Nebraska State Capitol

Yesterday, I took a tour of our state capitol. It is truly a beautiful building. I would recommend that everyone go there and take a personal tour. If you cannot go personally, go on line to www.capitol .org.

The tour was of the second floor. Even though I have been to the capitol many times, a tour is always interesting. There are beautiful mosaics on the walls depicting a variety of Nebraska scenes and stories. One is of the 1888 blizzard. There are books about this blizzard that took many lives--particularly school students. One of the books is a recent one "The Children's Blizzard" by David Laskin. The cover says, "In three minutes, the front subtracted eighteen degrees from the air's temperature. Then evening gathered in, and temperatures kept dropping in the northwest gale. By morning on Friday, January 13, 1888, more than a hundred children lay dead on the Dakota-Nebraska prairie. . . Minnie Mae Freeman, a 19 year old school teacher, had to take her 16 students from the school because the roof of the school house blew off. She had the wisdom to use a rope to keep all the children together. This is the story depicted in the mosaic.

The capitol has a hall of fame with busts of some of our famous Nebraskans. Nebraska is the only state that has a unicameral. This seems wise and far less confusing than the two house legislatures other states use.

The state capitol is where our Supreme Court. The court is beautiful and has wonderful acoustics. The ceiling is beautiful and all parts of the capitol represent all the diverse aspects of our state. The court has become modernized and arguments can be viewed on line on the supreme court website.

We also went to the 14th floor to watch from the observatory. That floor also has beautiful art. Don't miss it.

We'll see more photos and have more discussions of the capitol as time permits.

Nebraska Nellie