8 Shocking Things You Had No Idea Happened In Nebraska

You’d be surprised what’s happened in Nebraska over the years. The state was officially founded in 1867, although it had been settled informally for many years before that. In the 150 plus years since then a lot has gone on. We’ve compiled some of the most interesting stories about Nebraska you probably never heard about.

Wikimedia/Ammodramus

It turns out pettiness is eternal. Omaha had been capital of Nebraska Territory since 1854, but a little over a decade later there was a call to move the capital south of the Platte River where most of the population resided. Omaha senator J. N. H. Patrick objected, so he gave the village of Lancaster, the most likely candidate, a name he thought would halt the move.

President Lincoln had recently been assassinated, and his policies had not been popular in the area that is now Lincoln. Senator Patrick believed that if the potential capital site bore the late president's name, the senators in that area would never agree to the change. The name change stuck, but it did nothing to stop the capital's move. Patrick did his best to connive his way out of the capitol move, but sometimes even revenge can't stop progress.

Wikimedia/public domain

(The reactor pictured is not the one that was in Omaha, but it is the same type.)

From 1949 to 2001, the Alan J. Blotcky Reactor Facility operated on the site of the Omaha Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The reactor was a very safe type that was used for various types of research over the years. Types of research that involve reactors include fusion research, environmental science, drug design, advanced materials development, and nuclear medicine research. After the September 11th attacks in 2001, the site was quickly and quietly shut down and all fuel was removed.

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Wikimedia/public domain

The Nebraska legislature enacted the Siman Act in 1919, just as anti-German sentiment was swelling. The act was meant to prevent the teaching or studying of any foreign language. A teacher named Robert Meyer was convicted of violating the Siman act in 1920 and took his appeals all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Siman Act was eventually determined to be unconstitutional. Fortunately the anti-German sentiment also passed and you can enjoy a robust lager and a pretzel with beer cheese all around the state.

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Facebook/Nebraska Admirals Association

Theodore W. Metcalf, Nebraska's Lieutenant Governor in 1931, found himself in the position of acting governor for a short time. During his tenure, he invented The Great Navy of the State of Nebraska and appointed 20-some "prominent Nebraskans" to the rank of admiral.

Over the years, people such as Johnny Carson, Sir Edmund Hillary, David Letterman, and Queen Elizabeth have been named admirals by sitting Nebraska governors. The rank comes with no pay and doesn't actually mean that the "admiral" is in the military. Rather, it's an honorary title bestowed on people who contribute significantly to the "good life" in Nebraska. You don't have to be a celebrity to be honored, but unless the governor appoints you (as he/she does for celebrities), you do have to be a state resident and nominated by someone else. It's still unclear why one of Nebraska's highest honors is related to the navy when there's no ocean in sight in this state, but we'll go with it.

Wikimedia/Chicago Bureau

(This photo is of Al Capone, not his brother.)

James Vincenzo Capone distanced himself from his family at the age of 16, moving to Nebraska to join the circus. Given how things in the family went, it was probably a good move. He joined the military and served in WWI, then returned to Nebraska. He changed his name to Richard James Hart in order to sever ties with his notorious brother, settled in Homer, and became a respected Federal Prohibition agent.

When reporters uncovered his unsavory family ties in the mid-1920s, Hart and his family moved out of Nebraska to escape the publicity. They returned to Homer in 1931 and Hart continued to work as a Prohibition agent until Prohibition was repealed. He then worked as a justice of the peace until his death in Homer in 1952. Good for James for sensing the trouble early on and doing what he needed to to preserve his peace.

Wikimedia/public domain

According to some Fundamentalist Christians, Jesus will return after the Third Temple is built in Jerusalem, an event that won't take place until a very specific type of red heifer is born in Israel. To hurry the process along, a Mississippi man named Clyde Lott partnered with a Nebraska rancher to breed red heifers and fly them to Israel in the late 1990s. Their hope was that the bloodline would produce the prophesied cow. Luckily for us, none of their cows ever met the stringent requirements that would eventually bring on the Apocalypse. But you've got to give the guys credit for trying, diving into cattle genetics shows a pretty serious level of commitment.

Wikimedia/Elmion

In 2012, a man named Tyler Gold went to court to legally change his name to Tyrannosaurus Rex Joseph Gold. His reasons for the change included the new one being "cooler" and the desire for name recognition as an entrepreneur. After confirming that the young man wasn't changing his name to hide from creditors, his wish was granted. Who knows if Tyrannosaurus Rex is still called so now, but for a while he was legally dubbed that name.

8. 344 people picked up a barn and walked it to its new location.

This is such a great story. In 1988, Herman Ostry and his family, of Bruno, needed to move their barn out of the way of dangerous flood waters. The quotes Ostry got from moving companies were too much for the family, so they came up with a better plan: get people from the town to pick it up and move it. Ostry’s son welded a steel grid support structure for the building that allowed each of the 344 volunteers to carry just 55 pounds of the building’s weight. They all worked together to move the barn to its new location as news crews and 4000 spectators watched. That says a lot about the kind of community that lived in Bruno at the time. Everyone came out to support Ostry and help him make his home better. The spectacle of it all was just a bonus.

Did you know about all of these very weird things that happened in Nebraska? What other unusual, remarkable, or bizarre events do you know about? Share your stories in the comments.