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Locator Maps

Of the 93 counties in Nebraska, 13 were chosen for the university grant of land, mostly northeast Nebraska farm and ranch acres close to water sources. The interactive map is designed to be searched by county or parcel.

Morrill Act Parcels

The Morrill Act of 1862 resulted in 89,175 verifiable acres of unclaimed Nebraska land in Burt, Cedar, Cuming, Dakota, Dixon, Knox, Pierce and Wayne counties given to Nebraska to start a university.

Enabling Act Parcels

The Enabling Act of 1864 resulted in 45,441 acres of unclaimed Nebraska land in Antelope, Cedar, Dixon, Holt, Knox, Madison, Nuckolls, Pierce and Webster counties to start a university.

Nebraska Land Benefits Other States

Since so much land in other states, primarily in the east and south, had been claimed, Nebraska land was offered to other states to establish land-grant universities. To date, this project has not attempted data collection in state records to map these parcels. Russell Lang, author of Original land transfers of Nebraska: How the west was almost given away, notes 35,210 acres of Nebraska land benefitted 14 other states.

The counties where land was contributed were Thayer, Fillmore, Nuckolls, Clay, Adams, Webster, Kearney, Franklin, Furnas and Harlan.

The recipient states were Virginia, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts, Louisiana, West Virginia and Kentucky.