GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF NEBRASKA

The United States Congress made Nebraska the thirty-seventh state in 1867. The first official symbol of Nebraska was the state seal created by a law passed in 1867. The seal contains many symbols which stand for important events in the building and growth of Nebraska, like the blacksmith holding the hammer. A steamboat moves up the Missouri River and a railroad train heads toward the Rocky Mountains in the west. The settler's cabin, the sheaves of wheat, and the stalks of growing corn represent agriculture.