet every implement may be readily placed in one of them. 
These classes may be subdivided, it is 

(3. For this description of the archeology of Nebraska we are indebted to 
Mr. E. E. Blackman, archaeologist of the Nebraska State Historical 
Society.-ED.)

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true, but in that subdivision some one implement will be found which is 
doubtful, and at this stage of the study, lines of demarcation point out 
but three distinct classes. The first, or most primitive class, is found, 
without pottery intermixed, along the Blue river and in the southeastern 
portions of the state. The second, or intermediate class, consists of 
chipped implements of massive size, found along the Elkhorn and Missouri 
rivers; they are abundant in the northeastern part of Kansas as well. A 
few have been found along the Platte river. The third class (which may be 
subdivided most easily) consists of chipped flints showing fine 
workmanship; and abundant potsherds, some beaten copper ornaments, and a 
few "ceremonials" are intermixed, The houseform, or lodge circles, may be 
studied in this class, and are most abundant along the Platte and its 
tributaries.

   It should be borne in mind that these three classes of Stone Age 
implements may belong to one people -- that they may only represent a 
single tribe in its evolution from barbarism to semi-civilization; or they 
may belong to twenty or more tribes having no ties in common. Only years 
of careful study and comparison can settle that question, if, indeed, it 
can ever be definitely settled.

   It should be borne in mind also that primitive man used stone 
implements entirely. The aborigine wandered over this state before the 
Bronze Age; in fact, there are no known indications that there ever was a 
Bronze Age in Nebraska.

   One of the three following propositions is true, either wholly or in 
part: first, the aborigine was extinct before civilization came to this 
continent; second, the Amerind(4), with implements obtained from the 
whites, drove out the aborigine; or, third, he was, himself, supplied with 
implements of civilization and is now counted an Amerind. Archaeology has 
to deal with prehistoric man, the man who used the implements of the Stone 
Age, and when this aborigine has developed into an Amerind, ethnology 
takes up the study where archaeology leaves off. If the aborigine 
frequented a spot there was certainly a reason for so doing. Let us 
examine the conditions that would entice the primitive Stone Age man. The 
white man cultivates the soil and produces his subsistence, but the 
aborigine followed the chase and supplied his wants direct from nature; to 
do this, he must have flint or some kind of stone from which to make his 
implements. Flint is the most available material for this purpose, as it 
possesses the property of conchoidal fracture, as well as great toughness, 
very desirable in stone-cutting implements.

   The southeastern part of the state contains flint nodules imbedded in 
the limestone ledges; the watershed of the Republican river contains a 
brown flint or jasper in strata; the northeastern part, along the Niobrara 
river, has a green quartzite which chips easily. Most of the chipped 
implements of the state are made from one of these kinds of stone; we may 
therefore conclude that this natural deposit of implement-making material 
largely influenced the aborigine in his choice of location. The numerous 
running streams and the proximity of the buffalo plains, together with an 
abundance of small game, doubtless helped to make eastern Nebraska a 
favored place for the aborigine.

   The Blue river valley is strewn most abundantly with the earliest type 
of Stone Age implements. They are found on the high points of land which 
overlook the Blue river, and are usually not far from a water supply. The 
material used for these rude implements was found near at hand. As far as 
the Blue valley has been explored (from Beatrice to the state line on the 
south) there are imbedded in the limestone which rests near the water line 
many nodules of blue chert or flint. The quality of this material is much 
better than that of the chert ledges farther south in Kansas, but the 
nodules are not so abundant and are much harder to procure. In making the 
implements, it is evident that the work was done by beating the edge of 
another piece of rock until the desired shape was obtained. The edges are 
blunt and the implements very rude. Many frag- 

(4. The term Amerind is coming into general use among archaeologists and 
scientific men as a short and appropriate designation of the American 
Indian.-ED.]

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[image caption: FLINT SPEARHEAD FOUND NEAR BLAIR, NEBRASKA. FLINT 
IMPLEMENTS OF NEBRASKA]

[image caption: HEMATITE BUST FOUND NEAR LINCOLN, NEBRASKA. FLINT TOMAHAWK 
FOUND NEAR WYMORE, NEBRASKA, BY JAMES CRAWFORD]

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ments of flint are found with very sharp edges left by the fracture, 
showing that cutting tools, having sharp natural fractures instead of 
having been artificially chipped to a cutting edge, were used.

   From the Blue river eastward to the state line many high points of land 
have a few of the chips of blue chert mixed with the soil, showing that 
aboriginal man once had his camp there. But the most pronounced evidence 
of this first or lowest stage of the Stone Age is found near the mouth of 
the Weeping Water; at that point one may draw a circle five miles in 
diameter with the town of Nehawka well to the southeast side of this 
circle, and he will enclose a vast area of quarry pits made by prehistoric 
man.(5) The exact surface area of these pits has not been measured, but 
they cover many acres.

   Mr. Isaac Pollard, who owns some of the land upon which the pits are 
found, made an excavation through one of them. The trench is eighty feet 
long, six feet wide, and from ten to twelve feet deep. This trench has its 
floor on a solid ledge of limestone, which is the

[image caption: QUIVERA TOMAHAWKS. FOUND BY WALTER RICE NEAR BLUE SPRINGS, 
NEBRASKA]

fourth ledge from the top. The trench, as dug from the hillside surface 
back to the edge of the pit on the brow of the hill, terminates at a 
solid, perpendicular wall. Here appear marks of discoloration caused by 
fire. Quantities of charcoal and ashes were found at the base of the wall 
and scattered throughout the debris which the trench passes through for 
half its length,

   At the beginning of the trench, some forty feet above the water level 
and a hundred feet from the bed of the Weeping Water, broken rocks and 
quarry debris were found for a few feet, then the trench passed through a 
bank of earth and stratified rocks that had not been moved. This bank is 
sixteen feet thick on the floor of the trench. After this comes a mixture 
of spalls, broken rocks, and soil intermingled. This debris appeared to 
have been thrown out in layers resting at an angle of about forty-five 
degrees with the level of the floor. It is loosely packed in places, while 
here and there is very closely packed stratum of brown clay filled with 
flint spalls and bits of limestone; it has every appearance of being well 
tamped, and is hard to dig through.

   The most abundant material in the debris 

(5. See report of Archaeologist in Annual Report State Board of 
Agriculture, 1902.)

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is broken lime rocks having large fractures on them as if struck by some 
heavy body. Many of these rocks show the rounded matrix of a flint nodule 
which has been removed. The surface near the pit is strewn with flint 
spalls. The first stratum, as shown in a quarry near by, is a rotten lime 
rock; the second is a fairly good building stone without flint nodules, 
and at the perpendicular wall where the trench ends it is from twenty-six 
to thirty-eight inches thick. The third stratum, which is very compact and 
from thirty to forty-two inches thick, contains the flint nodules, about 
two-thirds of the way down. These nodules are from the size of an egg to 
the size of a man's head, and are about twelve inches apart each way. They 
cleave out very readily, and leave a rounded matrix when the ledge is 
broken lip.

   No tools and no perfectly chipped implements have thus far been found; 
in fact, no flint upon which artificial chipping can be detected for a 
certainty has been found in the trench, and no pottery. A few of the first 
class of Stone Age implements were found in the vicinity; and a few sherds 
of pottery, as well as some of the third class of implements, were found 
in lodge circles and graves near these pits. They doubtless belonged to 
other people who came along the Missouri at a later date.

   In this limited sketch can be given but a faint conception of the skill 
shown in quarrying, of the years spent in systematic labor, and of the 
vast numbers that must have been engaged. In one of these pits stands a 
bur-oak tree six feet two inches in circumference.

   The second class of Stone Age implements comprises those of massive, 
chipped stone found along the Elkhorn and Missouri rivers. Quantities of 
these are also found along the Sioux river in Iowa, as well as in the 
northeastern part of Kansas. They are shaped like the smaller implements 
of class three; they

[image caption: THE ONLY COMPLETE PIECE OF INDIAN POTTERY EVER DISCOVERED 
IN NEBRASKA, SO FAR AS KNOWN. FOUND BY R. DEWITT STEARNS NEAR FULLERTON]

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are undoubtedly chipped by the pressure process, and at times show much 
skill in their manufacture. With them are often found the finer and 
smaller implements of class three.

   The characteristic of these implements is their size; they are too 
large for use in the chase or in war, and may be classed as digging tools. 
On the Wright site, near Genoa, these massive implements are abundant in a 
field near the lodge circles now to be seen there, but not at the same 
place. It seems that the newer village site is a few rods from the old 
one, where the lodge circles are not plainly defined but where these 
massive implements are abundant. This may lead to a better understanding 
of this second class in time. Near the Elkhorn, where no lodge circles can 
be noticed, these massive implements are abundantly scattered with 
implements of the third class, and pottery is found there, too.

   The third class of Stone Age implements is abundant in most parts of 
the state and consists of finely chipped arrows, scrapers, and spears in 
use by the Indians when early hunters and trappers first came among them. 
This class may be subdivided. Every tribe which the early trappers and 
missionaries visited manifested a certain individuality in their chipped 
flints. This difference is not easily studied from the meager data left by 
the early writers, and there are many stumbling blocks encountered in 
trying to classify them from their individuality of chipping alone.

   This class is most abundant along the Platte river, where the lodge 
circles are most plainly defined. These lodge circles antedate the 
traditionary knowledge of the Amerind, but are so similar to the ruins 
left by the recent tribes that we can but connect the two as the product 
of the same people. In many cases we know that these ancient ruins were 
abandoned before contact, even indirectly, with whites, as the red man 
prized so highly the arts of the whites that he adopted them on sight. 
There is not the slightest trace of such contact, and we may safely 
conclude that there was none, and therefore this latest class is properly 
a study in archaeology. A lengthy description of these implements may not 
find room here, but the Nebraska State Historical Society museum 
illustrates the three classes in question.

   It is true in a limited degree only that we may judge the people by 
their pottery. The potsherds found in Nebraska are mainly of three kinds: 
those having fabric impressions, those ornamented with designs drawn on 
the plastic clay, and a poorer quality of more recent manufacture. The 
first two are black, feebly burned, and tempered with quartz, pebbles, 
mica, and pieces of pottery crushed. The last is often very red, having 
been burned more severely; it is tempered with sand and at times small 
pebbles are found in it as well as powdered shells.

   Buche(6) describes a Scandinavian pottery which corresponds in every 
way to this Nebraska pottery. The Scandinavian pottery was made two 
thousand years B. C.

   It is evident that the first class of the Stone Age, as described 
above, had no pottery. It is equally certain that the third class had 
pottery in abundance; the second, or intermediate stage is so closely 
associated with both that it is difficult to say definitely what it 
contained.

   The third class had pottery of the first two kinds mentioned, and the 
third kind was probably brought here by some later tribe.

   The study of Nebraska archaeology has been in progress, in a systematic 
way, only a few years, and it is perhaps venturesome to supply even these 
brief data. No other state in the Union offers a more fertile field. It is 
complicated, as the aborigine was a nomadic creature, and so many tribes 
of recent Indians have made these vast buffalo plains their hunting 
grounds that it is very difficult to follow the line of demarcation 
between the ruins of the aborigine and those of the Amerind. Many relics 
have been gathered into the Nebraska State Historical Society museum, 
which forms the basis of this study. Many more are scattered over the 
state, not only in the fields and along the streams, but in the keeping of 
people who enjoy their possession, but who do not realize their importance 
in completing this branch of our history.

   Twenty-four village sites have been explor- 

(6. London, 1842.)

Page 13

ed and charted; while the remains of others, from walled cities whose 
metes and bounds are still plainly defined, down to temporary hunting 
camps of a few tepees, are thickly scattered over the state. Of the recent 
village sites, or those occupied during historic days, five have been 
explored: the Bryant site, near Yutan: an Otoe site, where Elsworth 
visited the Otoes in 1832;(7) the Esty site, a recent Pawnee village, 
seven miles south of Fremont; the McClain site, a Pawnee site, immediately 
across the Platte from Fremont; the Otoe site at Barneston, and the very 
recent Pawnee site at Genoa. A history of these sites may be obtained from 
published works, so one need not resort to relics.

   Relics of domestic economy and of art are being gathered, which will 
reveal the people who used them as truly as we may read the lives of our 
associates in their everyday walks. Archaeology may, in time, construct a 
true history of the race which lived, loved, and worshiped on the soil of 
Nebraska.

   CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.(8) It is probable that all pioneers notice more or 
less carefully the conditions of temperature and rainfall in the new 
region in which they are making a home. Particularly is this true if the 
region is popularly supposed by former neighbors and friends to have a 
rather inhospitable climate. Probably reasons of this nature account, in 
part at least, for the unusual and intelligent interest which was 
manifested in climatic conditions by the early settlers of Nebraska. 
Preceding the settlers, at least in the matter of accurate, preserved 
weather observations, comes the United States army. The soldiers, in 
accordance with the usual practice, kept weather records at the frontier 
army posts. The earliest of these records commenced in 1849 at Fort 
Kearney, and for twenty years the records at the various army posts form 
an important part of our knowledge of the Nebraska weather. The earliest 
preserved records kept by settlers commenced at Omaha in 1857, Brownville 
and Bellevue in 1858, Nebraska City and Fontenelle in 1859. The number of 
observers increased but slowly for the next twenty years, and many records 
are broken, or perhaps have been but partially preserved; for there was no 
organized attempt to encourage or collect and preserve the results of the 
work of those who are carefully noting events. A leader to stimulate 
interest was wanting.

   In January, 1878, Gilbert E. Bailey, professor of chemistry and physics 
in the University of Nebraska, organized the Nebraska voluntary weather 
service, similar to a service organized three years earlier in Iowa, "for 
the purpose of collecting facts and securing an accurate and complete 
history of the weather of Nebraska." The organization thus formed has 
existed essentially the same to the present time, nearly forty years, and 
during this period there was issued, without a single omission, a monthly 
statement of the weather which prevailed in Nebraska. Much credit should 
be given to the intelligent citizens who have composed this band of 
workers, and especially to the "director" of the service who, particularly 
in the early days, contributed largely in enthusiasm, time, and sometimes 
money to secure the object sought. The directors were Gilbert E. Bailey, 
1878; S. R. Thompson, 1878 to 1884; and G. D. Swezey, in 1884, until the 
work was turned over to the officials of the United States Weather Bureau 
in 1896. The continued activity of the service seems the more unusual when 
it is noted that but once -- in January 1884 --have the workers met in 
convention.

   The first attempt to collect the scattered records and determine the 
climate of Nebraska was made in 1878 by G. E. Bailey, at the time he 
organized the voluntary service. He charted the rainfall for the two ten-
year periods ending 1867 and 1877. The results seemed to prove that the 
rainfall in Nebraska was increasing. Thus was advanced the theory of 
increasing rainfall (perhaps already in the minds of the people) with 
seemingly good reasons, which in the next ten years became firmly fixed as 
a belief in the mind, of the average Nebraskan. The second attempt to 
present the climatic 

(7. Irving's Indian Sketches.)

(8. This account of the meteorology of Nebraska should be credited to 
Prof. George A. Loveland, director of the United States Weather Bureau in 
the University of Nebraska.-ED.)

Page 14

conditions of Nebraska was a more complete and pretentious "Climatology of 
Nebraska," printed by Samuel Aughey, professor of natural sciences in the 
University of Nebraska. This was a chapter in a book entitled Sketches of 
Physical Geography and Geology of Nebraska. It contained many statements 
of supposed facts which were determined from insufficient data and which 
are now known to be incorrect. It included an elaborate exposition of the 
mistaken theory of increase in rainfall. In 1890, a comprehensive 
statement of the Nebraska climate was prepared by the United States Signal 
Service and printed as Senate Document No. 115 of the Fifty-first 
Congress. The unusual weather conditions of 1894 aroused considerable 
interest in the climate, especially as regards rainfall. A complete 
summary of the rainfall records was prepared by the Nebraska voluntary 
service, and was printed as Bulletin No. 45 of the Agricultural Experiment 
Station of Nebraska. In 1895 Professor G. D. Swezey prepared an excellent 
survey of the climate of Nebraska for the July number of the Northwestern 
Journal of Education.

   The intelligent interest of the citizen, starting with the early 
history of Nebraska and continuing for a half century, has resulted in the 
collection of sufficient data to establish the characteristics of the 
climate with considerable accuracy, also to point out some of the errors 
of early students. There is every evidence that no permanent change has 
occurred in the climate of Nebraska since its occupation by man. The 
variations of climate observed in the half century would have occurred if 
the country had been uninhabited, and they are similar to those occurring 
in all parts of the globe. The climate of Nebraska is controlled by its 
location on the globe; that is, its latitude, elevation above sea level, 
distance from large bodies of water, and the extensive mountain ranges to 
the westward, with the absence of such barriers to moisture-laden winds, 
to the south and east,

   The average temperature for the year varies with the latitude and 
elevation. It is highest -- 52o -- in the extreme southeastern portion of 
the state, at an elevation of about nine hundred feet, and 2o less in the 
southwestern portion, at an elevation of about three thousand feet. The 
mean annual temperature decreases northward at an average rate of 1o for 
forty miles in the eastern and southern portion of the state while in the 
northwest the decrease in temperature is somewhat less rapid. Along the 
northern boundary the average is slightly above 46o.

   January is the coldest month, with a mean temperature approximately 27o 
below he yearly average, or with a range of from 25o the southeast to 20o 
or slightly below in the north. In the very coldest days of winter the 
temperature falls to between 10o and 20o below zero, and on rare occasions 
to 30o below zero. In the northwest portion of the state 40o or more below 
zero has been recorded twice in the past forty years, the coldest recorded 
being 47o below zero in February, 1899, at Camp Clarke.

   July is the warmest month, with a mean approximately 26o above the 
yearly mean, or with a range of from 78o in the southeast to 72o in the 
northwest. In the hottest days of summer the temperature exceeds 100o. In 
1901, the hottest July recorded, the highest temperature was from 108o to 
110o while in 1894, 114o was recorded at Creighton and Santee on July 26th.

   The last killing frost in spring in the southeast, in the last decade, 
occurs in April, but it appears gradually later to the northward and 
westward, occurring near May 1st in the greater portion of the 
agricultural section of the state, while in the northwest, in the more 
elevated and principally grazing districts, the season is about two weeks 
later. The first killing frost in the fall in the South Platte district, 
except the western portion, occurs as a rule during the first week in 
October, and from five to ten days earlier in the central and northwestern 
part of the state. The average number of days without killing frosts, that 
is, from the last frost in the spring to the first frost in the fall, is 
155 to 165 in the southeastern part of the state; 145 western parts, and 
130 to 135 in the northwestern portion. The ground usually thaws out and 
some plowing and seeding are done in

Page 15

March, but the real growing season does not begin until the higher 
temperatures of April are felt.

   The precipitation of Nebraska is almost entirely rain; the snowfall for 
a year averages about twenty inches, equal to about two inches of water, 
or less than one-tenth the annual precipitation. The moisture precipitated 
over Nebraska comes almost entirely from the Gulf of Mexico, brought by 
the prevailing southerly winds of summer. The annual precipitation 
slightly exceeds thirty inches in the southeastern part of the state, and 
decreases to the north and west somewhat irregularly, but at an average 
rate of one inch for thirty miles across the state from the southeast 
corner to the middle of the western border, where it is only fifteen 
inches. The decrease northward along the eastern border of the state is 
about one inch for forty miles, or to twenty-seven inches in the northeast 
corner. The decrease is one inch for fifty miles westward along the 
northern border, or to eighteen inches in the northwest corner. Very 
little rain or snow falls in the winter months, averaging less than an 
inch of water a month, from November to February inclusive. A slight 
increase is manifest in March, but the spring rains begin in April when 
from two to three inches is the normal fall for most parts of the state. 
In May the rainfall is about one inch more, while June and July follow 
with nearly the same amount. June is the month of heaviest rainfall, with 
an amount ranging from more than five inches in the southeast to slightly 
less than three in the extreme west. August brings a decided decrease, 
being only about the same as April, while September and October have still 
less. The rainy season in Nebraska coincides with the crop season or the 
warm growing months. Nearly seventy per cent of Nebraska's precipitation 
occurrs in the five months, April to August, inclusive.

   The percentage of cloudiness is highest in March, April, May, and June, 
when there are slightly more clouds than clear sky. July, August, and 
September are the months with the least clouds.

   The velocity of the wind is high in all parts of the state except in 
the Missouri valley, and averages from nine to eleven miles per hour.

   VEGETATION.(9) The natural vegetation of Nebraska is emphatically that 
of the Great Plains, and thus differs much from that of the forests to the 
eastward and the mountains lying westward. To say that the eastern 
botanist notes the absence of many familiar plants signifies nothing, 
since this must always be the case in comparing the flora of one region 
with that of another. The flora of the Plains differs in many respects 
from that of New York and New England, but the eastern botanist must not 
unduly magnify the importance to be attached to the fact that he does not 
find here many of the plants he knew in his childhood days. The Plains 
have their own plants, which will eventually be as dear to the men and 
women who gathered them in childhood, as are the old favorites to the New 
Englander transplanted to the West.

   A study of the vegetation of Nebraska shows it to possess some 
remarkably interesting features. The wild plants of the state are very 
largely immigrants from surrounding regions. By far the greater number 
have come from the prairies and forests lying adjacent on the east and 
southeast by creeping up the rivers and streams, or in case of herbaceous 
plants, blowing overland without regard for the watercourses. Thus, of the 
one hundred and forty-one trees and shrubs which grow naturally within the 
state, all but about twenty-five have migrated from the Fast, in nearly 
all cases following the streams. Of these twenty-five, four or five may be 
considered strictly endemic, the remainder having come down from the 
mountains.

   A careful study of the plants of the eastern part of the state, show's 
that many species are confined to limited areas in Richardson and the 
adjoining counties, and that the number of species decreases with marked 
regularity as we ascend the Misssouri river. The same general law is seen 
as we ascend the three great rivers, the Republican, Platte, and Niobrara, 
which 

(9. This description of the vegetation of Nebraska is by Charles Edwin 
Bessey, Ph.D., LL.D., dean of the Industrial College and professor of 
botany in the University of Nebraska.-ED.)

Page 16

cross the state from west to east. On the other hand, as we ascend the 
streams we meet, here and there, a mountain plant which is wandering 
eastward down the slope from an elevation of a mile above sea level in the 
western counties to less than a thousand feet along the Missouri river. 
Thus the buffalo berry, the golden currant, low sumach, the dwarf wild 
cherry, and yellow pine have traveled half-way or two-thirds across the 
Plains; while the creeping barberry, black cottonwood, Rydberg's 
cottonwood, mountain maple, mountain mahogany, and sage-brush barely enter 
the western counties, not extending eastward of the Wyoming line more than 
a few miles. A few species of wild roses, the sand cherry, and perhaps the 
sand plum seem to belong strictly to the Plains.

   Wherever we go, we find upon the Plains a similar commingling of 
eastern and western species. Every mile one advances westward brings to 
view plants not hitherto seen while at the same time there is left behind 
some familiar species.

   Nebraska affords one of the finest illustrations of the commingling of 
continguous floras to be found anywhere in America. Not a few of the 
species in the southern half of the state have come up from the plains of 
the Southwest, some even coming from Texas and New Mexico. Others, again, 
appear to have migrated from the great northern plains of the Dakotas, 
while here again there are endemic species, as the buffalo grass, 
Redfield's grass, false buffalo grass, and many more.

   Through the untiring efforts of the members of the Botanical Seminar of 
the University of Nebraska there are now known fully three thousand three 
hundred species, representing every branch and nearly every class of the 
vegetable kingdom.

   There are sixty-four species of native trees in the state. There is, 
however, no place in the state where all these species grow together. No 
county contains sixty-four kinds of native trees. Thus there are nineteen 
species of trees in the northwestern quarter of the state, southwestern, 
and fifty in the southeastern.

   A close study of the distribution of our [twenty-seven in the 
northeastern, fifteen in the [sic]] trees shows that nearly all have 
probably migrated to the Plains from the East. They have in some cases 
done no more than get a little foothold in the extreme southeastern 
counties, to which they have come from the heavy forests of Missouri. A 
few have doubtless crossed the Missouri river from western Iowa, although 
this number is evidently very small. Nearly all have come up from the 
Missouri bottoms and spread from the southeastern corner of the state west 
and northwest. Possibly a few may have come up the Blue river from Kansas, 
but these must eventually be traced to the Missouri river bottoms at the 
mouth of the Kansas river.

   The trees and shrubs which are found only in the western part of the 
state unquestionably came from the Rocky mountains and have spread 
eastward to their present limits. Only one of these, the buffalo berry, 
has spread itself over the whole state. There is a probability that a 
further examination of the bluffs of the Niobrara, Platte, and Republican 
rivers will show several more of these Rocky mountain plants, which have 
come down with the river currents. It is singular that so few of the 
western trees and shrubs have come down the streams, especially as 
prevailing winds are also from the westerly parts toward the east. It 
would naturally be supposed that it would be much easier for the western 
trees to come down stream, and with the wind, than for the elms, ashes, 
plums, etc., to have gone up the streams against the prevailing winds.

   Some of the more important trees are: The yellow pine or bull pine, red 
cedar, black cottonwood, Rydberg's cottonwood, cottonwood, basswood, white 
elm, red elm, hackberry, plane tree, mountain maple, butternut, black 
walnut, shellbark hickory, big hickory nut, bitter hickory, white oak, bur-
oak, red oak, iron-wood, canoe birch, choke cherry, wild black cherry, 
wild plum, Kentucky coffee tree, white ash, red ash, and green ash.

   The yellow pine, which occurs so abundantly in the Rocky mountains, is 
the only pine native to Nebraska. It forms quite dense forests in the 
northwestern and northern portion of the state, extending from the Wyoming 
line along

Page 17

the Pine Ridge and Niobrara river to the eastern boundary of Rock and Keya 
Paha counties. It occurs also on the North Platte river as far east as 
Deuel county.

   The white elm is deservedly popular throughout the state as a shade 
tree; it is the common elm of the state. It is known as "water elm." A 
specimen of the white elm in Tecumseh has a spreading dome-shaped top 
nearly one hundred feet in diameter. Along the Salt Creek in the vicinity 
of Lincoln are many trees of about the same size. It will adapt itself to 
almost any soil and condition and grows well over the entire state.

   The bur-oak is the most widely distributed oak within the state. In 
favorable situations it attains a great size even along the western border 
of the state. In Long Pine canyon there are trees from two to three feet 
in diameter, with large and well shaped tops.

   Grasses. Many plants are commonly called grasses which are not grasses 
at all. Many people speak of clover and alfalfa as grasses, because they 
are made into hay for stock, just as many of the real grasses are. So, 
too, many of our weeds are called grasses, as rib-grass, knot-grass, etc., 
when they are not at all related to the proper grasses. On the other hand, 
many true grasses are commonly kept separate from them, under the 
impression that they are very different plants. Thus many people do not 
think of common field corn as a grass, and yet it is in every way a true 
grass, although a very large one. So, too, wheat, oats, rye, barley, etc., 
are real grasses, although we rarely hear them spoken of as such.

   A grass is a plant with narrow, elongated leaves which are in two ranks 
upon the jointed usually hollow stem. The leaves end below in open 
sheaths, which wrap around the stem for a greater or less distance. The 
flowers are chaffy and are never colored or conspicuous; they are often in 
loose heads (panicles, as in blue grass and oats), or in spikes (as in 
timothy and wheat). Some live for but a single season (annuals), while 
others live for many years (perennials).

   In the world there are about 3,500 species of grasses, and of this vast 
number 154 have been recorded as growing wild or under common cultivation 
in Nebraska. Probably there is no place in the state in which there are 
not from fifty to seventy-five kinds of grasses, and in some places 
doubtless there are more than one hundred.

   Wild Flowers. Contrary to the popular notion Nebraska has a rich flora, 
and its wild flowers include many species whose beauty has commended them 
to the florist and gardener. It is safe to say that there are at least 
three hundred species which are notable for their attractiveness. This 
large number is, however, distributed over so great an area that no 
locality possesses many of them.

   The more important of the wild flowers are the following:

   LILIES. -- Eight of these are attractive flowers. The most striking are 
the two species of "Mariposa lilies" whose lavender flowers may be found 
abundantly in the northwestern part of the state. Much more common, but 
very pretty, are the two species of "spring lilies" (Erythronium), the one 
a lavender white, the other rarer one a light yellow. The Canada lily and 
the little white trillium are so pretty as to merit the high place given 
them among beautiful flowers. The sand lily (Leucocrinum) of the western 
half of the state sends up in early spring its delicate white, fragrant 
flowers, while in the same region in early summer the stately dagger weed 
(Yucca) rears its tall stem, crowned with its creamy tulip-like flowers.

   ORCHIDS. -- Nine or ten pretty orchids grow in different parts of the 
state, but these shy plants are nowhere abundant.

   BUTTERCUPS. -- About a dozen species of buttercups are known within the 
state, and there are as many more near relatives, the columbines, 
larkspurs, anemones, and pretty climbing clematises.

   WATER LILIES. -- The prettiest of these is the white water lily so much 
prized by flower-lovers, and the giant water lily (Nelumbo) with its light 
yellow flowers and gigantic leaves.

   POPPIES. -- Throughout the western half of the state the native prickly 
poppy is very common, its large, white flowers being conspicuous 
everywhere upon the high plains. In common with many of the preceding 
species, it is very generally cultivated in gardens in the older parts of 
the United States.

Page 18

   CAPERS. -- This odd name is applied to a family represented in Nebraska 
by several very pretty plants: one of the prettiest is the Rocky mountain 
bee plant, whose pink flowers yield much nectar to the bees.

   VIOLETS. -- Every spring the hills are dotted over with beautiful 
prairie violets of several species. Some of these have heart-shaped 
leaves, while in others they are shaped like the leaves of the larkspur. 
All are worthy of cultivation in gardens.

   MALLOWS. -- The eastern resident will see few more interesting plants 
upon the plains than the native mallows, from the tall growing lavender or 
blue flowered species to those with bright red flowers. Some of the former 
have very deep growing, enlarged roots.

   CACTUSES. -- In eastern Nebraska, on the rocky hilltops, a species of 
prickly pear grows plentifully, as also in many counties westward to 
Wyoming. Another species much like it occurs in the western counties only, 
while a couple of species of melon cactus with spherical stems are common 
from the central counties westward.

   MENTZELIAS. -- Several species of Mentzelia with thin, straw-colored, 
star-shaped flowers, and adhesive leaves, are very abundant in the western 
counties. They are sometimes known as "star flowers," and have been 
cultivated in the garden under the name of Bartonia.

   EVENING PRIMROSES. -- These occur in great abundance throughout the 
state, and six of the species are very ornamental, having bright yellow 
flowers an inch or two in diameter. Some of these are common in eastern 
gardens.

   THE ROSES. -- No part of Nebraska is without one or more species of 
wild roses, and in some places these are so abundant that the landscape is 
made pink by the color of the beautiful flowers which are produced in 
great numbers. Nearly related to the roses are the cinque-foils of many 
species, and the well-known wild strawberries, of which we have two 
species.

   LUPINES. -- In the western counties several kinds of wild lupines are 
found, which are very attractive both in flowers and foliage. Related to 
these are the milk-vetches of many species, some of which are ornamental.

   PRAIRIE CLOVERS. -- Two species of these plants, the white flowered and 
the pink flowered, are common everywhere, while three or four more occur 
in the center of the state and westward. Some of these have long been 
cultivated in gardens in the east and in the Old World.

   MORNING GLORIES. -- While some of these are troublesome weeds they are 
at the same time very pretty ornamental plants. One which does not climb 
and which is known as the bush morning glory produces fine, large purple 
flowers in great profusion. It is worthy of cultivation. It is curious on 
account of the very large root which it produces, this sometimes reaching 
the enormous size of five feet in length and a foot in diameter and 
weighing from fifty to one hundred pounds.

   GILIAS. -- A few of the many species of Gilia are pecularly beautiful 
and have long been grown in gardens under the name Collomia. They occur 
mainly in the western part of the state.

   PENTSTEMONS. -- Six to eight species of these beautiful flowers grow in 
the state, some of them being common everywhere. The finest one is the 
large flowered species (Pentstemon grandiflorus) whose blue-purple flowers 
are two inches long.

   VERBENAS. -- Some of our species are coarse and lacking in beauty, but 
others are low with pretty leaves and flowers, suggesting that they may 
well be brought into gardens.

   SUNFLOWERS. -- We too commonly regard all the sunflowers as weeds only, 
but even the coarsest are not devoid of beauty. The most common species 
(Helianthus annuus) is the parent from which have been derived all the 
cultivated varieties so common in gardens the world over. The so-called 
Russian sunflower which is often cultivated for its oily seeds is nothing 
but a highly improved form of our common species. Other species of 
sunflowers are somewhat cultivated and are prized for their stateliness, 
but none are as well known as the common kind mentioned above.

   ASTERS. -- Of this genus of plants we have many species in the state, 
several of considerable beauty. They always attract attention, and are 
deservedly popular with children and other lovers of flowers.

   GOLDENRODS. -- Few genera of plants have received the attention 
bestowed upon that which includes our native goldenrods. Their tall wand-
like stems, topped with their golden heads, make them striking objects 
upon the landscape of the Plains. We have many species, ranging from the 
stout and stocky "rigid goldenrod" to the slender "Canadian" species. One 
of the most graceful of the species, the "tall goldenrod" (Solidago 
serotina), has recently been designated by law as the floral emblem of 
Nebraska. This really handsome

Page 19

species is a native of all quarters of the state. It attains a height of 
from three to four or five feet, and has smooth, lance-shaped, taper 
pointed leaves. It bears a large, more or less pyramidal cluster of 
flowers, which lean over somewhat to one side. Nebraska could not have a 
better floral representative than this sturdy, yet graceful, goldenrod.

   Weeds. Upon the open country of the Plains where the winds are almost 
constantly blowing briskly, seeds of all kinds are much more readily 
distributed than they are in the wooded regions. This will account for the 
rapid spread of weeds when once they reach the open country beyond the 
Missouri river. Then again the whole of the Plains for ages was roamed 
over by immense droves of buffaloes and antelopes, and later by domestic 
animals whose range was almost as far as that of their wild relatives. 
These herds in their rapid and headlong stampedes over the country carried 
with them the seeds of many plants, thus aiding in their general 
distribution.

   The general fertility and the great uniformity of the soil has had also 
much to do with the readiness with which weedy plants obtained a foothold 
in new stations, and from them increased and spread to others.

   Naturally, in a region having the area and hypsometrical features of 
Nebraska, the number of native plants which may become weedy is quite 
large. A region nearly ten times as large as Massachusetts, and ranging in 
altitude above the sea from about 900 to more than 5,000 feet, can not 
fail to have many native weedy plants. By actual count no less than 125 
native plants are worthy of being ranked as weeds, and while many of these 
are among the worst pests of the farm, others simply take possession of 
the open pasture lands of waste and uncultivated places. The more 
important kinds are the following:

   SQUIRREL-TAIL GRASS (Hordeum jubatum). -- This appears to have 
originally inhabited the sandy margins and islands of the streams of the 
state. It was common also upon the alkaline and salt flat,, and from these 
it spread to the cultivated lands and roadsides almost everywhere. It is 
one of the most troublesome weeds of the state.

   COUCH GRASS (Agropyrum repens). -- This pest of the eastern farmer is 
widely distributed upon the Plains, but it has not as yet attracted much 
attention. It is cut for hay, of which it supplies a fair amount of good 
quality.

   PORCUPINE GRASS (Stipa spartea). -- In the eastern part of the state 
this is a common weed upon the high prairies, where its sharp, needle-like 
fruits are very hurtful to sheep. In the western counties it is replaced 
by the similar needle grass (S. comata), which in every way is equally 
troublesome.

   SAND BUR (Cenchrus tribuloides). -- This grass loves the sandy soil of 
the large streams, from which it has doubtless spread to the higher lands. 
It is abundant in the eastern half of the state, and is probably our worst 
native weed.

   SMART WEEDS (Polygonum acre and P. hydropiper). -- Common in the 
eastern counties.

   HEARTSEASE (Polygonum emersum, P. terrestre, P. incarnatum, P. 
pennsylvanicum). -- All are troublesome weeds in lowlands.

   TUMBLE WEEDS. -- Two native plants bear this name, viz., Corispermum 
hyssopifolium and Cycloloma platyphyllum. They take possession of the 
recently plowed land in the central portions of the state, and often 
completely cover the ground. In the autumn they begin their uneasy career 
of rolling and tumbling over the Plains, dropping their seeds everywhere.

   LOW PIGWEED (Amaranthus blitoides). -- As common throughout Nebraska as 
purslane (which it much resembles in manner of growth) is in the eastern 
states.

   LOCO WEEDS (Astragalus mollissmus) and CRAZY WEEDS (Oxytropis 
lamberti). -- These widely distributed plants are generally supposed to 
cause the disorder known as "loco" which attacks horses and cattle upon 
the plains. While it is possible that they are innocent of this charge, 
they are worthless weeds of the uplands and rich dry bottoms adjacent, and 
should be eradicated.

   SHOESTRING (Amorpha canescens). -- For the farmer who undertakes to 
break up the upland prairie where it abounds, this is one of the most 
troublesome plants, its long, deep, tough roots offering a serious 
obstacle to the work. It abounds throughout the state.

   MILKWEEDS (Asclepias syriaca, A. speciosa, A. incarnata, and A. 
verticillata). -- The first and second are pests in cultivated land, where 
their deep-lying roots enable them to successfully resist all efforts to 
dislodge them. Both are widely distributed. The third species oc-

Page 20

curs along streams and in moist places in the eastern half of the state as 
a tall weed. The fourth species is a low weed in pastures and meadows 
throughout the state.

   WILD MORNING GLORY (Convolvulus sepium). -- In the eastern half of the 
state it is too common in cultivated fields. It appears to be spreading.

   HORSE NETTLE (Solanum carolinense). -- A prickly weed of the eastern 
counties.

   BUFFALO BUR (Solanum rostratum). -- This most vile weed is apparently 
an immigrant from the southwest. It occurs now abundantly in all parts of 
Nebraska and is rapidly extending eastward.

   NIGHTSHADE (Solanum triflorum). -- A low-growing weed spreading 
eastward from the central portions of the state.

   WILD VERBENA (Verbena stricta, V. hastata, V. urticaefolia, V. 
bracteosa, V. pinnatifida). -- All are weedy plants. The first occurs in 
the eastern half of the state on prairies of all kinds; the second and 
third are confined to the moist lands of the eastern counties; the fourth 
is a low weed throughout the state, while the last is like it, but 
confined to the western half of the state.

   PRAIRIE PINK (Lygodesmia juncea). -- Throughout the state this is a 
persistent weed, about which farmers frequently make complaint.

   THISTLES (Cnicus altissimus, C. undulatus, C. ochrocentrus). -- These 
native thistles occur as weeds in pastures, and especially upon the rich, 
unbroken prairies. The first is in the eastern counties, while the second 
and third are in the central and western portions of the state.

   SPANISH NEEDLES (Bidens frondosa). -- Becoming common in cornfields and 
by roadsides in eastern Nebraska.

   SUNFLOWERS (Helianthus annuus and H. grosseserratus). -- The first is 
very common throughout the state, being the most conspicuous weed of all 
vacant places and poorly cultivated fields. The second is a common 
perennial species in waste places and roadsides in eastern Nebraska. 
Several other species are occasionally more or less weedy in their habits.

   COCKLEBUR (Xanthium canadense). -- Very common by roadsides and in 
confields in eastern Nebraska. I doubt whether this is a native plant of 
the state.

   RAGWEEDS (Ambrosia trifida, A. artemisiaefolia and A. psilostachya). -- 
These pests of the eastern half of the state appear like immigrants from 
the East. They abound by roadsides in the rich moist soils along the water-
courses, often attaining a height of from ten to sixteen feet. Two species 
of Iva (I. ciliata and I. xapithiifolia), which look so much like ragweeds 
that they are not easily distinguished by the farmer, are common weeds 
growing with the preceding in low lands in eastern Nebraska.

   HORSEWEED (Erigeron canadensis). -- A common weed of the prairies and 
fields in the eastern half of the state. Its little relative, E. 
divaricatus, occurs in similar stations and has about the same range.

   IRON WEEDS (Vernonia fasciculata). -- A troublesome weed in low 
pastures in the eastern half of the state.

   The introduced weeds include some of our most troublesome pests upon 
the farm, and yet the eastern student will remark upon the entire absence 
of some of the worst weeds with which he is familiar.

   SHEPHERDS PURSE (Bursa bursa-pastoris). -- Found everywhere in the 
eastern half of the state.

   RUSSIAN THISTLE (Salsola tragus). -- Apparently now to be found 
throughout the state. The mature plant is more or less spherical in shape 
and consists of many elongated branching twigs which grow outward and 
upward from the root. When not quite matured the whole plant has a reddish 
color, but as its seeds ripen it bleaches out and eventually is almost 
white. Well-grown specimens are from two to three feet in diameter, but 
where crowded together they may be much less. Each twig and branch is 
covered on all sides by hard, stout prickles, which are very sharp and 
very irritating to the touch. These prickles are in threes, that is, there 
are three together in a place and pointing in different directions. At the 
upper side of the base of each three prickles there is a seed, and as 
there are about ten of these to each inch, it is easily seen that the 
seeds produced by every well-grown plant must reach a great many 
thousands. A calculation made with some care shows that a medium-sized 
plant contains between 10,000 and 15,000 seeds. Late in the fall, and in 
the early part of winter, the root breaks off, and the plant is free to 
roil away with its freight of seeds.

   LAMBS QUARTERS (Chenopodium album and C. hybridum). -- The first is 
found all over the state, while the second has not advanced beyond the 
eastern counties.

   PIG WEED (Amaranthus retroflexits). -- Common in field and waste places 
in the eastern half of the state.

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   TUMBLE WEED (Amaranthus albus). -- One of the most common weeds of the 
recently broken prairie land, almost everywhere in the state.

   PURSLANE (Portulaca oleracea). -- Now to be found everywhere in the 
state. It is not only a wayside weed, but a great pest in fields, 
pastures, and lawns.

   PLANTAIN (Plantagao major). -- Now very widely distributed. The narrow 
leaved plantain (P. lanceolata) is appearing in the eastern counties.

   DANDELION (Taraxocum tarazacum). -- In eastern counties and rapidly 
extending westward.

   CREEPING THISTLE (Cnicus arvensis). -- This so-called "Canada thistle" 
has appeared in a few places in the eastern counties.

   BURDOCK (Arctium lappa). -- Not common and mostly confined to the 
eastern counties.

   OX-EYE DAISY (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum). -- Appearing in the eastern 
counties, where it seems to thrive.

   FAUNA.(10) The little work that has thus far been done in Nebraska 
towards gaining a knowledge of its animal life, indicates that our fauna 
is comparatively rich in species and in many instances in individuals 
also. In fact, in this respect it seems to be ahead of most of the 
neighboring states. Several causes for this richness in forms of life may 
be cited. When we take into consideration the variation in altitude above 
sea level, the differences in surface configuration, climate, etc., that 
pertain to the state, its location, and the relation which it bears to the 
country at large, perhaps the wonderment concerning this great richness 
will be less. Our southeastern corner is only about eight hundred feet, 
our western border almost six thousand feet above tide water. The state is 
divided into timbered, prairie, and plains regions. It lies nearly in the 
middle of the United States, with a high mountain chain to the west and a 
giant waterway along its-eastern boundary. In. fact, in Nebraska meet 
eastern, western, southern, and northern faunas, while we also have a 
fauna of our own, 90 to speak. We find forms belonging to low and high 
altitudes, to wet and dry climates, to timbered and prairie countries, as 
well as to semi-desert and alkali regions. The sandy interior also offers 
special features for a distinct fauna.

   A casual comparison of past and present conditions shows that the 
native animals have materially changed since Nebraska was first settled. 
Many of the earlier forms have disappeared or become much restricted in 
their distribution. On the other hand, several forms have greatly 
increased in numbers and have extended their range as well. Less than 
fifty years ago our plains were covered by immense herds of the bison, or 
American buffalo, and elk in large bands roamed at liberty throughout the 
middle and western portions. Both species of deer, the white-tailed or 
Virginia, and the black-tailed or mule, in considerable numbers, were to 
be seen in our woodlands, among the fringes of brush and trees that marked 
the smaller water-courses, or else lurked in the tall grasses of the sand-
hills and other rough portions of the country where they were able to hide 
during daytime from their lesser enemies. The antelope ranged the prairies 
at will, even to within a comparatively short distance of our eastern 
borders. Some mountain sheep, too, were at home in the rougher country in 
the northwest, while at times small bands of wild horses also galloped 
over the Plains. Coincident and in a measure dependent upon these for 
their food supply were foxes, wolves, panthers, lynxes, and even a few 
bears. But all this is now changed. Where the bison, elk, deer, and 
antelope once browsed our grasses, we now have instead herds of cattle and 
sheep. The larger and fiercer carnivora, along with the forms upon which 
they were dependent, have been killed or driven away.

   The numbers of our small mammals, too, have been greatly changed. The 
beaver, otter, wolverine, badger, and several others of the fur-bearing 
kinds are now very scarce where they were once common or even abundant. A 
few of the rodents, such as are favored by the cultivation of the soil and 
growing of grain, instead of diminishing, have increased. These are forms 
like the prairie dog, pocket gopher, 

(10. This description of the animal life of Nebraska is by Lawrence 
Bruner, B.Sc., professor of entomology and ornithology in the University 
of Nebraska.-ED.]

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and ground squirrels, together with some of the mice. Several forms have 
even come into the state from beyond our borders and are now much at home 
in towns and cities as well as about our buildings on the farms.

   Bird life, too, has greatly changed in Nebraska since the advent of 
civilized man. Many of our larger and most showy species have nearly or 
altogether disappeared; while a number of the smaller ones, which were 
formerly present in flocks of thousands, are now few and scattered. Of the 
larger species are the wild turkey, cranes, Canada goose, and swans, both 
the whistling and trumpeter; and of the smaller, birds like the Eskimo 
curlew, Bartram's sandpiper and golden plover. Then, too, the Lesser 
prairie hen, which was occasionally taken in the middle and upper portions 
of the Elkhorn valley, seems to have almost or quite disappeared from the 
state.

   Notwithstanding the ravages that have been wrought by the thoughtless 
upon the bird life as formerly found within our borders, we still lead our 
sister states in the number of distinct species which are regular or 
incidental to our fauna. The partial, but rather careful study which has 
already been made has brought to light fully 415 or perhaps 420 recognized 
forms. Many of these are exceedingly valuable, and most of the others 
notably beneficial as insect destroyers or eaters of the seeds of noxious 
weeds, and only a few -- less than half a dozen species -- definitely 
harmful. Owing to the persistent efforts of our teachers, backed by the 
various members of the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, a majority of our 
leading citizens, and the state press generally, a very strong sentiment 
in favor of bird protection is being established here. It is to be hoped 
that this sentiment will be a guaranty of the future protection and 
increase of our feathered friends.

   Our fishes, while not numerous in individuals in every case, are 
nevertheless quite plentiful in distinct kinds. Some new and valuable 
forms have been added in the past and are annually being added to suitable 
waters. Just how many distinct forms occur in the waters of Nebraska is 
not even a matter of conjecture, since little or no effort has as yet been 
made towards a systematic collection of the forms found in any one stream, 
to say nothing of the numerous watercourses of the state.

   The batrachians, reptiles, and ophidians are also quite well 
represented when we take into consideration the conditions under which 
these various animals must exist. Only the latter, however, have received 
anything like a moderately careful study. In 1901, W. Edgar Taylor, at 
that time professor of natural history in the State Normal school at Peru, 
prepared a paper on this group which was published in connection with the 
report of the State Board of Agriculture for that year. In this treatise 
twenty-five varieties are described. Although incomplete, it answers 
fairly well as a good beginning towards a knowledge of our snakes.

   Such other animal forms as the mollusks, crustaceans, vermes, etc., 
along with the myriapods, arachnids, and insects, which form by far the 
larger percentage of the animal life of any region, are still much less 
known. Notwithstanding this comparative lack of knowledge on the part of 
the students of natural history concerning the life indigenous to the 
state, enough is known to warrant the statement that all of these are also 
well represented in every section of Nebraska. Of course the necessary 
investigations regarding the presence and ravages of harmful insects, 
which have been carried on from time to time in various regions during 
different years, have supplied the data for some working knowledge of 
these creatures. Aside from this cursory work, however, no systematic 
attempt has been made towards learning just what forms are to be found 
here, or what part the different kinds take in the economy of nature. In 
the very few isolated groups that have been at all carefully studied the 
results show much larger lists than were expected. For example, the 
butterflies number about one hundred and forty distinct kinds; the 
grasshoppers one hundred and eighty; the tiger beetles approximately 
forty, the bees several hundred, etc. Taken together, perhaps, our 
complete list of insects when made out will be in the neighborhood of

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from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand species. Then to these must be 
added something like five or six hundred spiders and other arachnids, 
seventy-five myriapods, and an indeterminate number of parasitic worms, 
crustacea, and other minute forms which live in the soil and water.

   Among the insects that are of especial interest, for one reason or 
another, such pests as the destructive grasshoppers, or locusts, the 
chinch bug, the army worm, codling moth, tent caterpillar, cut-worms, June 
beetles, Colorado potato beetle, squash bug, and, in fact, most of the 
other recognized pests of this class, figure conspicuously. Some of these 
are native to the state, while others have been introduced from regions 
beyond our borders. Commendable interest is taken by both our 
horticulturists and agriculturalists towards their suppression, and a 
continual warfare is being waged against them. Aside from the large number 
of destructive species that are indigenous to the state, we are also 
favored with equally large numbers of predaceous and parasitic forms which 
are doing their share toward keeping in check the harmful ones above 
referred to. Thus it is that the natural balance is, in a measure, 
maintained among these numerous kinds of animals which are at home in our 
state.