Ch. 10 The Southern Coastlands: On the Subtropical Margin

For this chapter I would like to focus on extreme weather. Why? Because, 1: it is a fun topic to research and write about and 2: it is a theme that Nebraska shares with the Southern Coastlands.




Hurricanes
A Hurricane is a "large cyclonic tropical storm...generated by intense solar heating over large bodies of warm water." Hurricanes are "more sporadic, more dramatic, and locally more destructive in the Southern Coastlands than elsewhere in North America." Recently we witnessed the sheer devastation one of these gnarly storms is capable of unleashing when Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane "extending more than 1000 miles in diameter and exhibiting winds up to 175 mph," made landfall in Louisiana on August 29th, 2005.
 

Category 5--Hurricane Katrina

One of countless photos depicting the terrible, unbelieveable aftermath of Katrina



Katrina was not of course the first hurricane to devastate the Southern Coastlands nor has it been the last. Below are some of the worst hurricanes in the past 10 years from: http://www.theforumsite.com/forum/post/276296

Hurricane Gordon--One of the most erratic moving hurricanes, and still one of the most deadly in the last 20 years. Starting out in the Western Caribbean off the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, Gordon weaved his way through the Caribbean and Florida before making its first landfall along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It then turned southwestward again, and moved over Florida, where it finally dissipated. The storm left some $400 million dollars in damage, and 1145 people dead in November, 1994.
Hurricane Erin--Was one of a number of tropical storms and hurricanes in 1995. It actually made two landfalls over Florida. The first occurred on August 2nd at Vero Beach, and the second a few days later over Pensacola as a strong Category One Hurricane with 90 mph winds. Rain from this system was felt as far north as Illinois, and the storm caused some $700 million dollars in damage.
Hurricane Luis--One of the most powerful hurricanes of the 19 storms from the 1995 Season. Pummeled the Leeward Islands as well as parts of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with 150 mph winds before turning out to sea in September, 1995. Caused approximately $2.5 billion dollars in damage and killed 17 people.
Hurricane Marilyn--Formed on the heels of Hurricane Luis in the Western Atlantic back in September, 1995, and brought Category Three Hurricane force winds to parts of the Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands before turning out to sea. Caused approximately $1.5 billion dollars in damage, and left 8 people dead.
Hurricane Opal--This late season storm rapidly developed into a very strong Category Four Hurricane before weakening to a strong Category Three Hurricane when it came ashore near Pensacola, Florida in October, 1995. Opal ranks fifth all time in terms of damage with an estimated $3 billion dollars.
Hurricane Roxanne--Formed in the Bay of Campeche region of Mexico in the weeks following Hurricane Opal's landfall near Panama City, Florida. The storm was a Category Three Hurricane with sustained winds of 115 mph, and a minimum central pressure of 28.23 inches of Hg. The storm left 14 people dead and some $1.5 billion dollars in damage.
Hurricane Bertha--The earliest hurricane to form in the Eastern Atlantic. Developed just West of the Cape Verde islands in the last week of June, 1996, and made landfall as a Category Two Hurricane over Wilimngton, North Carolina on July 12, 1996. Killed 12 people, and caused some $275,000,000 dollars in damage.
Hurricane Fran--The most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the United States during the 1996 Hurricane Season. Made landfall over North Carolina with 115 mph winds in September of that year, and caused some $3.2 billion dollars in damage at the time. Damage estimates are even higher today.
Hurricane Hortense--Was a hurricane that formed during the Labor Day Weekend of the 1996 Hurricane Season. While the storm didn't make landfall in the United States, it ravaged parts of the Caribbean including Puerto Rico with torrential rains. Damage estimates from this storm is approximately $500 million dollars. After that, it grew in strength to a Category Four Hurricane.
Hurricane Georges--A Classic Cape Verde Hurricane that formed in September, 1998, Georges ripped through the Leeward Islands and Caribbean with as high as 150 mph winds. It then hit the Florida Keys before making landfall in Mississippi. Left 602 people dead, and caused about $5.9 billion dollars in damage.

Tornadoes, Blizzards, Lightning Storms, Hail and Thunder!!!!
Hurricanes are rare in extremely rare in Nebraska, unless we're talking about football and fending off the Miami Hurricanes! However, Nebraska has its share of pretty scary weather!

This awesome clip shows footage taken of a Tornado on June 17,2009 in Aurora, Nebraska.
Tornadoes are pretty common in Nebraska, especially during the warm summer months as this graph below shows:

Tornadoes can form rather quickly and without warning which can be pretty scary if you happen to be traveling along theinterstate in a rural part of Nebraska, which is of course most of the state.It can be difficult to find a safe place to take shelter. While I was living in Cozad they closed the doors of a Walmart in the next town over, keeping shoppers inside until the tornado had passed.

NEBRASKA

* Nebraska averages over 40 tornadoes a year

(see: Nebraska Tornado Data Table

* Nebraska's most number of tornadoes was 110 in 2004

* Nebraska's peak month for tornadoes is June.

* May and June account for 63% of all of our tornadoes.

* May, June and July account for 78% of all of our tornadoes.

* There have been 115 Nebraska tornado fatalities since 1916.

* Every decade in the 1900's had tornado fatalities, but not the 1990's!

* There were no tornado fatalities in Nebraska from 1987 until June 2003 when two occurred.

* ALL 93 Nebraska counties have been visited by tornadoes since 1950.

* Hall County's tornado density is 4 times greater than the state average and

3 times greater than the average for the Omaha and Lincoln areas.

* Most tornadoes from one storm, 7 in Grand Island, June 3, 1980.

* Nebraska has had reported tornadoes in every month but February.

* Omaha May May 5, 1975 and Grand Island June 3, 1980 are ranked 2nd &

9th in U.S. top 10 most costly tornadoes.

* Over 50% of our tornadoes occur between 4 PM and 8 PM.

* Nebraska had its first confirmed tornado between 8 AM and 9 AM in Nebraska in Year 2001.

* Nebraska is ranked 5th in the U.S. for total number of tornadoes.

* Nebraska is ranked 23rd for number of tornado fatalities and 24th for number of tornado injuries.

* May 2006 was the first May in recorded history to NOT have any reported tornadoes.

The informative bar graphs and the tornado statistics come from the University of Nebraska: http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/NEBTORNADOFACTS.html

This photograph is from the devastating blizzard of 1948-49. Nebraska has had some cold, snowy winters but this was definitely one of the worst. Northeastern Nebraska was hit with more than 24 inches of snow. The snow barely had any time to melt before more fell. Icy winds 50-60 miles per hour were driving the snow.

One area of Nebraska, Antelope County, had 30ft snow drifts that did not melt until June!! Many areas of the state received over 100 inches of snowfall during the blizzard.

Ch. 11 The Agricultural Core

The Agricultural Core overlaps thematically with the Great Plains and Prarie Region of the United States; however it there are several key differences that geographers use to distinguish between the two regions. The two main distinctions are 1) Longitudinal differences in annual precipitation and 2)"the way people respond to them in the landscapes the differences create."

As you can see in the image above, the eastern edge of Nebraska is included in the Agricultural Core region. Nebraska's two largest cities, Lincoln and Omaha, are part of this region. This reflects one of the key differences between the Agricultural Core and the Great Plains Region..the Agricultural Core is more densley populated. "More rain falls and the air is humid throughout the growing season, spawning different vegetation. The blending of these characteristics gives the eastern plains a higher carrying capacity, and, coupled to the benefits accruing from numerous natural transportation routes, has lent it the power to become the nation's agricultural core."

Corn-based farming schemes prevail in the agriculturalcore, although initially European settlers grew wheat.

Nebraska cornfield

Amber waves of grain! Nebraska wheat field

Climate

"For anyone whose aesthetic requirements transcend those of a cornstalk, the climate is pretty darned miserable...It's no place to have to live, unless you consider making a living the principal purpose of living." --Geographer J.F. Hart

I think this quote is hilarious...I am not quite sure that I agree with it, but it is hilarious nonetheless. Most of the region receives around 30 inches of precipitation annually. It is crucial to the agriculture of the region that this rainfall is dependable and rather unvariable. This region is less likely to suffer the droughts that more western portions of Nebraska receive.

This region has a continental climate, which means it has a wide average annual temperature change--the difference between the mean cold month and the mean warm month temperatures. In Illinois, the average January temperature is -4C and the average July temperature is 24C.

Nebraska is cold!!

But in the summer...Nebraska is warm and frequently stormy!

Chapter 12: The Great Plains and Praries

I will begin this post on the Great Plains and Praries, the region that a significant portion of Nebraska falls into, with some of my own personal photos from this great state!

My father, born and raised in Nebraska, with my son, on his second visit to Great Grandmother's residence in Nebraska

Silly pic of Me and Baby enjoying the beautiful fall weather

My Aunt Jane and Uncle Dave's farm in Ponca, NE...this huge piece of machinery is an Auger, it removes beans from grain. There is a truck and trailer to transport the material to store in bins

Here is my Uncle Dave with his Combine which transfers beans to grain trucks which then either go to the elevator in town or to storage bins on the farm.

Uncle Dave combining beans

Beans in October

The bean "head" is transfered from cart to front of combine--there is a separate "head" for corn

View of Missouri River & South Dakota from "Volcano Hill" site, north of Newcastle,NE--was described in the Lewis and Clark diaries

Another shot of the beans on my relatives farm in Ponca. This picture was taken in October right before the crop was harvested

Northeast Nebraska, Township Road

Township Road again...beautiful gently rolling hills, green grass and the grand ever so big Nebraska sky

Speaking of the "big" Nebraska sky--how is this pic for "grand" and "stunning?"

Lovely windmill on my Aunt Jane and Uncle Dave's farm

Another pretty pic, but look at the road. This is what most of the roads are like in rural areas of Nebraska and more largely the Great Plains and Prarie Region--dirt with some gravel for traction. This road looks picturesque in this gorgeous weather, however it definitely does not look as nice in the rain and snow. Frequently driving these roads in extreme weather conditions becomes an insurmountable challenge.

Aunt Jane and Uncle Dave's beans in August

Beans in August, again

Close-up view of bean field

Great Plains as a Region

Most of the state of Nebraska falls into the Great Plains and Prarie Region; only a small eastern portion of the state is categorized as belonging to the Agricultural Core region. Many mistakenly believe this region to be"uniformly and monotonously flat" this is in part due to the two most well traveled interstates the I-40and the I-80 which take the majority of drivers through this region across a flat section. The Great Plains and Praries is actually a region with "substantial variation in landscape." As I've mentioned in previous postings, Nebraska in particular has a very diverse, interesting landscape. The Sand Hills of Nebraska are especially beautiful!

Aerial View of Sandhills

                         

Another misconception about this region is that it is not ethnically diverse. This is not the case. The census statistics below give a brief sampling of Nebraska's diverse population:

RACE AND ETHNICITY FOR HOUSEHOLDS

Number Number Number
White alone 1,529,471 1,529,471 215,333,394
Black or African American alone 68,389 68,389 34,962,569
American Indian and Alaska Native alone 13,250 13,250 2,357,544
Asian alone 24,820 24,820 12,471,815
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 557 557 397,030
Some other race alone 44,869 44,869 17,298,601
Two or more races: 25,620 25,620 5,557,184
Hispanic or Latino 122,518 122,518 41,870,703

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 American Community Survey; ePodunk

Note: Use caution when comparing estimates from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) with the 2000 Census.

Relief and Vegetation
"The characteristic vegetation of the grasslands is grass. But this is a deceptive oversimplification ignoring the variety and distribution of natural grasses." Much of the original vegetation has been destroyed by agricultural. However before fields replaced the grasslands, "a continuous tall-grass prarie, with grasses 30 cm (1 foot) to 1 meter (3 feet) high, covered the moister eastern portions. The most common grass was Big bluestem.

This picture is from a website on the grasses of the Oklahoma prarie, http://www.okprairie.com/Grasses.htm. It shows how tall the Big bluestem grows when it reaches its maximum height in August...not exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of "grass!"

The roots of these grasses extended even further into the soil than the height that they reached above ground. This made plowing a very dificult task. However, it also enabled prarie settlers to cut the sod into bricks, from which a sod house could be constructed.

Building a sod house in western Nebraska

and...

A two story sod house near Broken Bow, NE from 1886

Plains Precipitation: Cyclical Patterns

Annual precipation amounts for the Great Plains region vary but usually averages between 80 to 120% of the national average in non-drought years. 75% of this precipiation falls between April and August which is right in the growing season when crops need rain the most.

Major droughts seem to take place in 20 year cycles, "with the last six centering on the 1890s, 1910s, 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s.

The "Dust Bowl" occurred after the "soil-binding quality of the land was destroyed by years of repeated cropping." Dunes of dust 10ft were pushed up by the dry winds.

A huge cloud of dust; this photo comes from the York, NE Living History Farm.

Ch. 13 The Empty Interior

The Empty Interior Region is west of the Great Plains and Praries Region, thus there are overlapping thematic similarities between the two regions...However I thought this chapter would best be served by a posting on one of Nebraska's greatest attractions:

Carhenge!!!!

For all those who say North America is lacking in cultural iconography and sophistication, I have one word for these naysayers--Carhenge. Carhenge is an attraction of beauty located in western Nebraska. It is a replica of the great Stonehenge assembled out of old automobiles. I thought this would be a fitting subject for the Empty Interior region, because one would only find such a monument in an area withlots of wide open space! Now, with not a moment's hesitation feast your eyes upon Carhenge:

Wikipedia entry on Carhenge:

Carhenge is a replica of England's Stonehenge located near the city of Alliance, Nebraska on the High Plains. Instead of being built with large standing stones, as is the case with the original Stonehenge,[1] Carhenge is formed from vintage American automobiles, all covered with gray spray paint. Built by Jim Reinders, it was dedicated at the June 1987 summer solstice. In 2006, a visitor center was constructed to service the site.

[edit] Structure
Carhenge consists of 38 automobiles arranged in a circle measuring about 29 metres (95 ft) in diameter. Some are held upright in pits 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) deep, trunk end down, and arches have been formed by welding automobiles atop the supporting models. The heelstone is a 1962 Cadillac. Three cars were buried at Carhenge. Their "gravestone" is a car that reads: "Here lie three bones of foreign cars. They served our purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America's great!"[2]
Carhenge replicates Stonehenge's current "tumble-down" state, rather than the original stone circle erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC.
In addition to the Stonehenge replica, the Carhenge site includes several other sculptures created from autos covered with various colors of spray paint.
[edit] History
Carhenge was conceived in 1987 by Jim Reinders as a memorial to his father. While living in England, he studied the structure of Stonehenge, which helped him to copy the structure's shape, proportions, and size. Other automobile sculptures were subsequently added to the location of Carhenge, which is now known as the Car Art Reserve.[3]
Carhenge is used frequently in popular culture, and makes appearances in film, popular music, television programs and commercials.[4] It is the subject of the 2005 documentary Carhenge: Genius or Junk?, and features in the 2007 travel book 1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die.

Now that is magical! Lunar eclipse viewed from Carhenge

The two Henges! Car Henge at Left with the 'Big' Nebraska sky and Stonehenge at Right

Thereisno admission to visit the lovely Carhenge but donations are excepted. I love this photo of the visitors musuem/pit stop...it reminds me of so many of the roadside stores I've passed by travelin' the interstate.

Ch. 14 The Southwest Border Area

"The Southwest is a distinctive place to the American mind but a somewhat blurred place on American maps which is to say that there is a Southwest but there is little agreement to just where it is."--Donald W. Meinig

I think that this quote says a lot about American geographic knowledge in general, for I believe the same confusion regarding boundaries and location of region applies to the Midwest. One of the most widely used names for the agricultural core region, as well as for the Great Plains and Praries region, is the Midwest. "This term reflects the fact that Europeans settled North America from east to west. Midwest implies that the West begins at the Appalachians, with the closer Midwest gradually merging into the Far West somewhere in the general areaof the Rocky Mountains." When students are asked to identify the midwest they typically identify Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas rather than Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. "Only habit and the sequence of European settlement and the sequence of European settlement prevent Oregon residents from referring to the region as the Middle East."

Some Nebraska quotes:
Anytime the president visits Nebraska its good for Nebraska.


Ben Nelson



But to this day I am convinced that the real reason we met was because Alexander is from Nebraska, and he was completely fascinated that I was about to go off and make a movie with Brando - perhaps the most famous Nebraskan of all.

Thomas Haden Church



I am very proud of the quality of public education in Nebraska, but I believe we have an obligation to continually assess whether our system is meeting 21st Century education needs.

Dave Heineman



I ended up being the governor of a very ag state, Nebraska.

Mike Johanns



I trust, that your readers will not construe my words to mean, that I would not have gone to a 3 o'clock in the morning session, for the sake of defeating the Nebraska bill.

Gerrit Smith



I, Lawrence Klein, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, as were my elder brother and younger sister.

Lawrence R. Klein



Living here in southern California, I'll miss hearing Rocky Top for an entire week at the end of December. I was actually looking forward to it. Tennessee has a better fight song than Nebraska.

Al Michaels



My first years were spent living just as my forefathers had lived - roaming the green, rolling hills of what are now the states of South Dakota and Nebraska.

Standing Bear



My sister said, You're making it hard for all us housewives in Nebraska.

Kate Millett



The openness of rural Nebraska certainly influenced me. That openness, in a way, fosters the imagination. But growing up, Lincoln wasn't a small town. It was a college town. It had record stores and was a liberal place.

Matthew Sweet



The University of Nebraska says that elderly people that drink beer or wine at least four times a week have the highest bone density. They need it - they're the ones falling down the most.

Jay Leno



When it comes to making decisions, I will come down on the side of Nebraska every time. If I have to choose between the White House and the farmhouse, I choose the farmhouse.

Ben Nelson



Yeah, I had a tremendous time shooting in Nebraska. I like that state a lot, all over it.

Sean Penn

Ch. 15 California

California is a very distinct region from Nebraska! However, a significant contingent of California's population are Cornhuskers at heart, including my family and me. There is a really awesome website, www.cal4ne.com/ , that represents the official University of Nebraska Alumni Chapter for Southern California.

Along with the members of this chaper, Californian Cornhuskers attempt to prserve and promote Nebraskan spirit and tradition in Southern California.

Agriculture

One of the themes that California and Nebraska have in common is that they are both agricultural powerhouses. As a resident of Southern California, I don't tend to think of my home state as an agricultural one. However, California is the country's most agricultural state in terms of total farm income. Whereas California's agriculture is typified by specialty products like artichokes and kiwi's and is really broadly based; Nebraska's agriculture is more focused on crops such as corn for grain, soybeans, wheat, hay and dry beans.

Nebraska's top five commodities by cash receipts - 2004

Livestock products % State total Crop products % State total

Cattle and calves 52.6% Corn for grain 21.6%

Hogs 6.5% Soybeans 10.9%

Dairy products 1.4% Wheat 1.8%

Chicken eggs 1.2% Hay 0.9%

Sheep and lambs 0.1% Dry beans 0.5%

Source: USDA:Economic Research Service

As the chart above shows, the most important agricultural commodities produced in Nebraska are cattle and calves. This livestock represents over half of the total agricultural production of the state.
 

California's top five commodities by cash receipts - 2004

Livestock products % State total Crop products % State total

Dairy products 16.9% Greenhouse/nursery 10.5%

Cattle and calves 5.1% Grapes 8.7%

Chicken eggs 0.9% Almonds 6.9%

Lettuce 4.6%

Strawberries 3.8%

Source: USDA:Economic Research Service

The chart above relates California's top commodites and crops. It is easy to see that though both states are extremely important agriculturally; the types of products that they produce and grow are very different.
 

Orchards in bloom in Turlock, California

Ch. 16 The North Pacific Coast

As beautiful as the North Pacific Coast is...it does not relate very much to the Cornhusker State. Therefore, I am dedicating this chapter to Willa Cather, one of Nebraska's literary icons.

Willa Cather 1873 - 1947

Biography from: http://images.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=ref&q=http://www.neded.org/files/research/stathand/parttwo/cather.htm&usg=AFQjCNHbv9S1xJbZdA4lGY-rqLjo6Icehw
"Willa Cather was born December 7, 1873, in Black Creek Valley (Gore) Virginia, where she remained until the age of nine when she moved with her family to Webster County, Nebraska. Having passed her earliest years amid a settled landscape and established traditions, Cather compared coming to Nebraska to being "thrown onto a land as bare as a piece of sheet iron" (1913; Willa Cather in Person, ed. L. Brent Bohlke, 10). She later reflected that two experiences of that move shaped her within: being gripped with a passion for that "shaggy grass country" that was "the happiness and the curse of my life" (1921: WCIP, 32), and visiting immigrant neighbors, particularly the old women who told her stories of the home country.




After eighteen months on a ranch, her family moved into Red Cloud, a "scrappy western town" rich with possibility for a child with an eager mind (see "Old Mrs. Harris"). Cather remained there until in 1890, she entered the University of Nebraska as a second year preparatory student. Her earliest published fiction dates from this time, offering grim stories of immigrant loneliness in a new country; as important, while a student she began her journalistic career, working as a drama critic for the Lincoln Journal.



Following her graduation in 1895, Cather moved to Pittsburgh, where she worked in journalism, taught high school, took the first of many trips to Europe, and in 1905 published "The Troll Garden," her earliest collection of short stories. In 1906 she moved to New York, to work as editor, then managing editor of "McClure's Magazine." While on assignment for "McClure's," Cather met Sarah Orne Jewett, who understood her aspirations in art and encouraged her to withdraw from journalism and "to find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world" (1908).





Cather's first novels (there were two, she said), followed: the Jamesian "Alexander's Bridge" -- and then "O Pioneers!". In a copy for a friend, Cather wrote of "O Pioneers!", "This was the first time I walked off on my own feet -- everything before was half real and half an imitation of writers whom I admired. In this one I hit the home pasture.



During the next decade, Cather mined that home pasture. Under various names, Webster County and Red Cloud reappeared in "The Song of the Lark" (1915), "My Antonia" (1918), "One of Ours" (1922), and "A Lost Lady" (1923). Gradually, however, Cather's dismay over the results of "progress" in her Nebraska locale combined with her desire for artistic freedom to experiment with other locales and themes. In 1925 she explained that she did not want to become too identified with the West, for "using one setting all the time is very like planting a field with corn season after season. I believe in rotation of crops. If the public ties me down to the cornfield too much I'm afraid I'll leave that scene entirely." And leave she did, to write novels set in Michigan, the American Southwest, and Quebec. Cather's themes, too, changed during this period, as she turned from the passion of individuals aspiring to greatness and began writing of compassion of ordinary people who, confronting mortality, seek comfort in the human family.



In the end, Cather returned to her earliest memories to write again of Nebraska and, in her last book, of Virginia. But unlike the sunny themes of her early novels drawn from childhood memories, "Lucy Gayheart" and "Sapphira and the Slave Girl" are Gothic stories in which dark passions break through the apparent calm of everyday lives. For during her final years Cather felt the horror of events leading to another world war, the pain over deaths of family and friends, and the frustration from an inflammation of her hand that meant an inability to write. But she also maintained old friendships and enjoyed new ones, most importantly with the Menuhin children; and she continued to write, publishing short stories (e.g. "The Best Years") and working on an Avignon novel that remained unfinished at the time of her death. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 24, 1947.



Cather's life is remarkable for the faith that she kept -- to her family; her friends (she lived with Edith Lewis for thirty-eight years); her first editor, Ferris Greenslet, at Houghton Mifflin; her publisher, Alfred Knopf, to whom she went following "My Antonia" and with whom she remained the rest of her life; and most of all to her art. As her biographer James Woodress has written, she lived "a literary life," with "a single-minded dedication to the pursuit of art" (Willa Cather: A Literary Life, xvi).



Awards came to Cather during her life time -- honorary degrees from numerous universities, the Pulitzer Prize for "One of Ours," a medal by the American Academy for "Death Comes for the Archbishop," and the gold medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters for a writer's lifetime achievement. Following her death, her reputation has grown steadily and, in the last fifteen years, exploded with activity, with over a hundred articles and several books appearing each year on her. In 1990 "A Lost Lady" was included among the Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World," and Cather is now widely recognized as a major American writer, and our country's foremost woman writer. But more telling than such accolades, Willa Cather's novels have never gone out of print, for her popular following has remained strong. So the explosion of critical recognition means only that the experts have realized what her readers have known all along -- that Willa Cather's novels and stories, in such apparently simple style, provide companionship for a lifetime."

My Antonia
Quotations on Nebraska
The feelings of that night were so near that I could reach out and touch them with my hand. I had the sense of coming home to myself, and of having found out what a little circle man's experience is.


"Ain't you got no beer here?" I told him he'd have to go to the Bohemians for beer; the Norwegians didn't have none when they threshed. "My God!" he says, "so it's Norwegians now, is it? I thought this was Americy."


The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.


Willa Cather

Trees were so rare in that country, and they had to make such a hard fight to grow, that we used to feel anxious about them, and visit them as if they were persons. It must have been the scarcity of detail in that tawny landscape that made detail so precious.


Willa Cather, My Antonia

Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.


Willa Cather, My Antonia

- More quotations on: [Winter]

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.

Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (1913)

- More quotations on: [Trees]

Ch. 18 Hawaii

Again Hawaii and Nebraska do not have much in common (my cousins, the Weiskerchers from DeWitt Iowa have been to Hawaii...but that is a tale for another time and place). So instead of attempting to make baffling comparisons between the two states I have decided to devote this final posting to another of Nebraska's literary elite. This state sure can claim a lot of intelligent, well-spoken people for its own!

Ted Kooser the United State's 13th Poet Laureate

So This Is Nebraska  by Ted Kooser

The gravel road rides with a slow gallop

over the fields, the telephone lines

streaming behind, its billow of dust

full of the sparks of redwing blackbirds.

On either side, those dear old ladies,

the loosening barns, their little windows

dulled by cataracts of hay and cobwebs

hide broken tractors under their skirts.

So this is Nebraska. A Sunday

afternoon; July. Driving along

with your hand out squeezing the air,

a meadowlark waiting on every post.

Behind a shelterbelt of cedars,

top-deep in hollyhocks, pollen and bees,

a pickup kicks its fenders off

and settles back to read the clouds.

You feel like that; you feel like letting

your tires go flat, like letting the mice

build a nest in your muffler, like being

no more than a truck in the weeds,

clucking with chickens or sticky with honey

or holding a skinny old man in your lap

while he watches the road, waiting

for someone to wave to. You feel like

waving. You feel like stopping the car

and dancing around on the road. You wave

instead and leave your hand out gliding

larklike over the wheat, over the houses.

Background from Wikipedia:

Biography

[edit] Early years

Born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, Kooser earned a BS at Iowa State University in 1962 and the MA at the University of Nebraska in 1968. He is the author of twelve collections of poetry. He is former vice-president of Lincoln Benefit Life, an insurance company, and lives on land near the village of Garland, Nebraska. He teaches as a Visiting Professor in the English department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is married to Kathleen Rutledge, former editor of the Lincoln Journal Star.



[edit] Career

On August 12, 2004, he was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Librarian of Congress to serve a term from October 2004 through May 2005. In April 2005, Ted Kooser was appointed to serve a second term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. During that same week Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book "Delights and Shadows" (Copper Canyon Press, 2004).



Kooser lives in Garland, Nebraska, and much of his work focuses on the Great Plains. Like Wallace Stevens, Kooser spent much of his working years as an executive in the insurance industry, although Kooser sardonically noted in an interview with the Washington Post that Stevens had far more time to write at work than he ever did. Kooser has won two NEA Literary Fellowships (in 1976 and 1984), the Pushcart Prize, the Nebraska Book Awards for Poetry (2001) and Nonfiction (2004), the Stanley Kunitz Prize (1984), the James Boatwright Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2005).



[edit] Bibliography

Official Entry Blank. (1969).

Grass County. (1971).

Twenty Poems. (1973).

A Local Habitation and a Name. (1974).

Not Coming to Be Barked At. (1976).

Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. (1980).

One World at a Time. (1985).

The Blizzard Voices. (1986).

Weather Central. (1994).

A Book of Things. (1995).

Riding with Colonel Carter. (1999).

Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison. (2001).

Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry. (with Jim Harrison) (Copper Canyon Press, 2003).

Delights and Shadows. (Copper Canyon Press, 2004).

Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps. (2004).

Flying At Night : Poems 1965-1985. (2005).

The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice For Beginning Poets. (2005).

Valentines