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Nebraska Showcase

Arbor Lodge

One of four rooms in the Mortons' original 1855 home, Arbor Lodge's dining room appears as it might have for Christmas.

Since it began seven years ago, the celebration has grown beyond 12 rooms and now encompasses most of the first two floors. This year, Twelve Rooms of Christmas began Sunday, November 25, and is

A Tiffany skylight with grape wreath design is the centerprice of the mansion's holiday-decorated sun parlor.

open from 1 to 4 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday through December 23. Admission is $3 for adults and $1 for visitors ages 15 and under. A current Nebraska Park Entry Permit is required for vehicles in the park.

Morton's career included four years as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1890s, but his most notable achievement was Arbor Day. This day, set aside for planting trees, was made a legal holiday by the Nebraska Legislature in 1885 and today is celebrated in every state and 12 other countries.

Boatie Ward of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the Mortons' great, great granddaughter, visited the

Boatie Ward walks with her husband and daughters down the mansion's narrow drive.

park last Arbor Day with her family. "[Morton] saw the need for trees and was a naturalist way before that was politically correct. His vision over 100 years ago was pretty mind boggling," she said.

Arbor Lodge State Historical Park occupies 72 acres, part of the Mortons' original claim. The grounds are an urban forest, arboretum and orchard, with 270 varieties of trees and shrubs, many

After a special Arbor Day program, each of hundreds of elementary school children who attend leave with a treat and a tree to plant.

of them planted by the father of Arbor Day and his family. They include at least 10 state-champion trees, the biggest and oldest known examples of their species in Nebraska.

Children on the mansion's north portico watch as visitors pass in a horse-drawn carriage.

Soon after the Mortons moved to Nebraska City in 1855 to take over the Nebraska City News, they built a modest four-room frame house on their 160-acre prairie claim. Those rooms have been nearly engulfed by several subsequent additions, the last completed in 1903. The mansion features Victorian and Empire furnishings, much of which was owned by the Mortons, to showcase the lives of the family. The mansion, and another restored structure, the carriage house, give visitors a glimpse of elegant living a century ago.

About 20 years ago, Arbor Lodge began inviting a few individuals and groups to the park on the four Sundays following Nebraska City's Applejack Festival to demonstrate period crafts and skills, including lace making and cider pressing. Today, Arbor Lodge's living history schedule is a major attraction on fall weekends.

Over the years, many of Arbor Lodge's orchards were taken out - an odd trend in a community so identified with apples. But, about 10 years ago, blossoms bloomed again at the park. Following a plan to restore the grounds and gardens to their former state, park horticulturists planted winesaps - a favorite of the Mortons - near the lodge, and yellow and red delicious, Jonathans, and Jonadels in the arboretum. The trees bore a bounty of fruit for the first time this year.