September 19, 2024 • 31 mins
Let's be honest: when many Americans think of Nebraska, we immediately think of corn. Yet there's much more to the Cornhusker State than a single crop. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into several ridiculous bits of Nebraska history, from an epic barn move to the surprising, silly origin story of how Lincoln, Nebraska ended up with its name.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's hear it for the legend. Our
super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
A free empty fizza. I love.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Sorry, I'm a little early today, I guess get really
excited when we're talking about corn filled flat states.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh yeah, it's definitely a trigger for you in a
positive way.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Have an oddly large amount of power in electoral college votes.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Now, its weird. We'll get to it. We'll get to it.
It's it's it's you Ben as well, right.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yes, that's our super sir, mister Max Williams. You were
Noel Brown. I am Ben Bullen. We are not currently
in Nebraska. The transparency invisibility is important for us. Have
you guys been to Nebraska.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I have been through it, and I think I've mentioned
this on our other podcast stuff. They don't want you
to know that once when I was younger and in
a band, I was traveling through the corn the flat
corn leyden lands of Nebraska, and I swear to you guys,
I saw ufo.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I have never been to Nebraska, but yeah, I mean,
can we just go to Kansas and say we went
to Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
That's what a lot of people do. I find great, great,
easy mistake. I find great peace in Nebraska and Kansas
because with that amount of agriculture, if you get in
the right spot in the state, it looks like an ocean,
you know, at the right time of year, and it's
just beautiful. But like all of the states in the
(01:59):
US US United, here in this grand experiment, we have
learned that there are absolutely ridiculous things that have happened
throughout Nebraska's career as a state, and some of them
are not about corn days.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, I was really hoping we were having an exclusively
corn based episode today. So let's talk a bit about
how Nebraska once created multiple counties that didn't actually exist,
some Nebraska's decided, how they really enjoyed carrying barns, and
how the naming of the capitol was a misplaced gambit
(02:37):
gone horribly awry.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And big shout out at the top two not just
our research associate Max for this episode, but also shout
out to Dealena Lefever's l E F E V e
r s from Only in Your State for two articles
that informed a lot of our exploration today we talk
about Braska. One of the most I don't mean this
(03:03):
in a disparateure way, one of the most funny parts
of its origin story is it kind of started off
wrong from the jump. The initial map had six like
pretty egregious errors.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
That's right, and that wasn't uncommon in the founding days
of these United States. But this is a particularly ridiculous example.
So for today's first story of non corn related Nebraska history,
let us venture back to the mid eighteen hundreds and
(03:37):
get a little in the weeds with that initial map
of Nebraska and those six very glaring errors. According to
Joe Carry, an editorial assistant for History Nebraska, youah this
to say. After Nebraska became a territory in eighteen fifty four,
the legislature quickly began organizing counties. Nebraska's original eight counties
(03:58):
had become forty by eighteen sixty one, when the expansion
slowed due to the Civil War. County creation picked up
again following Nebraska's statehood in eighteen sixty seven, and the
map business was competitive as commercial printers strove to keep
up with the changes. Then you want to finish this
one out it's a little bit of a long one,
but I think it's a good context.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, let's tease this out a bit. The quotation continues.
In mid eighteen sixty seven, the Colton Firm published Colton's
Township Map of the state of Nebraska, and it showed
the following counties Lyon, Taylor, Monroe, Harrison, Jackson, and Grant. Collectively,
(04:38):
these six counties covered almost twenty percent of the state's land. However,
there was one problem. These counties were not real legal entities.
They had never been established. They just it was kind
of fake it till you make it in the world
of cartography, and our buddy Joe Carey, who was again
writing for History Nebraska, is referencing a lot of work
(05:01):
from a guy named Brian P. Croft in his piece
Mapping Nebraska eighteen sixty six eighteen seventy one County Boundaries
Real and imagined.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
A little bit of snark in the title there question.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, and you know they weren't just the Colton's, the
firm that was responsible for this mapping situation. They weren't
just making up boundaries. The map actually follows guidelines of
a bill HR one oh four that did pass in
February of eighteen sixty seven, but then when it was
sent to the Governor, Alvin Sanders for his signature, he
(05:37):
decided to not go through with signing it. This is
what is referred to as a pocket veto, which means
that legally, the western third of the state of Nebraska
would for the time being remain blank. General Land Office
maps actually don't show the six counties, and there are
no records of them in the office of the County Clerk.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Yeah, but here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
People like these sorts of sources and map makers often
take a build upon each other's work, right, and there's
nothing wrong with that. They're constantly checking the work of
others correcting it if they're doing their job right. But
in this case, because the Colton maps were so popular,
other map makers just began to copy them. And the
(06:26):
more this mistake was repeated, just like the more often
a big lie is repeated, the more legitimate the counties seemed.
Because someone would say, well, legally, these never happened, And
then it wasn't too long before someone would say, I
don't care about a pocket veto. I've got three maps
that say Monroe County is actual facts.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah, I mean in the counties. They were not removed
from the maps until eighteen seventy three, and they're referred
to as ghost counties, which I really like it sounds,
especially as we approach spooky season here on Ridiculous History.
They continued because of that kind of game of telephone
or a copy of a copy of a copy situation.
They remained on some of those other maps produced by
(07:12):
map makers who did not get the memo until as
late as eighteen seventy seven. So it really was at
a certain point kind of a mystery as to how
these fake counties began in the first place, and it
was a mystery that wouldn't be solved until Croft discovered
an original manuscript handwritten of that bill HR one oh
four at the Nebraska State Historical Society's Government Records Office.
(07:36):
The NSHS is the official archive of the state of Nebraska,
and they preserve all kinds of official documents relating to
historical legislation.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
This is just very Kafka esque, Joseph Heller esque. But
you may be saying, come on, guys, that's paperwork. I
get it, But we're talking about Nebraska, about the people
on the ground. This is where we're going to explain
something we mentioned at the very top, which is the
idea of moving a barn. We've been let's get on
(08:12):
the ground. This one is sort of corn related. If
you go to Brian Master from WOWT six news out
there in Omaha in great work, Yeah, you'll see you'll
see the following quote. He says, many people still talk
about it the time people once moved a barn. This
is the time in the nineteen eighties when hundreds of
(08:34):
volunteers moved a barn by hand. What Yeah, they had cars,
but they went with their hands. They went with hand
power over horsepower. You could say nineteen eighty eight was
a great year for Mike and Karen Austry. A week
before they got married, the small Nebraska community of Bruno
celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. Bruno got put on the
(08:57):
world map that day, said Mike Austreet, and he took
a news crew over to the barn to learn what
captivated the town. Because you know, one thing I love
about small towns, especially in the US, is they will
sometimes out of the blue, just kill it with innovative celebrations.
(09:17):
You know, I love going into I travel a lot
of backroads for different reasons, and I love going to
you know, just some small town way off the highway
and learning it's like it's you know, Yellow Gord Weekend
or sing or like, who who doesn't love a.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Good bi centennial celebration.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I always think of the incredible faux documentary Waiting for
Guffman and the I believe it's the Sesqua centennial celebration
of the founding of Blaine, Missouri, and all of the
interesting lore that goes along with that.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
If you guys haven't seen this Christopher.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Guest film, it is absolutely a delight and kind of
shows that sort of community spirit that you really can
only find in small towns and the idea of getting,
you know, a small group of folks to band together
to do the impossible.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
In the film, it's it involves putting on a play.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
In this situation, it literally involves moving a barn physically.
Three hundred and twenty eight people joined forces to move
this barn and it became like it was it was
an event in and of itself.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Hmm. Yeah, they said, we are in a disaster situation.
This started as a promotion to celebrate the centennial of
the of Bruno. But on July thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight,
more than four thousand people stopped by to help out
the family farm because they needed They were worried that
(10:44):
a flood was coming and they needed to move the
barn to higher ground.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Of Cording had experienced I believe a good bit of
flooding already, and they were just it was kind of
like starting to become untenable, so they just needed help.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And Karen Austry, the we mentioned earlier, said this is
something that hadn't been done before. They weren't using machines,
all manpower. The three hundred and forty four neighbors eventually
volunteered to move the barn. We're all in because that's
another beautiful thing about small towns. Neighbors tend to help
each other more often than they would in a city.
(11:18):
A priest even stop by to bless the project, and
one of the quotes was for doing something you've never
done before, you better be praying.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I can get behind that.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
And the number of volunteers fluctuates a little bit depending
on the source. We've got three hundred and twenty eight
in one source and three hundred and forty four on another,
so just you know, about a dozen or so off,
but we do know there were more than three hundred
Bruno neighbors, the joined forces and arms, I guess to
do this kindness for the Austrians. Mike Austrey's father, Hermann Austrie,
(12:00):
served as I guess, the foreman in the situation, shouting
through a bullhorn to kind of coordinate the movements of
all of these folks, and each lift and each step
over the course of the one hundred and fifteen foot
journey were coordinated and called out like you know, I
guess the guy calling the square dance or whatever. And
(12:21):
it was a success. They successfully abandoned together and moved
this barn to higher grounds to save the Austri's family
farm from flooding.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
My Gostria was thrilled. He's quoted as saying it worked.
It worked.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, And he is the guy who had been kind
of a head producer for this. He actually constructed his
health the handles that everybody used and moving this barn,
and a lot of people expected it to collapse just
because barns are not Barnes are known for a lot
of things, but none of those things are their mobility.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
And so.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
People were probably taking some bets on the side.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Oh yeah, there was money change in hand, and Mike
was like, where's my.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Piece of the action?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Right right?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Mike said, those who are waiting for failure that day
ended up losing cash. I could see money passing back
and forth behind me. Can I have my cut?
Speaker 5 (13:16):
I said?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
There were a lot of lost bets that day. The Barn,
as we're kind of establishing, belonged to Mike's parents, Herman
and Donna Austry. They're in a farm just north of
town when this happens, and they are keeping the faith.
Herman Austrey is one hundred percent in his interviews, he's
one hundred percent sure this will work. And he has
(13:40):
a bit of a Noah esque trait to him because
he is considering the successful movement of the barn a
matter of faith. And he's in these quotations pointing out
the sky saying I have faith in our maker. And
the one thing that didn't go right for them, the
one thing there's still a little bit miffed about is
(14:01):
that the Guinness Book of World Records wasn't as impressed
as they were.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Well, I think that's a real shame they did submit
this for a Guinness record. Packet of information surrounding this
feat was submitted to Guinness Book of World Records, along
with verification from Nebraska's Division of Weights and Measures, which
I love, you know, to confirm that this was in
fact all done with human muscle.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
However, it was rejected.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
The deputy editor of Guinness told them barn moving was
quote not an activity which has shown itself to be
of widespread interest. What have you seen some of the
things that get Guinness records?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Also, do you know the history of Guinness records. It's
all about for people. It's complete. It was originally completely
made for people who are getting sauced at bars to
be able to prove their side of trivial arguments.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, but the idea of the necessity for widespread interest
is bonkers to me. I mean, isn't there a guy
who holds the world record for like juggling apples while
taking a bite of each apple the most? I mean,
like it's all so niche Also, yeah, what's the deal?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Maybe a different era in the Guinness regime because they
do have a lot more specificity in world records and
they'll let you do things like person who has the
most world records as a world record, so they'll get
meta with it.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
I don't know they got rob is all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, a team Austria on this one. I mean moving
a two twenty thousand pound bar and one hundred and
fifteen feet is pretty impressive. And look they did this
not once but twice. The family raised the bar again
just a year later to add a block to the
base and this was a way easier operation because he
(15:54):
just had to lift it up. You didn't have to
actually move it around. It's cool, though it's such a
a community building exercise. In some ways it reminds me
of well, of course barn raising right in some communities.
It also reminds me of the thing that kids used
to do in gym class where you have the big
parachute and you, oh of course raise it up together
(16:16):
and then you run under it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And it's almost meant to be like a team building exers.
That's what I'm your children. Yeah it is, No, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Never quite thought of it like that, but we should
probably mention the obvious here. They were corn farmers. Yes,
that that is what makes it semi corn related.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We do have a corn content.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And if this feels too much like a tease of
the corn cob, don't worry. You can check out stuff
they don't want you to know. We have an episode
about how corn got into everything in America. It's a
little bit of a different vibe. But that'll that'll, that'll
feed your corn craving. If you want to know Horn
about corn. We know you crave corn. We know you
crave corn. We also well, at least we hope that
(16:58):
you have some questions about names of towns in Nebraska,
particularly the capital, which is named after that Lincoln, you know,
the famous amateur wrestler, Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But a good reach on him.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
He had a good reach.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He also jumped out of windows to avoid voting, which
I don't remember.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Do you think he did like a commando role when
he landed after jumping through the window and that stood
up and just sauntered away.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
I hope. So he always struck me. His spry especially
very much day.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
It's a good word for Lincoln, old spry abe Lincoln.
But yeah, named after him, but not in the way
you might think. At least three dozen counties, towns, and
cities are named after this amateur wrestler, sprightly, young upstart. But,
as Jordan Pascal writes for the Lincoln Journal Star, while
most places were named to honor one of the country's
most revered presidents, Lincoln, Nebraska had a bit more of
(17:51):
a backhanded way of honoring and heavy italics quotation fingers him.
In fact, there were some ballot icians who attempted to
use Lincoln's name as a way to dissuade constituents from.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Moving the capital from Omaha.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
So it was like a political play capitalizing on people's
dislike of Lincoln in that part of the country, because
he certainly was a divisive figure well despite being known
as a great unifier, there's no question he rubbed some
folks the wrong way. And Omaha, by the way, had
been the territorial government seat since eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Right, so at this time things are in flux as
they're figuring out modern state borders and statehood. We go
to the governor of the territorial area at this time,
Thomas Cumming. He hailed from Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across
the Missouri River from Omaha, and he was a huge
proponent of keeping the capital in Omaha, but nearly twice
(18:51):
the number of people lived south of the Platte River,
and they all generally thought the capital should be closer
to the center of the population, right, build the build
the capital where the most people are, right, or at
least make it central to them. Yeah, it makes sense.
And so the folks south of the Platte River are
(19:12):
getting increasingly livid because they're saying, we're not being treated fairly,
We're not getting proper representation in the legislature. So for
more than a decade, for thirteen years, folks were beefed
up over the location of the capital. And in eighteen
sixty seven, just like they're just like their later Nebraska
(19:34):
residents would do. In eighteen sixty seven, a group said, well,
let's move the capital.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (19:40):
But another barn I.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Always wonder, man, I mean, is it just like kind
of like I don't know, bragging rights as to what
city is the capital, or they're like, maybe there's economic concerns.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I guess they think, yeah, that probably makes the most sense.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think it's it's economic. It'll often come to a
constituency wearing the the sheep skin of you know, local
pride or historical significance. But usually when you get to
the back rooms, they're talking money.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
They're talking money, they're talking power.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Because if anytime there's a place that's the seat of government,
I imagine that local politicians are going to wield a little
bit more, you know, say.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
In the way things go down in the state.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And you think legislative arguments can get in the halls
of power can get weird nowadays. Folks, during the last
territorial legislature, people were arguing so intently about this that
they started like flexing their guns.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
At each other fisticuffs. Yeah, and just say, oh, that's
a great point.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Why don't you say it again?
Speaker 4 (20:48):
And folks living south of the Platte River who are
referred to as platters or south platters, because again there
was this kind of othering, this sort of like us
in them mentality, they talked about literally seating and joining
Kansas instead, So they're talking about the seating joining Kansas.
(21:11):
When the issue came to a vote, there was not
a whole lot of protest for removal from the Northerners
except for one senator, one loan senator in Oma.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yes, and here we introduce J. N. H. Patrick you know,
I'm torn about this, but I always I know this
is dumb, but I always found it kind of cool
when people have instead of a first name, they just
have three initials.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Three is a bit much for me.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Two.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I like three. I don't know, it feels a little pretentious.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
That is four for me.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Three, but four four is like, at some point you
need to make better choices.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Agree to disagree.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
That's very true. It is classic. That did, no question
about it. It's as a matter of like what the
threshold is for you, We'll just.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Call it Patrick, Senator Patrick.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, he says, all right, I'm going to make one
last hail Mary to keep the capital in my city.
I'm going to propose a different name for the new
seat of government. The legislatures at the time, the groundswell
of popular support was to build this new capital and
call it, in a burst of creativity, Capital City. But
(22:22):
Patrick raises a point I kind of agree with. He
says that name is trash. He specifically says it is
quote inexplicably clumsy and ugly. We should change the name
to Lincoln after you know that president who just died.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah, he did, in fact do that. He thought that
the promoter of the bill for a new capital, a
Senator Mills Reeves of Nebraska City, might take issue with
that because of his status as a former slaveholder and
a big time opponent of old honest Abe. He thought
(23:00):
this would rattle him and cause him to oppose his
own bill, because racists are kind of single issue people
at certain points of the arguments, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, And the assumption here, the calculus makes sense. He
assumes that this guy Reeves will from Nebraska City, will
hate Lincoln so so much that he will oppose his
own bill, because Reeves was on record as having dislike
the name of Lincoln more than Satan himself, according to
(23:33):
people who hung out with Reeves. But there's a surprise.
Things did not go the way our buddy, Senator Patrick
planned Reeves said, I'm not offended, you know what, I think.
It's a great idea. Thanks Pat. And the bill passed.
So they took the village of Lancaster, which had been
founded fairly recently at that time, in eighteen fifty six.
(23:55):
They said, this will be the new capital. We'll rename
it Lincoln. If you go to folk like historian Jim
McKee you'll hear the following quote. It's definitely a unique situation.
Everyone assumes it was a great honor, but it was
a political trick that backfired. If you ask one thousand people,
they'll all say it's named in honor of Lincoln. But
(24:16):
that is only half the truth.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
And I mean, to be fair, it's not like they
named it Lincoln sucks or something, you know. I mean,
in history will look at it as having been named
after Lincoln as an honor, because why wouldn't it have been?
And it doesn't really read as a dish and unless
you were really into the minutia of this or know
what the purpose was, and it sort of becomes irrelevant
(24:40):
after a time.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But as that sure, why they didn't ever bother changing.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
It's still better than Capital City. What what a bad name?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, sounds like the name of like some generic Washington
DC and like a RPG game of some kind.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
It's yeah, It's like if if I were making an
album and I I called my band band and I
called my album album.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Right, Well, actually, yeah, oh you think that would work? No,
it depends.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
I mean, there is a band called Girls whose first
album is called album, and then there's the bands, and there,
of course there's the bands. But the problem with things
like that is you can really only do it once,
you know, and then it just becomes like, yeah, you wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Be down with Capital City too.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I'm glad they cut this off at the pass or
nipped it in the bud.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
So I teased another story about folks disagreeing and it
caused them some maybe redrawing of boundaries, or at least
the potential for that.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Why don't we move on to the story of.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
The Nebraska city that hated each other so much that
they ceased being a city.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
How does that even happen?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, so we'll go to a city called Seneca, Nebraska,
the Thomas County town of Seneca. According to our pals again,
Delana Lefever's was in corporate in eighteen eighty eight, but
quite recently it dissolved. In twenty fourteen, the entire city
broke up because of a year of violent disputes and acrimony.
(26:11):
You think your HOA is a problem folks? This they
got nothing on this. As a matter of fact, don't
tell your hoa about this story because we don't want,
you know, we don't want to encourage this behavior.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
No, we certainly don't. And this was at least the
initial disagreements. One of several involved horses, the idea of
keeping horses in town limits. There is apparently an ordinance
that prevented.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
That, and so it's yeah, it's an unincorporated community. Now
if you look over it at stats, it's classified as
a village. But it's very important to remember this community,
like so many other communities in the Great Interior of
the United States, has been in a population declined for
(26:57):
a while. So we say the entire city breaking up,
we're talking about thirty people.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Now.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
It was thirty three a few years back, and now
it's down to thirty. They were on the way down
already because of the closing of infrastructure like the railroad roundhouse.
And we do know the median age of people in
town was around fifty five, a little north of fifty
five years old. There are there were only three residents
(27:25):
under the age of eighteen and twenty ten. So if
you look at the details, this starts to sound a
lot less like, you know, a huge city of thousands
of people breaking up, and a little more like thirty
people who decided not to get along.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah, but I mean, you know, the age thing. I
guess makes sense. This seems like a pretty old school dispute, like.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
We put my horse.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Wow, Well, well yeah, were they for it or against it?
Like which side?
Speaker 5 (27:53):
You know?
Speaker 4 (27:53):
I've got to know more and I actually I'm very
excited to check out this radio Lab episode all about it,
and you too. I guess the last one for today
is I had no idea there was once a volcano.
According to the National Park Service, in Nebraska, on August
twenty fourth, eighteen oh four, Clark of Lewis and Clark
Fame explored the one hundred and eighty or one hundred
(28:16):
and ninety foot bluff along the west side of the
Missouri River and wrote, those bluffs appear to have been
laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot
for a man to bare his hand in the.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Earth at any depth.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Gress appearance of coal, an immense quantity of cabalt, or
a crystallized substance which answers its description is on the
face of the bluff, so basically he's describing a sulfuric
smell and like deposits of a volcanic type rock.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, and later later explorers would wonder if This was
indeed of volcano folks like Nicolette, just one initial away
from genius.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
There.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Jan theorized that the decomposition of beds of iron pirates
pyrites in contact with water created heat that was capable
of igniting other combustible stuff. But again, the name stuck,
you know, and sometimes the names persist longer than the facts.
(29:24):
So by the late eighteen hundreds, this bluff was known
as the Ionia Volcano, named after the nearby town of Ionia.
And that's a cool claim to fame for them.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I guess you know, when you actually call something a
volcano the Ionia volcano, that's a little bit misleading.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I maybe would have named it something for more like
Ionia volcano rock.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
You know, Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
For the accuracy, I would keep the phrase Ionia volcano
and just redefine it as a weird euphemism for.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Something I like that.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, the old Ionia volcano, if you know what I mean,
because ad if you know what I mean at the
end of any sentence makes stuff sound so bizarre.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, no question about it.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
But unfortunately, if you went to this spot today, you're
not going to see anything like this because in eighteen
seventy eight, the Missouri River flooded and the bluff in
question was submerged and parts of the quote unquote volcano
fell into the river, never to be seen again. The
same flood also damaged the town that it was named after, Ionia,
(30:26):
which was later unfortunately completely abandoned.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
However, we are not abandoning you, fellow ridiculous historians. There's
much more to get to about Nebraska, perhaps for a
future episode of whoopsal Tangents. For now, we are going
to continue our journey. Thank you so much to you
folks for tuning in and joining us. Thanks, of course
also to our research associate and super producer mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's right, Alex Williams, who produced this theme.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Eves, Jeffcoates, and Christopher Hasiota here in spirit.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
The singular man that I go to for any explanation
about the Constitution, Sorry, scotis also Rachel big Spinach Lance,
who is eternally gracious when I ask her dumb questions
about underwater explosions.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
We got to get her back on the show. Also Hughes.
Thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the quist.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Who will be here to the show.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Ye speaking speaking of weird, I wonder if is he
the kind of guy that would help us move a barn.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I think you would. We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's hear it for the legend. Our
super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
A free empty fizza. I love.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Sorry, I'm a little early today, I guess get really
excited when we're talking about corn filled flat states.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh yeah, it's definitely a trigger for you in a
positive way.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Have an oddly large amount of power in electoral college votes.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Now, its weird. We'll get to it. We'll get to it.
It's it's it's you Ben as well, right.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yes, that's our super sir, mister Max Williams. You were
Noel Brown. I am Ben Bullen. We are not currently
in Nebraska. The transparency invisibility is important for us. Have
you guys been to Nebraska.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I have been through it, and I think I've mentioned
this on our other podcast stuff. They don't want you
to know that once when I was younger and in
a band, I was traveling through the corn the flat
corn leyden lands of Nebraska, and I swear to you guys,
I saw ufo.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I have never been to Nebraska, but yeah, I mean,
can we just go to Kansas and say we went
to Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
That's what a lot of people do. I find great, great,
easy mistake. I find great peace in Nebraska and Kansas
because with that amount of agriculture, if you get in
the right spot in the state, it looks like an ocean,
you know, at the right time of year, and it's
just beautiful. But like all of the states in the
(01:59):
US US United, here in this grand experiment, we have
learned that there are absolutely ridiculous things that have happened
throughout Nebraska's career as a state, and some of them
are not about corn days.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, I was really hoping we were having an exclusively
corn based episode today. So let's talk a bit about
how Nebraska once created multiple counties that didn't actually exist,
some Nebraska's decided, how they really enjoyed carrying barns, and
how the naming of the capitol was a misplaced gambit
(02:37):
gone horribly awry.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And big shout out at the top two not just
our research associate Max for this episode, but also shout
out to Dealena Lefever's l E F E V e
r s from Only in Your State for two articles
that informed a lot of our exploration today we talk
about Braska. One of the most I don't mean this
(03:03):
in a disparateure way, one of the most funny parts
of its origin story is it kind of started off
wrong from the jump. The initial map had six like
pretty egregious errors.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
That's right, and that wasn't uncommon in the founding days
of these United States. But this is a particularly ridiculous example.
So for today's first story of non corn related Nebraska history,
let us venture back to the mid eighteen hundreds and
(03:37):
get a little in the weeds with that initial map
of Nebraska and those six very glaring errors. According to
Joe Carry, an editorial assistant for History Nebraska, youah this
to say. After Nebraska became a territory in eighteen fifty four,
the legislature quickly began organizing counties. Nebraska's original eight counties
(03:58):
had become forty by eighteen sixty one, when the expansion
slowed due to the Civil War. County creation picked up
again following Nebraska's statehood in eighteen sixty seven, and the
map business was competitive as commercial printers strove to keep
up with the changes. Then you want to finish this
one out it's a little bit of a long one,
but I think it's a good context.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, let's tease this out a bit. The quotation continues.
In mid eighteen sixty seven, the Colton Firm published Colton's
Township Map of the state of Nebraska, and it showed
the following counties Lyon, Taylor, Monroe, Harrison, Jackson, and Grant. Collectively,
(04:38):
these six counties covered almost twenty percent of the state's land. However,
there was one problem. These counties were not real legal entities.
They had never been established. They just it was kind
of fake it till you make it in the world
of cartography, and our buddy Joe Carey, who was again
writing for History Nebraska, is referencing a lot of work
(05:01):
from a guy named Brian P. Croft in his piece
Mapping Nebraska eighteen sixty six eighteen seventy one County Boundaries
Real and imagined.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
A little bit of snark in the title there question.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, and you know they weren't just the Colton's, the
firm that was responsible for this mapping situation. They weren't
just making up boundaries. The map actually follows guidelines of
a bill HR one oh four that did pass in
February of eighteen sixty seven, but then when it was
sent to the Governor, Alvin Sanders for his signature, he
(05:37):
decided to not go through with signing it. This is
what is referred to as a pocket veto, which means
that legally, the western third of the state of Nebraska
would for the time being remain blank. General Land Office
maps actually don't show the six counties, and there are
no records of them in the office of the County Clerk.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Yeah, but here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
People like these sorts of sources and map makers often
take a build upon each other's work, right, and there's
nothing wrong with that. They're constantly checking the work of
others correcting it if they're doing their job right. But
in this case, because the Colton maps were so popular,
other map makers just began to copy them. And the
(06:26):
more this mistake was repeated, just like the more often
a big lie is repeated, the more legitimate the counties seemed.
Because someone would say, well, legally, these never happened, And
then it wasn't too long before someone would say, I
don't care about a pocket veto. I've got three maps
that say Monroe County is actual facts.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah, I mean in the counties. They were not removed
from the maps until eighteen seventy three, and they're referred
to as ghost counties, which I really like it sounds,
especially as we approach spooky season here on Ridiculous History.
They continued because of that kind of game of telephone
or a copy of a copy of a copy situation.
They remained on some of those other maps produced by
(07:12):
map makers who did not get the memo until as
late as eighteen seventy seven. So it really was at
a certain point kind of a mystery as to how
these fake counties began in the first place, and it
was a mystery that wouldn't be solved until Croft discovered
an original manuscript handwritten of that bill HR one oh
four at the Nebraska State Historical Society's Government Records Office.
(07:36):
The NSHS is the official archive of the state of Nebraska,
and they preserve all kinds of official documents relating to
historical legislation.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
This is just very Kafka esque, Joseph Heller esque. But
you may be saying, come on, guys, that's paperwork. I
get it, But we're talking about Nebraska, about the people
on the ground. This is where we're going to explain
something we mentioned at the very top, which is the
idea of moving a barn. We've been let's get on
(08:12):
the ground. This one is sort of corn related. If
you go to Brian Master from WOWT six news out
there in Omaha in great work, Yeah, you'll see you'll
see the following quote. He says, many people still talk
about it the time people once moved a barn. This
is the time in the nineteen eighties when hundreds of
(08:34):
volunteers moved a barn by hand. What Yeah, they had cars,
but they went with their hands. They went with hand
power over horsepower. You could say nineteen eighty eight was
a great year for Mike and Karen Austry. A week
before they got married, the small Nebraska community of Bruno
celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. Bruno got put on the
(08:57):
world map that day, said Mike Austreet, and he took
a news crew over to the barn to learn what
captivated the town. Because you know, one thing I love
about small towns, especially in the US, is they will
sometimes out of the blue, just kill it with innovative celebrations.
(09:17):
You know, I love going into I travel a lot
of backroads for different reasons, and I love going to
you know, just some small town way off the highway
and learning it's like it's you know, Yellow Gord Weekend
or sing or like, who who doesn't love a.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Good bi centennial celebration.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I always think of the incredible faux documentary Waiting for
Guffman and the I believe it's the Sesqua centennial celebration
of the founding of Blaine, Missouri, and all of the
interesting lore that goes along with that.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
If you guys haven't seen this Christopher.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Guest film, it is absolutely a delight and kind of
shows that sort of community spirit that you really can
only find in small towns and the idea of getting,
you know, a small group of folks to band together
to do the impossible.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
In the film, it's it involves putting on a play.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
In this situation, it literally involves moving a barn physically.
Three hundred and twenty eight people joined forces to move
this barn and it became like it was it was
an event in and of itself.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Hmm. Yeah, they said, we are in a disaster situation.
This started as a promotion to celebrate the centennial of
the of Bruno. But on July thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight,
more than four thousand people stopped by to help out
the family farm because they needed They were worried that
(10:44):
a flood was coming and they needed to move the
barn to higher ground.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Of Cording had experienced I believe a good bit of
flooding already, and they were just it was kind of
like starting to become untenable, so they just needed help.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And Karen Austry, the we mentioned earlier, said this is
something that hadn't been done before. They weren't using machines,
all manpower. The three hundred and forty four neighbors eventually
volunteered to move the barn. We're all in because that's
another beautiful thing about small towns. Neighbors tend to help
each other more often than they would in a city.
(11:18):
A priest even stop by to bless the project, and
one of the quotes was for doing something you've never
done before, you better be praying.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I can get behind that.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
And the number of volunteers fluctuates a little bit depending
on the source. We've got three hundred and twenty eight
in one source and three hundred and forty four on another,
so just you know, about a dozen or so off,
but we do know there were more than three hundred
Bruno neighbors, the joined forces and arms, I guess to
do this kindness for the Austrians. Mike Austrey's father, Hermann Austrie,
(12:00):
served as I guess, the foreman in the situation, shouting
through a bullhorn to kind of coordinate the movements of
all of these folks, and each lift and each step
over the course of the one hundred and fifteen foot
journey were coordinated and called out like you know, I
guess the guy calling the square dance or whatever. And
(12:21):
it was a success. They successfully abandoned together and moved
this barn to higher grounds to save the Austri's family
farm from flooding.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
My Gostria was thrilled. He's quoted as saying it worked.
It worked.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, And he is the guy who had been kind
of a head producer for this. He actually constructed his
health the handles that everybody used and moving this barn,
and a lot of people expected it to collapse just
because barns are not Barnes are known for a lot
of things, but none of those things are their mobility.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
And so.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
People were probably taking some bets on the side.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Oh yeah, there was money change in hand, and Mike
was like, where's my.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Piece of the action?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Right right?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Mike said, those who are waiting for failure that day
ended up losing cash. I could see money passing back
and forth behind me. Can I have my cut?
Speaker 5 (13:16):
I said?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
There were a lot of lost bets that day. The Barn,
as we're kind of establishing, belonged to Mike's parents, Herman
and Donna Austry. They're in a farm just north of
town when this happens, and they are keeping the faith.
Herman Austrey is one hundred percent in his interviews, he's
one hundred percent sure this will work. And he has
(13:40):
a bit of a Noah esque trait to him because
he is considering the successful movement of the barn a
matter of faith. And he's in these quotations pointing out
the sky saying I have faith in our maker. And
the one thing that didn't go right for them, the
one thing there's still a little bit miffed about is
(14:01):
that the Guinness Book of World Records wasn't as impressed
as they were.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Well, I think that's a real shame they did submit
this for a Guinness record. Packet of information surrounding this
feat was submitted to Guinness Book of World Records, along
with verification from Nebraska's Division of Weights and Measures, which
I love, you know, to confirm that this was in
fact all done with human muscle.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
However, it was rejected.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
The deputy editor of Guinness told them barn moving was
quote not an activity which has shown itself to be
of widespread interest. What have you seen some of the
things that get Guinness records?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Also, do you know the history of Guinness records. It's
all about for people. It's complete. It was originally completely
made for people who are getting sauced at bars to
be able to prove their side of trivial arguments.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, but the idea of the necessity for widespread interest
is bonkers to me. I mean, isn't there a guy
who holds the world record for like juggling apples while
taking a bite of each apple the most? I mean,
like it's all so niche Also, yeah, what's the deal?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Maybe a different era in the Guinness regime because they
do have a lot more specificity in world records and
they'll let you do things like person who has the
most world records as a world record, so they'll get
meta with it.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
I don't know they got rob is all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, a team Austria on this one. I mean moving
a two twenty thousand pound bar and one hundred and
fifteen feet is pretty impressive. And look they did this
not once but twice. The family raised the bar again
just a year later to add a block to the
base and this was a way easier operation because he
(15:54):
just had to lift it up. You didn't have to
actually move it around. It's cool, though it's such a
a community building exercise. In some ways it reminds me
of well, of course barn raising right in some communities.
It also reminds me of the thing that kids used
to do in gym class where you have the big
parachute and you, oh of course raise it up together
(16:16):
and then you run under it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And it's almost meant to be like a team building exers.
That's what I'm your children. Yeah it is, No, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Never quite thought of it like that, but we should
probably mention the obvious here. They were corn farmers. Yes,
that that is what makes it semi corn related.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We do have a corn content.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And if this feels too much like a tease of
the corn cob, don't worry. You can check out stuff
they don't want you to know. We have an episode
about how corn got into everything in America. It's a
little bit of a different vibe. But that'll that'll, that'll
feed your corn craving. If you want to know Horn
about corn. We know you crave corn. We know you
crave corn. We also well, at least we hope that
(16:58):
you have some questions about names of towns in Nebraska,
particularly the capital, which is named after that Lincoln, you know,
the famous amateur wrestler, Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But a good reach on him.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
He had a good reach.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He also jumped out of windows to avoid voting, which
I don't remember.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Do you think he did like a commando role when
he landed after jumping through the window and that stood
up and just sauntered away.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
I hope. So he always struck me. His spry especially
very much day.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
It's a good word for Lincoln, old spry abe Lincoln.
But yeah, named after him, but not in the way
you might think. At least three dozen counties, towns, and
cities are named after this amateur wrestler, sprightly, young upstart. But,
as Jordan Pascal writes for the Lincoln Journal Star, while
most places were named to honor one of the country's
most revered presidents, Lincoln, Nebraska had a bit more of
(17:51):
a backhanded way of honoring and heavy italics quotation fingers him.
In fact, there were some ballot icians who attempted to
use Lincoln's name as a way to dissuade constituents from.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Moving the capital from Omaha.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
So it was like a political play capitalizing on people's
dislike of Lincoln in that part of the country, because
he certainly was a divisive figure well despite being known
as a great unifier, there's no question he rubbed some
folks the wrong way. And Omaha, by the way, had
been the territorial government seat since eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Right, so at this time things are in flux as
they're figuring out modern state borders and statehood. We go
to the governor of the territorial area at this time,
Thomas Cumming. He hailed from Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across
the Missouri River from Omaha, and he was a huge
proponent of keeping the capital in Omaha, but nearly twice
(18:51):
the number of people lived south of the Platte River,
and they all generally thought the capital should be closer
to the center of the population, right, build the build
the capital where the most people are, right, or at
least make it central to them. Yeah, it makes sense.
And so the folks south of the Platte River are
(19:12):
getting increasingly livid because they're saying, we're not being treated fairly,
We're not getting proper representation in the legislature. So for
more than a decade, for thirteen years, folks were beefed
up over the location of the capital. And in eighteen
sixty seven, just like they're just like their later Nebraska
(19:34):
residents would do. In eighteen sixty seven, a group said, well,
let's move the capital.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (19:40):
But another barn I.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Always wonder, man, I mean, is it just like kind
of like I don't know, bragging rights as to what
city is the capital, or they're like, maybe there's economic concerns.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I guess they think, yeah, that probably makes the most sense.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think it's it's economic. It'll often come to a
constituency wearing the the sheep skin of you know, local
pride or historical significance. But usually when you get to
the back rooms, they're talking money.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
They're talking money, they're talking power.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Because if anytime there's a place that's the seat of government,
I imagine that local politicians are going to wield a little
bit more, you know, say.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
In the way things go down in the state.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And you think legislative arguments can get in the halls
of power can get weird nowadays. Folks, during the last
territorial legislature, people were arguing so intently about this that
they started like flexing their guns.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
At each other fisticuffs. Yeah, and just say, oh, that's
a great point.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Why don't you say it again?
Speaker 4 (20:48):
And folks living south of the Platte River who are
referred to as platters or south platters, because again there
was this kind of othering, this sort of like us
in them mentality, they talked about literally seating and joining
Kansas instead, So they're talking about the seating joining Kansas.
(21:11):
When the issue came to a vote, there was not
a whole lot of protest for removal from the Northerners
except for one senator, one loan senator in Oma.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yes, and here we introduce J. N. H. Patrick you know,
I'm torn about this, but I always I know this
is dumb, but I always found it kind of cool
when people have instead of a first name, they just
have three initials.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Three is a bit much for me.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Two.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I like three. I don't know, it feels a little pretentious.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
That is four for me.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Three, but four four is like, at some point you
need to make better choices.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Agree to disagree.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
That's very true. It is classic. That did, no question
about it. It's as a matter of like what the
threshold is for you, We'll just.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Call it Patrick, Senator Patrick.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, he says, all right, I'm going to make one
last hail Mary to keep the capital in my city.
I'm going to propose a different name for the new
seat of government. The legislatures at the time, the groundswell
of popular support was to build this new capital and
call it, in a burst of creativity, Capital City. But
(22:22):
Patrick raises a point I kind of agree with. He
says that name is trash. He specifically says it is
quote inexplicably clumsy and ugly. We should change the name
to Lincoln after you know that president who just died.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah, he did, in fact do that. He thought that
the promoter of the bill for a new capital, a
Senator Mills Reeves of Nebraska City, might take issue with
that because of his status as a former slaveholder and
a big time opponent of old honest Abe. He thought
(23:00):
this would rattle him and cause him to oppose his
own bill, because racists are kind of single issue people
at certain points of the arguments, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, And the assumption here, the calculus makes sense. He
assumes that this guy Reeves will from Nebraska City, will
hate Lincoln so so much that he will oppose his
own bill, because Reeves was on record as having dislike
the name of Lincoln more than Satan himself, according to
(23:33):
people who hung out with Reeves. But there's a surprise.
Things did not go the way our buddy, Senator Patrick
planned Reeves said, I'm not offended, you know what, I think.
It's a great idea. Thanks Pat. And the bill passed.
So they took the village of Lancaster, which had been
founded fairly recently at that time, in eighteen fifty six.
(23:55):
They said, this will be the new capital. We'll rename
it Lincoln. If you go to folk like historian Jim
McKee you'll hear the following quote. It's definitely a unique situation.
Everyone assumes it was a great honor, but it was
a political trick that backfired. If you ask one thousand people,
they'll all say it's named in honor of Lincoln. But
(24:16):
that is only half the truth.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
And I mean, to be fair, it's not like they
named it Lincoln sucks or something, you know. I mean,
in history will look at it as having been named
after Lincoln as an honor, because why wouldn't it have been?
And it doesn't really read as a dish and unless
you were really into the minutia of this or know
what the purpose was, and it sort of becomes irrelevant
(24:40):
after a time.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But as that sure, why they didn't ever bother changing.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
It's still better than Capital City. What what a bad name?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, sounds like the name of like some generic Washington
DC and like a RPG game of some kind.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
It's yeah, It's like if if I were making an
album and I I called my band band and I
called my album album.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Right, Well, actually, yeah, oh you think that would work? No,
it depends.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
I mean, there is a band called Girls whose first
album is called album, and then there's the bands, and there,
of course there's the bands. But the problem with things
like that is you can really only do it once,
you know, and then it just becomes like, yeah, you wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Be down with Capital City too.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I'm glad they cut this off at the pass or
nipped it in the bud.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
So I teased another story about folks disagreeing and it
caused them some maybe redrawing of boundaries, or at least
the potential for that.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Why don't we move on to the story of.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
The Nebraska city that hated each other so much that
they ceased being a city.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
How does that even happen?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, so we'll go to a city called Seneca, Nebraska,
the Thomas County town of Seneca. According to our pals again,
Delana Lefever's was in corporate in eighteen eighty eight, but
quite recently it dissolved. In twenty fourteen, the entire city
broke up because of a year of violent disputes and acrimony.
(26:11):
You think your HOA is a problem folks? This they
got nothing on this. As a matter of fact, don't
tell your hoa about this story because we don't want,
you know, we don't want to encourage this behavior.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
No, we certainly don't. And this was at least the
initial disagreements. One of several involved horses, the idea of
keeping horses in town limits. There is apparently an ordinance
that prevented.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
That, and so it's yeah, it's an unincorporated community. Now
if you look over it at stats, it's classified as
a village. But it's very important to remember this community,
like so many other communities in the Great Interior of
the United States, has been in a population declined for
(26:57):
a while. So we say the entire city breaking up,
we're talking about thirty people.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Now.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
It was thirty three a few years back, and now
it's down to thirty. They were on the way down
already because of the closing of infrastructure like the railroad roundhouse.
And we do know the median age of people in
town was around fifty five, a little north of fifty
five years old. There are there were only three residents
(27:25):
under the age of eighteen and twenty ten. So if
you look at the details, this starts to sound a
lot less like, you know, a huge city of thousands
of people breaking up, and a little more like thirty
people who decided not to get along.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah, but I mean, you know, the age thing. I
guess makes sense. This seems like a pretty old school dispute, like.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
We put my horse.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Wow, Well, well yeah, were they for it or against it?
Like which side?
Speaker 5 (27:53):
You know?
Speaker 4 (27:53):
I've got to know more and I actually I'm very
excited to check out this radio Lab episode all about it,
and you too. I guess the last one for today
is I had no idea there was once a volcano.
According to the National Park Service, in Nebraska, on August
twenty fourth, eighteen oh four, Clark of Lewis and Clark
Fame explored the one hundred and eighty or one hundred
(28:16):
and ninety foot bluff along the west side of the
Missouri River and wrote, those bluffs appear to have been
laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot
for a man to bare his hand in the.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Earth at any depth.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Gress appearance of coal, an immense quantity of cabalt, or
a crystallized substance which answers its description is on the
face of the bluff, so basically he's describing a sulfuric
smell and like deposits of a volcanic type rock.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, and later later explorers would wonder if This was
indeed of volcano folks like Nicolette, just one initial away
from genius.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
There.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Jan theorized that the decomposition of beds of iron pirates
pyrites in contact with water created heat that was capable
of igniting other combustible stuff. But again, the name stuck,
you know, and sometimes the names persist longer than the facts.
(29:24):
So by the late eighteen hundreds, this bluff was known
as the Ionia Volcano, named after the nearby town of Ionia.
And that's a cool claim to fame for them.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I guess you know, when you actually call something a
volcano the Ionia volcano, that's a little bit misleading.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I maybe would have named it something for more like
Ionia volcano rock.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
You know, Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
For the accuracy, I would keep the phrase Ionia volcano
and just redefine it as a weird euphemism for.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Something I like that.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, the old Ionia volcano, if you know what I mean,
because ad if you know what I mean at the
end of any sentence makes stuff sound so bizarre.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, no question about it.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
But unfortunately, if you went to this spot today, you're
not going to see anything like this because in eighteen
seventy eight, the Missouri River flooded and the bluff in
question was submerged and parts of the quote unquote volcano
fell into the river, never to be seen again. The
same flood also damaged the town that it was named after, Ionia,
(30:26):
which was later unfortunately completely abandoned.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
However, we are not abandoning you, fellow ridiculous historians. There's
much more to get to about Nebraska, perhaps for a
future episode of whoopsal Tangents. For now, we are going
to continue our journey. Thank you so much to you
folks for tuning in and joining us. Thanks, of course
also to our research associate and super producer mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's right, Alex Williams, who produced this theme.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Eves, Jeffcoates, and Christopher Hasiota here in spirit.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
The singular man that I go to for any explanation
about the Constitution, Sorry, scotis also Rachel big Spinach Lance,
who is eternally gracious when I ask her dumb questions
about underwater explosions.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
We got to get her back on the show. Also Hughes.
Thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the quist.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Who will be here to the show.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Ye speaking speaking of weird, I wonder if is he
the kind of guy that would help us move a barn.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I think you would. We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
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Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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