The original settlers of the Great Plains had to actually "bust" the tightly matted soil covered with tough buffalo grass in order to plant their crops and build their homes. They had to endure multiple hardships: blazing heat on barren earth; torrential rains that washed away the soil, ruining crops and sod homes; and, perilous blizzards that killed people and livestock.

Settlement in Chase County, in the extreme southwestern corner of Nebraska, came more than twenty years after Daniel Freeman became the first man to sign for 640 acres of free land under the Homestead Act. In the History of the State of Nebraska published in 1882, it was stated that in Chase County Nebraska:

"The only occupation carried on...is stock-raising, and immense herds of cattle roam at large over these beautiful prairies...The land nearly all belongs to the United States Government, and the ranches are selected and occupied only by a law of justice understood by themselves.

The soil of almost the entire county is rich and fertile, but the climate is so dry that the raising of grain is rendered impossible. The bottom lands, however, could be easily irrigated, and would, without doubt, by this means produce large crops."

The lives of the early settlers were filled with hard work and struggle to get water, crops, and homes. They had to endure drought, blizzards, and rattlesnakes. One young mother told of finding a rattlesnake on the bed next to the baby. She ran to the fuel box to get something to kill the snake and found another snake in the fuel box. Another woman was buried to her waist when the wall of her dug-out home caved in on her. Such incidents, too many grasshoppers, and drought drove many of the early settlers out.

In the spring of 1886, seven covered wagons filled with several families and a couple of bachelors arrived in Chase County. The first morning after they arrived, one of the bachelors told everyone in very plain language just what he thought of Chase County, then started back to Grand Island, Nebraska. Many who came only stayed for a season and gave up. It took unusual determination to make a life of farming in our area.

One settler's daughter remembered that, in 1894, draught and grasshoppers convinced her father that it was necessary for the family to leave. Her mother persuaded him to try another year. So, they stayed and lived on the same farm until her father died in 1909. The widow and children farmed the land, and it is owned by the same family today.

Many sodbusters probably agreed with the song called Nebraskaland (sung to the tune of " O Tannenbaum "):

Nebraskaland, Nebraskaland, upon thy burning soil I stand.
I look across the desert plains and wonder why it never rains.
But on this soil we’re going to stay,
We’re too damn poor to move away.
Nebraskaland, so fertile and rich, we think you are a...honey.

Sodbusters had to be as tough, determined, and persistent as the buffalo grass --- a grass that held the soil so tightly that new plows had to be invented in order to cut it. Spouses and family members might have described them as "stubborn as mules," but their legacy lives on in those who have inherited their land and spirit.