Nebraska

American universities run big sports teams, and in Nebraska the football team is the one everything stops for. On autumn Saturdays the state goes quiet, then roars. The team is called the Cornhuskers, after the farm workers who once stripped the leaves off corn by hand, one ear at a time. The name spread from the team to the whole state.

Cattle and corn run through everything here, including the food. The Runza is a Nebraska invention, a soft bread pocket filled with beef, onion and cabbage, and the state grows more popcorn than almost anywhere. Every June, Omaha hosts the College World Series, the national university baseball final, and the city fills up for two weeks.

Chimney Rock a thin stone spire on the plains, was the landmark that told wagon trains heading west in the 1800s they were going the right way. Nebraska also invented Arbor Day, a holiday for planting trees, and the forest at Halsey was planted entirely by hand.