Looking Back

In June of 2009, NEBRASKAland began looking at its history each month with its “Looking Back” article in the Mixed Bag section of the magazine. With over 80 years of NEBRASKAland, some have questioned how we choose each vintage magazine we feature. There are a few things we consider. First, we’d like to match the time of year. May for May, winter for winter, and so forth. The next requirement is an interesting cover. NEBRASKAland has featured artwork, beautiful photographs, cartoons, and Nebraskans and visitors doing any variety of things in the outdoors on its covers. Third, it would be nice if there was a tie-in to the current issue. This is usually one of the simplest tasks, because each spring, for the last 80 years to the next 80 years, we’ll have fishing stories. Same thing when people start hunting in the fall. Those stories are always easy to find. And lastly, we search for interesting articles from that particular issue. While consistently publishing the best articles and photographs in the state since 1926, NEBRASKAland has also shown its eccentric side from time to time. Articles like “Dick Trammel And The Walgren Lake Monster” and  “Zany Patents” come to mind, and taking a sneak peak at our bound volumes of NEBRASKAland, I know there will be many more to come.

While “A Look Back” definitely isn’t an original idea, for multiple publications feature a similar article each month, it is original for us. And hopefully it will be original (but still bring back memories) to the more than 100,000 people who read NEBRASKAland each issue. Because I can tell you one thing — I assumed when we started this that I’d never see anything like a dragon on the cover of this magazine. But that what I get for assuming.