Nathan Tye is an assistant professor of history at UNK. Tye was born and raised in Kearney, Nebraska. He holds a BA from Creighton University and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have received the James L. Sellers Memorial Award for best article published in the State Historical Association Magazine 2018.

I am an historian at the University of Nebraska-Kearney where I teach courses on Nebraska history, digital and public history, and history of the United States. Raised in Kearney, I’ve maintained a lifelong interest in the history of the community and its inhabitants. Growing up near Kearney’s busy Union Pacific mainline and working after college with homeless populations has infused my scholarly research on hobos.

When I’m not teaching or digging in local archives, I am writing a book on the little known lives of these train hopping workers. He says “The road does not care about you, no matter how much you romanticize or love it.” “There would be a pool of guys coming in on boxcars. You’d hire them on for a couple of days to help with a building project or something. They were the source of casual labor in the state for a long time.” “The road is not kind,” says Nathan Tye.