Nebraska is the 37th state admitted to the Union on March 1, 1867, just shortly after the Civil War ended. The capital at that time became Lancaster, which was later renamed Lincoln, after President Abraham Lincoln. Omaha is its largest city. Nebraska is bounded by South Dakota on the north, Iowa to the east, Missouri which is across Missouri River to the southeast, Kansas on the south, Colorado to the southwest and Wyoming on the west.

The state is composed of 93 counties, but most of the cities are experiencing very low population growth. Like the other five states in the Midwest and Southern US which are North and South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa, few cities in Nebraska have less than 3000 people while hundreds of towns have fewer than 1000 in total population. This decline in population has had a great impact to the state, especially to local schools which need to sustain a certain number of students in order to survive.

The stare of Nebraska used to be considered as part of Great American Desert but is in fact prairie land which is highly biodiversified. At the present, Nebraska is one of the leading farming and ranching states. It has the biggest population of domesticated llamas.

The motto of the state is “Equality Before the Law” while the slogan is “Nebraska, possibilities…endless”. The Western meadowlark is the state bird, White-tailed deer the state animal, Channel catfish for the state fish, European honey bee the state insect, state flower is the Goldenrod, and the Cottonwood as the tree. The state’s official song is “Beautiful Nebraska”.