Historically, societies along the Great Plains have organized along watersheds that form backbones to the states that have developed. Nebraska, for example, is the state of the Platte River. Its main cities, from Omaha and Lincoln in the east to Scottsbluff in the west, follow the Platte in part because the Union Pacific’s main line also follows that river course. Kansas, by contrast, is a state divided. The Kansas/Kaw, Solomon, Smoky Hill, and Republican River watersheds gave rise to Kansas