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The Story
For thirteen years, two sides of the Platte River fought over the same prize: Nebraska's capital city. The stakes weren't just political — whoever held the capital held the federal payroll, the railroad route, and the future. Omaha had won every fight. Then statehood changed everything.
In this episode, we follow the fight from its rigged beginnings in 1854, through legislative brawls, land schemes, and a midnight wagon heist, to the afternoon of July 29th, 1867 — when three men sat down in a private home in Lancaster, Nebraska, and changed the map forever. Along the way, we meet a land speculator who knew too much, two senators who tried to be clever and got outmaneuvered, and a group of ladies in Yankee Hill who produced ice cream on the open prairie and still didn't get what they wanted.
This is Part Two of the Iron & Power series. If you missed Part One, start with The Cheyenne Ring: Cattle Country's Power.
Omaha's fight to keep the capital lasted for years, then lawmakers discovered they had pledged Capitol Square as collateral on a debt, the same land just transferred to the territory for $5. Above is the deed transferring the land.
Just a few of the early players in Nebraska’s history. The bottom two were 2/3 of the capital commission voting to make Lancaster the Capital, later known as Lincoln.
The early stages of the first Capitol building. The building we know today is the third building.
In 1857, Nebraska was much bigger than it is now.
An 1861 Map of Nebraska and Kansas zoomed in on the episode locations. Can you locate them all?
For photos, maps, and glimpses of the past, follow @rootedintheplains on Instagram.
Want to learn more?
Berens, Charlyne, and Nancy Mitchell. "Parallel Tracks, Same Terminus: The Role of Nineteenth-Century Newspapers and Railroads in the Settlement of Nebraska." Great Plains Quarterly 29, no. 4 (2009): 287–300.
Crowe, Rebekah. "A Madman and a Visionary: George Francis Train, Speculation, and the Territorial Development of the Great Plains." Great Plains Quarterly 34, no. 1 (2014): 35–61.
Davies, Russ, and Robert E. Gallamore. "On the Spur to the Dome: How the Mile-Long Lincoln, Haitch Street & Capitol Railway Helped Build Nebraska's Monumental Tower on the Plains." Railroad History, no. 204 (2011): 52–63.
Hayes, A.B., and Samuel D. Cox. History of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln, NE: State Journal Company Printers, 1889.
Potts, James B. "The Nebraska Capital Controversy, 1854–59." Great Plains Quarterly 8, no. 3 (1988): 172–82.
Photo Credits: Governor portraits (Burt, Cuming-1858, Butler-1870, Kennard-1869), deed-1858, construction photo-1868; Nebraska State Historical Society
Maps; Colton, J. H., 1857 and Colton, G.W., 1861; David Rumsey Map Collection