How Nebraska City Lost the Capital (and Won at History Anyway)

Dr. Sarah Crook joins Kathy McKillop to talk about her decades of work with Nebraska history organizations — from six years on the Nebraska State Historical Society board to her current role with the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation, which helps fund tours, museum partnerships, and the "Wander Nebraska" program that gets travelers off I-80 and into the state's small-town museums and local businesses. The conversation then turns to one of Nebraska's best origin stories: the fight over where to put the state capital. Hear how the sleepy, riverless hamlet of Lancaster beat out Omaha and Fremont, how Omaha operatives allegedly hid every dictionary in the room to stall the spelling of "capital" vs. "capitol," how the new town got named Lincoln as part of a political trick that backfired, and how state records were smuggled out of Omaha under cover of darkness to make the move official. Along the way, Dr. Crook explains how Nebraska City — once a thriving Missouri River "jumping off point" — found its own growth slowed as the railroad reshaped the state around Lincoln and Omaha instead.