内布拉斯加州小档案：
人口：约180万
面积：约200，017平方公里，排名第15位
州府：林肯Lincoln
内布拉斯加州，名称来自印第安语（苏族之语），其意义为“平坦”flat。
1847年开始殖民。1863年3月1日成为美国第37州。以金棒花goldenrod为州花。本州别名叫做“牛肉之州”Beef State或“剥玉蜀黍壳工人之州”Cornhusker State。本州箴言：“法律之前，人人平等”Equality Before the Law。
州府是林肯Lincoln，位于本州东南部。大都市俄马哈，在州府之东北方，相距很近。本州高等学府有27所，其中最著名的是内布拉斯加大学，有两个分校：一个在林肯，创于1869年；一个在俄马哈，创于1908年。
本州特征有二：第一，本州是高平原区内最平坦的区域。本州以北是两个达科他州，以南是堪萨斯及俄克拉荷马两州，都是高平原。这些高平原之州的地面，都由西向东倾斜，直到密西西比河谷。南、北达科他州内大河是密苏里河，内布拉斯加州内大河是普拉特河Platte R．，由西向东流，注入密苏里河。“普拉特”的意义是平坦，即“平河”。它也有许多大支流，由西向东流。第二，本州牧草肥沃，畜牧业极盛。本州东境之俄马哈Omaha（位于普拉特与密勤苏里两河汇流口之北），是美国最大的牛市场及屠宰业都市。
本州北界南达科他州，南邻堪萨斯州，西与怀俄明州毗连，西南与科罗拉多州接壤。东密苏里河与衣阿华及密苏里两州相望。本州由于地势平坦，又多河流，农业及畜牧业非常发达。主要作物为玉蜀黍、冬小麦及芦黍Sorghum。畜牧业为肉牛及乳牛。矿产有石油。工业也十分发达。
Intronduction简介
The word “Nebraska”first began to appear in publications in 1842，when Lt．John C．Fremont explored the plains and mountains of the western United States．His report mentions the “Nebraska River”，the Oto（奥托族，曾在内布拉斯加州东部沿普拉特河居住的美洲土著居民，其后代现与密苏里族混居于俄克拉荷马州中北部）Indian name for the Platte River（普拉特河［美国中部］）．The term was taken from the Oto word “Nebrathka”meaning “flat water”．U．S．Secretary of War William Wilkins，in his report of Nov．30，1844，stated：“The Platte or Nebraska River being the central stream would very properly furnish（提供）a name to the（proposed）territory．”
The first bill to organize the new Nebraska Territory，introduced in Congress on Dec．17，1844，by Illinois Sen．Stephen Douglas，failed to pass．Another bill，called the Kansas－Nebraska Act，was passed after a long，bitter struggle and signed by President Franklin Pierce on May 30，1854．The struggle between the slave and free states for control in the Nebraska region gave rise to the Republican Party and caused border conflicts（冲突）before the Civil War．Slaves were first bought and sold in the 1850s in Nebraska City and，at one time，the Underground Railroad（地下铁道）may have operated in Nebraska．
The Kansas－Nebraska Act officially created the Kansas and Nebraska territories，opening the area to settlement west of the Missouri River．The Nebraska Territory’s boundaries extended from the 40th parallel to the Canadian border and from the Missouri River to the Continental Divide，including parts of present－day Montana，North and South Dakota，Wyoming and Colorado，as well as Nebraska．By 1863，Congress created several more new territories from this region，reducing the Nebraska Territory to about the state’s present size．
President Pierce appointed Francis Burt of South Carolina as the first governor of the Nebraska Territory．When Burt died two days after taking the oath（誓言，宣誓）of office on Oct．16，1854，the territory’s secretary，Thomas Cuming，became acting governor．Cuming organized the territorial government and took a census（人口普查）so that legislative elections could be held．
A struggle between the new town of Omaha［（pl．Omaha，Omahas）奥马哈人（内布拉斯加东北部的印第安人）］and the old town of Bellevue to be the territorial capital was decided in favor of Omaha by Cuming，who called the first session of the Legislature to meet there．However，the issue was not settled until Nebraska achieved statehood in 1867，when the capital was moved to Lancaster，now known as Lincoln．
During Nebraska’s early territorial days，settling the countryside，land and currency laws，the proposed transcontinental（横贯大陆的，大陆那边的）railroad，the capital’s location，the rivalry between north and south regions of the Platte River，the Republican Party formation，and the defeat of the first efforts to make Nebraska a state were the prevalent（普遍的，流行的）issues of the time．The territory’s population grew from 2，732in November 1854to 28，841in 1860．
The election of Abraham Lincoln as president and the Civil War that followed had a definite effect on Nebraska．The First Nebraska Infantry，under Col．John M．Thayer，was raised for service in the Union Army．Nebraska’s entry into the Union was delayed until after the Civil War ended．
In 1865，the Union Pacific Railroad began building a line extending westward from Omaha．This line stretched across Nebraska two years later．By the mid－1880s，the Burlington Railroad lines crisscrossed（画十字形于）the state．Many railroads received land grants from state and federal governments to offset construction costs．These lands were sold to new settlers through extensive advertising campaigns．The railroads sent company representatives and pamphlets（小册子），which included glowing descriptions of Nebraska’s farmland，to people in the eastern United States and even Europe．These campaigns，plus an influx（流入）of discharged Civil War veterans seeking land，helped swell Nebraska’s population to 122，993by 1870．
In early 1867，Congress passed an act admitting Nebraska to the Union，provided that the Nebraska Legislature remove a clause in its proposed state constitution that limited the right to vote to free white males．President Andrew Johnson，convinced that the imposition of this condition on the state constitution was a violation of the U．S．Constitution，vetoed the act，but Congress overrode his veto．Johnson，a Democrat，also did not want Nebraska admitted to the Union because the territory had a Republican majority．
Nebraska joined the Union as the 37th state on March 1，1867．The people elected David Butler as the first governor，and Lincoln became the state capital on July 29．A state university and agriculture college were established on Feb．15，1869．
Beginning in 1873，the state’s growth and development were slowed by a combination of problems．Between 1874and 1877，swarms of grasshoppers severely damaged farmers’oat，barley，corn and wheat crops．Discouraged，many settlers left their land and returned to the East．However，another wave of settlers took their place in the 1880s．
Nebraska settlers were tested by falling land prices in the 1890s．Land prices，which had soared during the 1880s，collapsed（倒塌，崩溃，瓦解）in 1890because of drought，overuse of credit and low prices for farmers’products．
