Less than 20 miles separated freedom from slavery for Blacks in the mid-1800s. For abolitionists, Nebraska City played a key role along the Underground Railroad. 

Enslaved people who escaped from Missouri sneaked through Kansas and north to Falls City, Nebraska, and then on to Nebraska City before making the final leg of their journey to Tabor, Iowa. 

Nebraska was the westernmost portion of the Underground Railroad. And Nebraska City's Mayhew Cabin is considered one of the most important historical places along the trail.

JoAnne Smith took one look around Central City and realized the town of about 3,000 people had a lot to offer; all it needed was tourists. A winery, first-class veterans’ monument and a thrift store popular enough to have people line up a block deep on "new product Wednesday." 

After spending most of their lives in southeast Kansas, her husband had a job offer that brought them to Nebraska. They could live anywhere they wanted between Columbus and Kearney, Smith said. They found Central City one day while driving. 

Years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus – in defiance of Jim Crow racial segregation laws in 1955, helping spark the nationwide Civil Rights Movement – Black women in Omaha were already taking a stand against racism.

Among them stood Bertha Calloway. You may have driven on a portion of Lake Street named in her honor, from 22nd to 24th, in an historic Black district, once a notable jazz mecca, comparable to the Harlem Heydays, on a smaller scale, back in the 1920s and ‘30s.

While most people look at an ear of corn and wonder how it may taste, Tammy Zentic looks at it and wonders how the kernels will look as a necklace or bracelet. 

Zentic, a retired Fremont, Nebraska, teacher turned to creating jewelry from corn as a side gig about seven years ago. Z Harvest Gems, as her business is known, can be found at farmers’ markets around the Omaha Metro, as well as boutiques and museums, including the Joslyn. 

She started making corn jewelry while teaching, but the business took off after she retired.