The Ogallala Aquifer contains about the same amount of water as Lake Huron, but it is not an underground lake. The Ogallala is composed primarily of loose, poorly sorted clay, silt, sand and gravel with groundwater filling the spaces between the grains below the water table.
Nebraska Medal of Honor Recipients
Seventy-three Nebraskans have been awarded the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military honor. They received the medal based on personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.
Nathan Gold
Nathan Jules Gold was born on May 28, 1894, in Hampton, Iowa, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Gold. He moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1902 with his parents and lived there for the rest of his life.
Mari Sandoz
Mari Sandoz was born on Mirage Flats, south of Hay Springs, Nebraska in 1896 as the first of six children. As the eldest child, Mari was given much of the responsibility of caring for her two sisters and three brothers. Young Mari bore the brunt of her father’s explosive temper, but she also shared in many of his exploits as a claim locator, trader and pioneering horticulturist.
John G. Neihardt
John Gneisenau Neihardt was born in a one-room cabin in Illinois in 1881, the third child of Nicholas Nathan Neihardt and Alice Culler Neihardt. In 1886, the family moved to a sod house in northwestern Kansas, and then to Kansas City in 1888. In 1891, he moved with his mother and sisters to Wayne, Nebraska after his father left the family.
Gilbert Monell Hitchcock
Gilbert Monell Hitchcock was born in Omaha, Nebraska on September 18, 1859. His father, Phineas W. Hitchcock, was prominent in Nebraska politics, and served as United States Senator from Nebraska between 1871 and 1877. He was educated in the city’s public schools and for two years attended the gymnasium (high school) in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Edward Creighton
Edward Creighton was born in Ohio in 1820, to James and Bridget Creighton, the fifth of nine children. His parents had both emigrated from Ireland. Creighton attended country schools, but found that his education was lacking and pushed himself to learn as much as he could on his own.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock is a prominent geological rock formation in Morrill County in western Nebraska about four miles from Bayard, Nebraska. The “chimney” rises 300 to 350 feet above its conical base and the entire formation stands almost 500 feet above the surrounding North Platte River valley.