Chadron State College

map

Chadron State College is part of the Nebraska State College System and is the organization’s youngest member, having been founded as the Nebraska Normal School in 1911. The Legislature changed its name to the Nebraska State Teachers College in 1921, and in 1964 it finally became known as Chadron State College. CSC offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in more than 50 disciplines and offers a student-faculty ration of 17-1. The Eagles compete in NCAA Division II in 13 sports. It is the only four-year college in western Nebraska.

Chadron State College uses woodchips from the region’s Nebraska National Forest to heat and cool most of the buildings on campus. The college receives several truckloads of chips each day, which are burned to produce heat for the campus boiler system. The process helps keep the local forest healthy and prevent forest fires while saving the college thousands of dollars each month in energy costs.

In addition to athletic competitions, residents of and visitors to the area can take in musical performances, art shows and theatrical productions. To see what’s happening on campus, visit https://www.csc.edu/news/events.csc.

Our Chadron State College walking tour features four themes: Nebraska 1% For Art, National Register of Historic Places, Other Points of Interest and the Horseshoe Scavenger Hunt. Complete one theme or all four! The accompanying Google Map (link above) will guide you on your walking tour, and you can select which themes you want visible.

Nebraska 1% For Art Collection, Nebraska Arts Council

Chadron State College is home to 44 pieces of the Nebraska 1% For Art Collection. The program, instituted in 1978, requires that 1% of the cost of state-funded construction projects be dedicated to commissioning works of public art. Since its inception, more than $5 million in artwork has been acquired for state buildings, state colleges and the University of Nebraska system. The public art must be displayed in buildings that allow public access, and an art selection committee is established for each project. For more information on the 1% program, or to learn about the individual artists, visit https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/nebraskapublicart.

Chadron State College’s 1% collection is distributed throughout campus and can be viewed at Miller Hall, the Nelson Physical Activity Center, Memorial Hall, Old Admin, Sparks Hall, Burkhiser Building, the Chicoine Center and the Rangeland Complex. However, please note that CSC periodically relocates the artwork for re-hanging, re-framing or cleaning.

The collection includes the following pieces of artwork:

Memorial Hall

                First-Floor Lobby

  • Students with Bell Tower: Added to the collection in 2004, this painting by Audrey Towater is located in the first-floor lobby. Inspired by the CSC clock tower, it features the tower with students underneath it.
  • The Wacipi is Good Medicine: Added to the collection in 2004, this 22”x56” painting by Chadron artist Don Ruleaux is located in the first-floor lobby and depicts the traditional Native American Wacipi with six dancers.
  • Goitrei: Added to the collection in 2004, this 31.5”x23.5” painting by Adrian Paui is located in the first-floor lobby. A humanoid figure and pig are shown in a gray fog.
  • Contemporan: Added to the collection in 2004, this 29.5”x45.5” painting by Katy Cata is located in the first-floor lobby gallery. Four lightly-dressed women in warm-toned colors are featured.
  • Taos Flowers: Added to the collection in 2004, this 33”x42.5” example of printmaking by R.C. Gorman is located in the first-floor lobby gallery, just up the east stairway and shows a woman kneeling on the ground with picked, scattered flowers.

                Gallery 239 (second-floor)

  • CSC Football Game: Added to the collection in 2004, this 24”x48” painting by Audrey Towater is located in the theater gallery and celebrates a touchdown by the Chadron Eagles.
  • Bear Valley: Added to the collection in 2004, this 18”x24” example of printmaking by Frank Nichols is located in the theater gallery. The etching features a rocky barren mountain range in brown tones.
  • Well: Added to the collection in 2004, this 24”x18” example of printmaking by Frank Nichols is a hand-colored etching in black/grey and red/orange tones.
  • Chicago: Added to the collection in 2004, this 18”x23.5” example of printmaking by Frank Nichols is located in the theater gallery. The etching features furniture stacked in a way that makes it appear there is a mountain of it.
  • Flint Hills Stream: Added to the collection in 2004, this 18”x24” example of printmaking by Frank Nichols is located in the theater gallery and features a river, rocks and trees.
  • Untitled Landscape: Added to the collection in 2004, this oil painting by Frank Colbron is located in the theater gallery and depicts a desert-like landscape to snowy mountains.
  • Immediate Jewel IV: Added to the collection in 2004, this 25.5”x16.75” painting by Ed Ward is located in the theater gallery and depicts several men in conversation.

*NOTE: Memorial Hall typically has an art show on display in its Main Gallery during the academic year, and has other pieces on display year-round so be sure to wander throughout the building.

Nelson Physical Activity Center

                First-Floor

  • Eagle IV: Added to the collection in 1988, this 6’6” bronze sculpture with a 7’ granite base by Richard Reinhardt is located in the entrance to the building. Mounted on marble, it is at eye level, and it appears the eagle is about to land or take off.
  • Crow and Red Cloud Buttes, Crawford Area: Added to the collection in 1988, this 18”x46” cold cast bronze mounted in stone is one of four bas relief plaques by Richard Reinhardt. All four are located on the first-floor just outside the entrance to the indoor track.
  • Chadron State College, circa 1989: Added to the collection in 1988, this 18”x46” cold cast bronze mounted in stone is one of four bas relief plaques by Richard Reinhardt. All four are located on the first-floor just outside the entrance to the indoor track.
  • Chimney Rock, Bayard Area: Added to the collection in 1988, this 18”x46” cold cast bronze mounted in stone is one of four bas relief plaques by Richard Reinhardt. All four are located on the first-floor just outside the entrance to the indoor track.
  • Scottsbluff National Monument: Added to the collection in 1988, this 18”x46” cold cast bronze mounted in stone is one of four bas relief plaques by Richard Reinhardt. All four are located on the first-floor just outside the entrance to the indoor track.

Second-Floor

  • Up-Rooted: Added to the collection in 1988, this 39.5”x29” watercolor on paper by Don Dernovich is located on the second-floor lounge area. Raised in Wyoming and living in Nebraska, Dernovich says he feels that his art is successful if it says “something about the beauty we have on this earth or the people who inhabit it.”
  • Unknown: Added to the collection in 1988, this 40”x30” oil on canvas by Chadron State College graduate Scott Christensen is located in the second-floor hallway and depicts a cloud-filled sky over the rocky buttes.

Miller Hall

                First-Floor

  • Ashland 59: Added to the collection in 2002, this three-piece 2D Monotype/Relief by Tom Majeski is located in the first-floor hallway. The piece features slash-like marks made of red and black and patterns on a piece of glass.
  • Ashland 70: Added to the collection in 2002, this two-piece mixed media installation by Tom Majeski is located in the first-floor hallway. The pieces are 12”x28” and 19”x31” and feature slash-like marks of blues, oranges and patterns on glass.
  • Ashland 77: Added to the collection in 2002, this 20”x51” mixed media installation by Tom Majeski is located in the first-floor hallway and continues Majeski’s slash-mark look, this time in blues, oranges, purples and patterns on glass.
  • Ashland 98: Added to the collection in 2002, this 26”x52” mixed media installation by Tom Majeski is located in the first-floor hallway and uses blues, oranges and patterns on glass.

Second-Floor

  • Bright Lights VI: Added to the collection in 2002, this 24”x36” oil painting by Pat Mahan is located in the second-floor hallway and is done in blue and purple tones to depict a landscape of tall grasses and trees next to a stream.
  • Dappled Daylights: Added to the collection in 2002, this 29”x39” oil painting by Pat Mahan is located in the second-floor hallway and showcases a yellow-toned landscape of grass, a stream and mountain peaks.
  • Red Willow Rise: Added to the collection in 2002, this 23”x47” oil painting by Pat Mahan is located in the second-floor hallway. It features a red-tinted landscape of tall grasses and a stream.
  • A Sky to Remember: Added to the collection in 2002, this 21”x29” oil painting by Pat Mahan is located in the second-floor hallway. It showcases a sunset over the rolling hills.

Third-floor

  • Untitled (Train Station): Added to the collection in 2002, this 47”x95” watercolor by Nancy Jellico is located in the third-floor hallway and depicts a train pulling into the station.
  • Untitled (Wagon Train): Added to the collection in 2002, this 47”x95” painting by Nancy Jellico is located in the third-floor hallway and depicts several wagons traveling across the rolling hills.
  • Untitled (Trappers): Added to the collection in 2002, this 47”x95” painting by Nancy Jellico is located in the third-floor hallway and depicts a trapper on horseback headed toward a tipi.
  • Untitled (Buffalo): Added to the collection in 2002, this 47”x95” painting by Nancy Jellico is located in the third-floor hallway and depicts a herd of buffalo in the yellow prairie grass.

Old Admin & Sparks Hall

  • The Muses: Added to the collection in 2011, this 7’x8’ sculpture by David Clark is located in the plaza between Sparks Hall and Old Admin. The statue features three figures, two males and one female, holding hands and leaning outward away from each other.
  • Warriors Wandering: Added to the collection in 2004, this 23.25”x31.25” painting by Earl Biss is located in Sparks Hall, Room 111. Raised on the Crow Agency, Biss said his work embodied the energy found within nature.

Chicoine Center

  • Heart and Soul: Added to the collection in 2019, this stainless steel, COR-TEN and steel sculpture by Karen Yank is located in the Chicoine Center plaza. It reflects the elements of prairie grasses of the great Plains while highlight the big sky and open vistas of Northwest Nebraska.

Burkhiser Technology Building

                First-Floor

  • Prairie Quartet: Added to the collection in 2004, this series of four drawings, all 6.25” high, was done by Chadron artist Kit Watson. The pieces are, from left, 10”, 2” 4.75” and 7” wide and are located in Room 117, the first-floor office complex. Placed next to each other, the images combine to depict a view of massive clouds over a dark landscape.
  • Road to Monarada: Added to the collection in 2004, this 19.25”x25.25” drawing by Crawford artist Mary Louise Tejada Brown in Room 117, the first-floor office complex, and showcases a small valley of purple wildflowers.
  • Trout Pond: Added to the collection in 2004, this 19.25”x25.25” drawing by Crawford artist Mary Louise Tejada Brown is located in Room 160. The trout pond featured in the painting is surrounded by tall grasses, broken fencing and trees.

Second-Floor

  • Lakota Legacy Lives: Added to the collection in 2004, this three-piece collection of 21”x11.5” paintings by Chadron artist Don Ruleaux is located in room 226. It includes three sections, each with a Lakota dancer.
  • Reflections: Added to the collection in 2004, this 20”x15” painting by Chadron artist Don Ruleaux is located in the second-floor office complex. It is a vivid watercolor in which a vase’s reflection appears to turn into a massive circle with a rose and buffalo stampede.
  • Red Sky at Twilight: Added to the collection in 2004, this 24”x36” drawing by Chadron artist Kit Watson is located in Room 200. A blue and red sunset fills the sky over rolling hills.
  • Enter the Night: Added to the collection in 2004, this 24”x36” drawing by Chadron artist Kit Watson is located in Room 202 and depicts a sunset with clouds in blues and yellows.
  • The Drinking Fountain: Added to the collection in 2004, this 20.5”x27” drawing by Chadron artist Kit Watson is located in the second-floor student lounge. The painting shows a young girl drinking from a water fountain in front of a barn.

Rangeland Complex

  • You Feel Like Waving: Added to the collection in 2018, this beaded sculpture by Krista Birnbaum is located in the Rangeland Center above the stairwell. The sculpture represents a root system suspended from the ceiling with a block of wood as a base and spirals of brass wire, wood and stone beads.

NOTE: The Rangeland Complex also includes a number of full-body and shoulder animal mounts donated to the college’s wildlife management program by Cabela’s several years ago. The 65-piece collection includes several full-bodied mounts of animals such as moose, elk, mountain lion, caribou, grizzly and zebra, as well as several smaller mounts. The mounts are available for viewing when the building is open. Several of the mounts are in common areas of the Rangeland Complex, including full-body mounts of an arctic wolf, black bear, grizzly bear, cougar, coyote, bobcat, lynx and river otter. Other mounts are located in the classrooms and conference rooms and are available for viewing if the rooms are open and not in use.

National Register of Historic Places

There are five campus buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. All five were nominated for the National Register in 1983 in a joint application to recognize the educational contribution of the college as the primary institution in the western half of Nebraska. The buildings are from the college’s first 27 years and have survived without extensive external renovation. As a thematic group they represent architectural styles ranging from Prairie School and Classicism to Art Deco. They are:

  • Sparks Hall: Originally a Women’s Dormitory, Sparks Hall is a two-story wood frame building with red brick veneer designed by architect Alfred Woods of Lincoln and built in 1914. It was the second building constructed on campus and was named Sparks Hall in the 1930s after the college’s first president, Joseph Sparks. It is a “simplified, vernacular product of a Georgian Revival form with Prairie School details,” according to the National Register application. It features the rectangular plan with symmetrical façade, a hipped roof, a projecting central portion and double-hung windows of the Georgian Revival. The Prairie School influences include the broad eaves and ornate brackets on the roof, dormers and porch, as well as the stone water-table and stringcourse.
  • Miller Hall: Originally a gymnasium, Miller Hall was constructed in 1920. Three stories with two-story side wings, the building was constructed with stone door surrounds with stylized pediments and paired windows, along with rectangular brickwork with white stone corner blocks between the floors, all Classical influences. J.C. Stitt of Norfolk was the architect, and Miller Hall was the third building constructed on campus. It was the first gymnasium in western Nebraska. “In its early years, the gym was the only building in western Nebraska devoted exclusively to a physical education program. Basketball tournaments were held to accommodate area high school teams. It served as a community building where many functions were held, such as conventions, meetings, celebrations, produce shows, poultry shows, and a circus, complete with an elephant,” reads the National Register application. An indoor swimming pool was also a “delightful luxury.”
  • Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center: Originally constructed as the campus library, the original portion of the Sandoz Center was also designed by architect Stitt, following typical recommendations by librarians and the Carnegie Corporation. The one-story construction features a raised basement with a centered extension in front, hipped tile roof with hipped extensions and a front entrance flanked by Doric columns topped with pediments. Built in 1929 in the Classical style, it served as the campus library until 1966. The Chicoine Atrium was added to the building later.
  • Edna Work Hall: Built in 1932, Edna Work Hall is named after Edna Work, who served as Dean of Women from 1916 to 1947. With a five-part front façade and projecting end and center pavilioins, the building also features a gabled parapet, a 1932 plaque and a stone-entrance. Done in the Art Deco style, it was designed by Arthur Baker of Grand Island and also features a rear addition constructed in 1960. The building’s P.W.A. style was once described as stripped Classicism with Art Deco details.
  • Crites Hall: This P.W.A. Art Deco building was originally constructed as the campus’ first dormitory for men. It was named after Chadron attorney Edwin Crites, who served on the State Normal Board for more than 20 years. Crites Hall was constructed in 1938 with three stories and a raised basement, as well as a five-part front façade with a projecting center and end pavilions. Paired windows were included, as were fluted pilasters topped by palmettes and reticulated brickwork in the parapet. Gordon Shattuck of Grand Island served as architect on the project.

Other Points of Interest

There are several other places of interest to explore on the Chadron State College campus.

  • Chadron State College Arboretum: The campus at CSC is an affiliate site of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and a landscape steward. The plantings on the 281 acres of campus include native or well-adapted plants meant to beautify the grounds, create teaching collections and provide environmental benefits ranging from shade and wildlife habitat to water management. The Sandhills plant collection in the Heritage Gardens near the Mari Sandoz Center features Sandhills soil and plants that grow around Sandoz’s grave in neighboring Sheridan County.

Woody plants native to the Pine Ridge throughout campus offer shade to students and buildings, and teaching opportunities to botany, taxonomy and history classes. A pollinating garden attracts butterflies, bees and flies.

  • Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center & Heritage Gardens: Located in the former Carnegie-style library, the Sandoz Center is dedicated to the collection of Mari Sandoz exhibits and archives, on loan from the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society. The center features a permanent exhibit on the author, and an adjacent gallery features rotating exhibits throughout the year. The adjoining Chicoine Atrium is the site for additional exhibits, meetings, social events, seminars and workshops. The Sandoz Center provides educational activities for local students and cultural events for the public. Surrounding the Sandoz Center are the heritage gardens, featuring a statue of Mari Sandoz, and a nearby hiking-biking heritage trail through the Thompson Natural History Preserve.

On the lower level is the C.F. Coffee Gallery, dedicated to the cattle and ranching industry, and a selection of photographs from the Graves Collection. The photos were taken in the early 1900s using glass plates that were discovered behind a false wall in a downtown Chadron building when it was demolished in the 1970s.

  • Eleanor Barbour Cook Museum of Geology: This was CSC’s first museum, conceived in 1938. College President Robert Elliott, paleontologist E.H. Barbour of Lincoln and his daughter Eleanor Barbour Cook, CSC’s first geology professor, established the collection with specimens from around the world. Originally a natural history museum, the collection contained fossils of more than 1200 vertebrate and invertebrate animals, 700 minerals, nearly 300 shells and corals, and more than 120 mounted birds and mammals.

Unfortunately, in the 1940s, the museum was left unsupervised and much of the collection was lost, with only about 14% of the specimens still remaining. Later CSC faculty members, including Larry Agenbroad, Eric Gustafson and Darryl Tharalson, worked to reinvigorate the collection, which now includes vertebrate fossils, minerals and rocks from the Black Hills pegmatite mines, meteorites, agates and rock-forming minerals from around the world. Located in the recently renovated Math & Science Building.

  • High Plains Herbarium: The second largest herbarium in the state, the High Plains Herbarium was founded in the 1960s and is a repository for plants from the Nebraska Panhandle, as well as those of southeastern Wyoming, southwestern South Dakota, and the entirety of Nebraska and Kansas. The herbarium also has the largest digital database, with vascular plant data accessible via the Consortium of Northern Great Plains Herbaria portal (https://ngpherbaria.org/portal/index.php) and accessioned bryophyte data at the Consortium of Northern Bryophyte Herbaria portal (https://bryophyteportal.org/portal/index.php).

Located in the recently renovated Math & Science Building, arrangements can be made to view the collections by appointment by emailing srolfsmeier@csc.edu or calling 308-432-6385. 

  • Dr. Lois Veath Planetarium at CSC: Though the CSC Planetarium is located in the recently renovated Math & Science building and features a Spitz Digital Planetarium with a wide variety of astronomy and Earth science shows. It is typically open for groups of 5-35 by appointment during the academic year (reservations must be made at least one week in advance).  Monthly “Free Fridays” are also open to the public on a first-come-first-serve basis. For more information on the planetarium, email Tawny Tibbits at ttibbits@csc.edu, call 308-432-6483 or visit https://www.csc.edu/academics/sci/planetarium/.
  • Briggs Pond: The Harold and Laverne Thompson Natural History Preserve was established in 1974. It includes 40 acres crisscrossed by trails around Briggs Pond on the western end of the 281-acre CSC campus.
  • C-Hill: The hill that overlooks the Chadron State College campus from the south is dubbed C-Hill thanks to the large concrete “C” commissioned by the classes of 1923 and 1924. Trigonometry students marked out the 80×24-foot “C” on what had been known as Academy Hill, and after the concrete was poured, it was painted white. Several trails provide hiking opportunities, and a climb up C-Hill provides a bird’s-eye view of the campus and down Chadron’s Main Street.
  • Labyrinth: Labyrinths have been well-documented throughout history. CSC’s labyrinth is a recent addition to campus, built through student and staff volunteer efforts in an abandoned water cistern used by the City of Chadron in the early 1900s. Whether you view it as a piece of land art, a quiet walk in native grasses, the ideal spot for a panoramic view or a place to refocus your mind and reduce your stress, the labyrinth is a unique spot.

 

Horseshoe Scavenger Hunt

  • If you look closely while you are wandering the campus, you’ll find four horseshoes. Three are embedded in the sidewalks – one near Memorial Hall, one near the north entrance of the Student Center and one between the Student Center and Kent Hall – while the fourth is worked into the carpet of the Sandoz Center.

***All of the Nebraska 1% For Art photos on the accompanying Google Map are courtesy of the Nebraska 1% For Art Collection, Nebraska Arts Council. Be advised, the paintings are sometimes moved or relocated so this list may not be completely accurate.