Mud wasn't just for backroads. Here's the old state capitol (on
the site of the present capitol) in about 1898.
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MAY 2018 • NEBRASKAland 11
the condition of our streets to the consistency of paste.
Pedestrians worked them up into a still worse condition
... until the upper surface for two feet deep, was of the
primitive nature of brick. Stilts, and other pedal appendages,
adroit jumping, and the aquatic knowledge of sturgeons,
were in much requisition."
Even the proud city of Omaha was afflicted with mud.
The Omaha Daily Bee, on May 28, 1881, reported that a
team of horses pulling a grocery wagon had recently been
rescued from a mudhole near 14th and Douglas streets. An
unsuccessful attempt to eliminate the hole had been made
by city workmen, who filled it with soft mud and then
smoothed dirt over the top.
But when a team of horses "touched the reconstructed
mudhole, they sunk to their shoulders in soft mire. The
efforts which they made to get out only sunk them deeper.
... After struggling in the pit for about an hour a sufficient
crowd collected to raise one of the horses bodily and remove
it to firm ground. The other horse was taken out after
much difficulty. It was badly strained in the process and its
harness nearly ruined." The Bee noted, "The matter created
considerable indignation." ■
Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society's website at
history.nebraska.gov.
