J. Sterling Morton proposed Arbor Day in 1872, and his own estate became the proof of concept. What started in 1855 as a four-room frame house grew through seven remodelings into a 52-room mansion — later the summer home of his son Joy, founder of Morton Salt. Inside are authentic Morton furnishings, a sun parlor with a Tiffany skylight in a grape-trellis design, and a carriage house with a Brougham once used by President Grover Cleveland.
Outside is the real argument for the visit: 270-plus varieties of trees and shrubs across 72 acres of rolling hills, an Italian terraced rose garden, an orchard planted with heirloom apple varieties, 200 varieties of lilacs, and at least ten state-champion trees, each labeled with engraved bronze plates. The tree trail runs about a mile and a half through the original arboretum Morton planted himself.
The park has been managed by the Arbor Day Foundation since 2014, which feels exactly right. The mansion is typically open daily in spring, summer, and fall, and on winter weekends; the grounds are open year-round. Go in late May for the lilacs, or December when the mansion is dressed for its Christmas tours — Nebraska City runs the whole visit like it’s their family heirloom, which in a sense it is.