Nebraska Travel Guide

More than a half-million cranes travel to Grand Island and Kearney to rest during the yearly migration, and the Rowe Sanctuary (tel. 308/468-5282; www.rowesanctuary.org) and the Nebraska Bird Observatory at Crane Meadows (tel. 308/382-1820; www.cranemeadows.org) are the best places for bird-lovers to check out the snowy-white birds.
For a living-history view of life on the prairie, Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, 3133 W. Hwy. 34, Grand Island (tel. 308/385-5316; www.stuhrmuseum.org), offers a hands-on living history experience, including blacksmithing and tinsmithing classes, as well as an amazing collection of historical artifacts from prairie days gone by.
A pastime of women throughout the ages, and certainly during the days of westward expansion in the United States, quilting is not only an artisan craft of patience and skill, but also one that often tells a story. The International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (tel. 402/472-6549; www.quiltstudy.org) has over 2,000 quilts on display from 14 different countries, offering a fascinating look at the history, art, and handiwork that went into each one.

Call them cornhuskers after their state nickname, but you can't deny that Nebraskans have a way with soil (well, except maybe for local-boy-turned-city-slicker Johnny Carson—but locals seem to have forgiven this minor offense). This Great Plains state is one of the most productive farming spots in the country, a place where fields of corn, wheat, and soy bean wave in the breeze and cattle roam acres upon acres of rolling ranch hillsides. Nebraska native and U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser's poem, "So This Is Nebraska," deftly demonstrates the power of the state's simple pleasures and beauty: "You feel like that, like letting your tires go flat . . . You feel like stopping the car and dancing around on the road." You can, of course, dance around in the road if you like, but it might be more advisable (and safer) to save all jigging activity for a trip to one of Nebraska's eight lovely state parks, where you can spy bison, eagles, and pronghorn antelope, or the shores of one of its 450 lakes and streams where cranes wade in shallow pools and geese squawk overhead. Driving one of the nine scenic byways affords the opportunity to check out everything from jutting Chimney Rock along the old Oregon pioneer trail to the 82-mile path cut by Lewis and Clark on their westbound adventure to less-natural wonders like Carhenge (www.carhenge.com), a 38-car sculpture built to resemble England's Stonehenge on Highway 87. Regardless of whether your pursuits lie within the boundaries of the natural or manmade worlds, Nebraska is an easygoing spot to explore your heart's desires. Read More

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