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Though modern transcontinental travelers tend to see NEBRASKA in
much the same light as did the early pioneers, heading west during
the Gold Rush - as just another dreary expanse of prairie to get
through as fast as possible - this flat and sparsely populated state
in fact encompasses quite a few places of interest. However, its
most appealing cities, commercial Omaha and the livelier state capital,
Lincoln , are separated by a good three hundred miles of underwhelming,
livestock-rearing flatlands from the western Panhandle, where the
landscape finally erupts into giant sand hills and valleys, broken
by towering rocky columns and hemmed in by sheer-faced buttes.
Western Nebraska was still embroiled in vicious and bloody battles
against Native Americans long after the east had been settled; from
the first serious uprising in 1854, it was 36 years before the US
Army could make white control unchallengeable. Close to the South
Dakota state line, Fort Robinson , where Crazy Horse was murdered,
remains one of the West's most evocative historic sites.
Without navigable rivers, Nebraska had to rely on the railroads
to help populate the land. During the 1870s and 1880s, rail companies,
encouraged by grants that allowed them to accumulate one-sixth of
the state, laid down such a comprehensive network of tracks that
virtually every farmer was within a day's cattle drive of the nearest
halt. Thus the buffalo-hunting country of the Sioux and Pawnee was
turned into high-yield farmland, which today has few rivals in terms
of beef production.
Omaha airport offers the best domestic links, though planes from
other cities in the region also fly to Lincoln. Several Greyhound
buses traverse I-80 each day on the coast-to-coast marathon, stopping
at all the major towns. Amtrak trains , traveling through the night,
follow a similar route and call at Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Holdredge
and McCook. Driving on I-80 can get tedious; if you're not in a
rush, Hwy-2 is a good alternative.
See what Nebraska car rentals has to offer today. Choose a link
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