History

Dedicated on August 1, 1976, it is located on the property once occupied by Neihardt when he lived and worked in Bancroft, Nebraska. The site consists of the Neihardt Museum, 1890 Historic Study, Sacred Hoop Garden, and “Sharing the Great Vision” bronze sculpture. It is commonly referred to as the Neihardt Center.

In the early 1960s, the house in which Neihardt lived no longer existed; the only structure remaining on the property was a small outbuilding used by Neihardt as a study. In 1965, Bancroft resident Evelyn Vogt founded the John G. Neihardt Study Restoration Project with the purpose of preserving the one-room study building.

In 1967, the Study Restoration Project was incorporated as the John G. Neihardt Foundation, for the purpose of constructing a building to house a museum, library, and research facility to preserve Neihardt's works and effects. In 1974, State Senator Blair Richendifer of Walthill introduced into the Nebraska Legislature L.B. 855 that appropriated the "sum of two hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of constructing the John G. Neihardt Foundation."

The Center was designed by the architectural firm of Clark, Enersen, Hamersky, Schlaebitz, Burroughs & Thomsen. The primary contractor for the construction was Larson & Jipp.