Twenty facts about Nebraska

1. Nebraska is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States.
2. Total Area: 16th among states, 200,356 sq km (77,358 sq mi).
3. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha.
4. The Lied Jungle located in Omaha is the world's largest indoor rain forest. 
5. Once considered part of the Great American Desert (actually highly biodiverse prairie land), Nebraska is now a leading farming and ranching state.
6. In 1927, Edwin E. Perkins of Hastings invented the powdered soft drink Kool-Aid. 
7. Nebraska probably gets its name from the archaic Otoe words Ñí Brásge, pronounced (contemporary Otoe Ñí Bráhge), or the Omaha Ní Btháska, pronounced, meaning "flat water," after the Platte River that flows through the state.
8. The 911 system of emergency communications, now used nationwide, was developed and first used in Lincoln, Nebraska. 
9. Nebraska is the only U.S. state with a unicameral legislature.
10. Nebraska is the only state in the union with a unicameral (one house) legislature. 
11. In the 1860s, the first great wave of homesteaders poured into Nebraska to claim free land granted by the federal government.
12. There are five army forts open to the public in Nebraska: Atkinson, Kearny, Hartsuff, Sidney, and Robinson.
13. Nebraska became the 37th state in 1867, shortly after the American Civil War.
14. Mutual of Omaha Corporate headquarters is a public building built with 7 floors underground. 
15. The Arbor Day holiday began in Nebraska. The National Arbor Day Foundation is still headquartered in Nebraska City, with some offices also located in Lincoln.
16. The Sand Hills in central and north central Nebraska consist of grass-covered sand dunes and cover one-quarter of the state.
17. The state is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwest; and Wyoming to the west.
18. One of the greatest American novelists, Willa Cather, grew up on a farm near Red Cloud and later attended the University of Nebraska.
19. Nebraska has 93 counties.
20. The Ogallala aquifer, which stretches as far south as Texas, is Nebraska's primary source of irrigation water.