The Brownville Fine Arts Association will present “George Custer and the Great Plains: History, Landscape, and Legacy” as part of the 2026 season Speakers Series this Saturday, July 18, at the Schoolhouse Art Gallery in Brownville, Nebraska. The program will begin at 10:00 a.m.

In his nine years on the Great Plains, George Armstrong Custer transformed from Civil War hero to a frontier figure, fully immersed in the vast, wild heart of the American West. Custer was sent by the U.S. Army to open the “Great American Desert” for the advent of the transcontinental railroad, but during his time here he explored and hunted the sweeping prairies, climbed the rugged peaks of its mountains, collected and shared its flora, fauna and fossils, and encountered the diverse Native cultures of the Plains.

Humanities Nebraska says, “Jeff Barnes has followed Custer’s nine-year path across the Plains, from 1867 in Nebraska to 1876 in Montana. Using Custer’s trail as his route, Barnes has collected the imagery and the stories to show how the energy, danger, and beauty of the Plains may have influenced Custer and helped shape his complex legacy – and why his story still begs reflection a century and a half after his death at the Little Bighorn.

“Barnes is a former newspaper reporter and editor, trustee with the Nebraska State Historical Society, past chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission, and former marketing director for the Durham Museum. He is the author of “Forts of the Northern Plains,” “The Great Plains Guide to Custer,” and “The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill.”

The program is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by Humanities Nebraska and Brownville Fine Arts Association. The Schoolhouse Art Gallery is located at 427 Main Street in Brownville.