Nebraska’s Historical Monuments Subject of Friends of Gering Library Annual Meeting

The rich and diverse history and heritage of the state of Nebraska as told through its often secluded historical monuments and markers is the subject of the Friends of the Gering Public Library presentation for Sunday, October 24, at 2 p.m. This Humanities Nebraska talk will be held at the Legacy of the Plains Museum, and is free and open to the public.

“Marking Nebraska: Our (Mostly) Hidden Historical Monuments” by historian Jeff Barnes is a review of the state’s earliest historical markers, from setting its borders to marking its trails to honoring its people. Drawing from his site visits and photographs collected from across the state, Barnes shares some of the more interesting, colorful, and even controversial ways Nebraskans told their stories through boulders, tablets, plaques, and statues.

The presentation is in conjunction with Barnes’s newest book, Cut in Stone, Cast in Bronze: Nebraska’s Historical Markers and Monuments. Sponsored by the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation and winner of the 2021 Nebraska Book Award, the book is a full-color, comprehensive guide to the nearly 300 monuments, statues, markers, and plaques erected and placed across the state from Territorihood to the 1967 Centennial in commemoration of historical events, places, and people. In addition to the photographs of the markers and the history behind them, Barnes has included the locations and GPS coordinates to allow for site visits.

“Many of these sites are in remote locations far from towns and cities,” said Barnes. “I think with the ‘social distancing’ that we’re encouraged to adopt, seeing these monuments in natural settings that haven’t changed greatly is a great Nebraska weekend adventure.”

Barnes is also the author of Forts of the Northern Plains, The Great Plains Guide to Custer, The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill, Extra Innings: The Story of Modisett Ball Park and 150 @ 150: Nebraska’s Landmark Buildings at the State’s Sesquicentennial.

A fifth-generation Nebraskan and former newspaper reporter and editor, Barnes writes and lives in Omaha. He is a past trustee of the Nebraska State Historical Society, former chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission, and former marketing director of the Durham Museum.