Lincoln, Nebraska
We make the short drive from Omaha to Lincoln, Nebraska, stopping at a Vietnam Veterans memorial before exploring the Nebraska state capital.
When I introduced the full trip on social media, the mayor of Papillion — where the Omaha Storm Chasers play — reached out to say we should stop by the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial while in the area. It was a good day for it — our Sunday ballgame was less than an hour away, and our destination in Lincoln, Nebraska, would be quiet before noon.
Dad and I got up early enough to commandeer the hotel’s laundry machines for a couple of hours, then made the short drive from our hotel in the Omaha suburb of La Vista to Papillion. We knew there would be some light morning rain in the forecast, and it started just as we pulled up to the memorial.
The Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors the 396 Nebraskans killed in action during the Vietnam War, along with four sailors from the USS Evans — a destroyer that was cut in half by the Australian carrier HMAS Melbourne during a naval exercise in 1969.
The most striking element on the grounds is a restored UH-1 Huey helicopter hovering over one end of the memorial, with two soldiers carrying the body of a fallen comrade in the direction of the remainder of the monuments. Those include an Honor Wall with the names of Nebraskans killed in action, a Wall of Faces, and obelisks representing each year of the war, etched with cultural and historic touchstones of the time.
Lincoln, Nebraska
The rain let up on our way to Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska and the state’s second-largest city (after Omaha), with a population of about 290,000. It’s also home to the University of Nebraska, making it an interesting blend of political and university life.
The city was originally founded in 1856 as Lancaster, but changed its name to Lincoln in 1867 to honor the late president after Nebraska was granted statehood. It was made the state capital that year, in part to check Omaha’s dominance over the state, and to encourage settlement south of the Platte River.
We drove past the city’s art and history museums, which would have made it into our itinerary any other day. Just past the Nebraska History Museum, we stopped to see a statue honoring Standing Bear, chief of the Ponca tribe, who won a landmark federal case in 1879 — the first time a U.S. court formally recognized Native Americans as legal persons under the Constitution.
From there, we turned to see the Nebraska State Capitol in the distance down Centennial Mall. We hopped back in the car for a closer look.
Completed in 1932, the Capitol building is a blend of Art Deco and classical styles, designed by architect Bertram Goodhue. Its 400-foot tower is topped with a bronze statue called The Sower, depicting a barefoot figure spreading seeds over the state — a symbol of Nebraska’s firm agricultural roots.
We continued our slow cruise through Lincoln, pausing to take in sights here and there — the university’s Love Library, an installation called Torn Statue in front of the Van Brunt Visitors Centers, and a Methodist Church.
We ended up in the Haymarket, a revitalized warehouse district filled with bars and restaurants and a hub for university nightlife. On a quiet Sunday morning, however, it was just a collection of brick buildings.
Finally, we sidled up next to Memorial Stadium, the university’s venerable football venue. Built in 1926, the stadium can seat about 85,000 fans yet has been sold out for every home game since 1962.
The rain began to freshen again as we left for the university’s baseball stadium and the site of Game 14 of our 20-ballpark road trip, Haymarket Park.