Throwback Thursday: Allwine Farm

We'll share a vintage University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) photo each Thursday on our homepage as part of the popular "Throwback Thursday."

Check back each week for a photo celebrating UNO's history, and to learn more about what's happening on campus and in our community, and future plans for the university.

This week's Throwback Thursday photo features a photo of students at the Allwine Farm (now known as the Allwine Prairie Preserve) in the fall of 1960.

On November 17, 1959, regents announced that Antoinette K. and Arthur A. Allwine deeded their 160-acre farm to the university, located northwest of Omaha near Bennington.

Last year marked the culmination of a year-long project to turn a donated barn and silo on the property into a first-class research facilty for UNO's Department of Biology.

In early 2012, the former 19th-century family farm buildings were moved to Glacier Creek, which is part of the Allwine Prairie Preserve. Flash foward to September 2013 when the barn was dedicated as UNO's newest research space, to be used for research including plant and animal surveys; the effects of burning and mowing on plant communities like insects and small mammals; physiological and feeding behavior of certain bird species; and the effects of restoration on soil.

The barn previously belonged to the family of Barbi Hayes, whose great-grandfather built barn in the 1870s. Hayes was also instrumental in funding the refurbishing of the barn into a state-of-the-art research center.

The Glacier Creek Preserve is a 320-acre space dominated by restored tallgrass prairie, stream woodlands and seep habitats. The space is a collection of three previously distinct land tracts: The Allwine Prarie Preserve, a 160 acre tract donated to UNO by Arthur and Anoinette Allwine in 1959; the Papio tract, an 83 acre tract donated in 2010; and the North Viewshed tract, a 76 acre tract purchased in 2013 with the help of Barbi Hayes, the Nebraska Environmental Trust, and the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District.

The Farm

The barn at the farm in 1960

The barn today at the Glacier Creek Preserve

Research or classes at the Farm

A class at the farm in 1960

Students in Merle Brooks' class in 1963

Aim for the Stars students in 2014