Nebraska (U.S. State) (1983: Doomsday)

Nebraska was the 37th state in the United States of America. Admitted to the union on March 1, 1867, the state was in the midst of the Great Plains and the American Corn Belt. It's population in 1983 was around 1.6 million (38th among the states), and was largely an agricultural state. Blessed with rivers, it was a "triple-landlocked state, being three states away from both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and two states away from the Great Lakes. The last governor was J. Robert "Bob" Kerry.

After Doomsday
The state capitol of Lincoln was spared destruction on September 25, 1983. However, ensuing chaos resulted in a collapse of the government. With an increase of refugees from Omaha, and the loss of electricity and communications, all attempts to maintain order failed. On April 8, 1984, a "Provisional" Republic of Lincoln was established. Hoping to reconnect with Washington, the leadership considered the "republic" a placeholder for the US state of Nebraska. In 1996, on news that the US government had indeed collapsed, the Republic of Lincoln became an independent nation, with claims on the whole state. However, the government only controlled the southeastern corner of the state (below the Platte River and down to the former US state of Kansas).

Meanwhile, on the far western part of the state, small communities were struggling to survive. An association of towns was organized in Scottsbluff to manage the meager supplies that the towns had in the winter of 1983-84. Receiving refugees up from Kansas, the local governments managed well enough to face off raids of Lakota Indians coming down from the north. As a result of its part in the Lakota war, the Scotsbluff Association became the "new" Nebraska, admitted into the Provisional United States in 1992 as a founding state.

A small corner of the new state was relinquished to the American Indian state of Absaroka in the wake of the Lakota war. Both Nebraska and Absaroka are states of the Provisional United States of America. Nebraska expanded after the succession of Absaroka, becoming about twice as big as its original plan. Expanding from the panhandle into the Great Plain, Nebraska began to utilize the vast grain fields to rebuild its reputation as the "bread basket" of the nation. Since the PUSA was far smaller than the old USA, and exports were not a priority until the 21st century, the goal of an agricultural "power house" became a reality even before the reintroduction of a wide-spread power grid.