Nebraska

A state made by a railway and governed by a legislature unlike any other. Nebraska was the northern half of the 1854 act that set Kansas alight, but it was too far north for slavery to be a live question, so it was settled quietly and admitted in 1867. The Union Pacific built west from Omaha from 1865 along the Platte valley - the same corridor the Oregon, California and Mormon trails had used - and the land grants that financed it made the railroad the largest landowner and the state's dominant political force for decades. Resentment of railroad rates and grain elevators produced the Populist movement, and William Jennings Bryan of Lincoln carried its argument into three presidential campaigns. In 1934 the state adopted George Norris's proposal for a single-chamber, officially nonpartisan legislature, and it remains the only state with one. The Sandhills, a vast area of grass-stabilised dunes, are among the largest such formations in the world and are grazed rather than ploughed. Arbor Day was founded here in 1872. Lincoln is the capital and Omaha the largest city. Beef and corn dominate. The Homestead Act's first claim was filed in the state. The state's name comes from an Otoe phrase for flat water, describing the Platte. Chimney Rock was the most recorded landmark on the overland trails. Nebraska is one of two states that split electoral votes by district. Warren Buffett has run Berkshire Hathaway from Omaha since 1965. Carhenge is a replica of Stonehenge built from cars.

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