Arbor Day Farm and Arbor Lodge

J. Sterling Morton and his wife Caroline arrived in Nebraska Territory in the 1850s, when the rolling grassland along the Missouri had few trees to break the wind or shade a homestead. A journalist and later the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Morton believed that trees would make the plains healthier, more prosperous, and more livable, and he set about planting them on his own land and urging his neighbors to do the same.

On April 10, 1872, the first Arbor Day was held at Morton's urging through the state board of agriculture, with prizes offered to the counties and individuals who planted the most trees. The response was overwhelming, and within a few years the day had spread to other states. Morton's simple motto, that other holidays repose upon the past while Arbor Day proposes for the future, still captures the spirit of the thing.

The Morton home began as a modest frame house and grew, over decades, into a sprawling Neo-Colonial mansion of fifty-two rooms, complete with a grand terraced staircase, a tiled solarium, and a carriage house full of horse-drawn vehicles. Joy Morton, one of the sons who founded the Morton Salt Company, expanded and endowed the estate, and the family gave it to the state as one of Nebraska's first state parks.

The grounds are as much the attraction as the house. A formal Italian terraced garden, a pine grove, and an arboretum of trees gathered from around the world surround the mansion, many of them planted by the Mortons themselves. Walking the paths, you are essentially walking through one family's living argument that the plains could be made green.

Next door, Arbor Day Farm carries the mission forward in a hands-on way. Its centerpiece is the Tree Adventure, an elevated boardwalk and treehouse that lets you walk out among the branches, look down into the leaf litter, and climb into observation decks set high in the canopy. It is built to make you notice a forest the way a child does.

The farm is also a working orchard. In autumn the apple trees hang heavy, and the barn fills with the smell of cider pressing and pie baking. Preserves, hard cider, and fresh-picked apples come straight off the land here, a taste of the fruit-growing tradition that has defined Nebraska City for well over a century.

Spring is planting season and, fittingly, the time of the Arbor Day observances, when the orchards and gardens flush green and the crowds are light. Summer is warm and leafy, good for the canopy walk and the shaded arboretum trails.

Fall is the signature season here. The apple harvest fills the farm with cider and pie, the arboretum turns gold and scarlet, and the town leans into the AppleJack festival. Winter is quiet, the mansion and the bare trees taking on a still, historical hush above the Missouri River.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.