Nebraskaland

48 Nebraskaland • January-February 2022 MIXED BAG While some people sniff that Nebraska is "The Middle of Nowhere," I would argue that we are actually the middle of everywhere. We lie in a transition zone between many features, geographies, climates, economies and periods of history. That puts us in a unique position of having all of those things within reach. It's always hard to draw specific boundaries when, in fact, most natural features blend gradually, one into the other. But it could be argued with some reason that Highway 281, 9 miles east of Dannebrog, is a convenient dividing line between the tallgrass prairie, deciduous woodlands and rich farmlands of the east, and the mixed- grass prairie rangelands and hard- scrapple farmlands of the west. This was true even before the white man invaded the continent. In the east, the Pawnee, Ponca and Omaha were village builders, farmers and hunters, while to the west, the Lakota, Comanche and Cheyenne were primarily hunters. Geographic differences are reflected, too, in the kinds of animals and plants that are common to the east and rare to the west, and vice versa. Our rivers, like the Niobrara, Loup Forks, Platte and Republican, frequently serve as bridges between the two biological regions. Sometimes I think our backyard is the meteorological dividing line between Arctic blasts from the north and moisture-rich warm fronts from the south, thus setting up the kind of dramatic weather warfare we constantly find ourselves in the middle of. And there sure is something going on with rainfall, huge rain shields advancing across Nebraska only to stop somewhere north of Oak Creek or at the Sherman County line, leaving us high and dry while everyone else at the town café is bragging about 2 1 ⁄4 inches in their gauges. The westward advance of the American frontier stood still on the eastern bank of the Missouri River for almost half a century. Not only was that river a formidable barrier, but there also was the Civil War, ferocious resistance from tribes for whom this was already homeland, and few of the resources available to the East — abundant wood, rock, water and rich farmland. So Iowa became a state in 1846 while Nebraska, a few hundred yards to the west, joined the Union only in 1867, and even then, with serious questions about whether its politics belonged to the North or the South. There are plants that are common enough in the easternmost Nebraska counties that are already rarities here in Howard County, only 100 miles to the west. Birdwatchers know that it is not at all unusual for the interface of eastern and western species to be found here, in the center of the Great Plains — plants, birds and even people: To the east, its overalls and seed caps, and west, its cowboy boots and Stetsons. North of the Platte is considered the Northern Plains and to the south, the Central Plains. One half of Nebraska's population lies east of Lincoln; the rest of us are out here where "there are more cows than people." The old joke is that Nebraska is where "the West begins ... and the East peters out." Maybe it's not so much of a joke after all. See? "Middle of Everywhere!" And nowhere else I'd rather be. Roger Welsch is an author, humorist, folklorist and a former essayist for CBS News Sunday Morning. He is the author of more than 40 books and has been contributing to Nebraskaland Magazine since 1977. THE MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE By Roger Welsch Western kingbird. CHRIS MASADA Eastern kingbird CHRIS MASADA

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