John Gneisenau Neihardt (1881-1973), a teacher, philosopher, and Nebraska Poet Laureate, moved to Bancroft in 1900, where he first became acquainted with Indians, married, and began his major work, A Cycle of the West, a five-part epic poem "designed to celebrate the great mood of courage that developed west of the Missouri River in the 19th Century." To preserve Neihardt's one-room study in Bancroft, Evelyn Vogt founded the John G. Neihardt Study Restoration Project in 1965. In 1967 it was incorporated as the John G. Neihardt Foundation to construct a building housing a museum, library, and research facility for preserving Neihardt's works and effects. In 1968 the first Sunday in each August was designated Neihardt Day in Nebraska by gubernatorial proclamation. In 1974 State Senator Blair Richendifer of Walthill introduced L.B. 855 in the Nebraska Legislature, appropriating two hundred thousand dollars to construct the John G. Neihardt Center under the administration of the Nebraska State Historical Society in close cooperation with the Neihardt Foundation. Dedicated August 1, 1976, the center was designed by Clark & Enersen, Hamersky, Schlaebitz, Burroughs & Thomsen, and Larsen & Jipp was the prime contractor.