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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Great Plains Quarterly

Series

Railroads

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Shaping Nebraska An Analysis Of Railroad And Land Sales, 1870-1880, Kurt E. Kinbacher, William G. Thomas Iii Jul 2008

Shaping Nebraska An Analysis Of Railroad And Land Sales, 1870-1880, Kurt E. Kinbacher, William G. Thomas Iii

Great Plains Quarterly

On December 23, 1878, Ohio resident D. F. Vanniss wrote to George P. Cather, the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad's land agent in Red Cloud, Nebraska. He asked Cather to buy for him "the best 160 acres of R. R. Land in your county," and just to be clear he emphasized, "I want it before somebody else gets it." Cather received many such breathless letters, urgent, pleading, and intense inquiries about the lands the railroad had for sale. Nearly all wanted to know the position of the allimportant railroad. Almost all inquired about the availability of the all-important resource: water. …


Come To The "Champagne Air" Changing Promotional Images Of The Kansas Climate, 1854 -1900, Karen De Bres Apr 2003

Come To The "Champagne Air" Changing Promotional Images Of The Kansas Climate, 1854 -1900, Karen De Bres

Great Plains Quarterly

Euro-American settlers poured into Kansas during the second half of the nineteenth century, and there they encountered a hostile and unpredictable climate. Rainfall patterns were erratic, and the extremes of temperature were both demanding and daunting. Countering these conditions, or at least tempering them, became a task for a variety of individuals and organizations. The work was straightforward: to transform the image of Kansas in order to attract prospective immigrants. As historian Carl Becker wrote, this was not easy: Until 1895 the whole history of the state was a series of disasters, and always something new, extreme, bizarre, until the …