Andrew Jackson Higgins

The landing craft began as a work boat for the Gulf coast. In 1926 Higgins designed the Eureka, a shallow-draft boat for oil drillers and trappers, with its propeller recessed into a semi-tunnel in the hull and a spoonbill bow that could run onto a bank and back off. Navy and Marine Corps tests in 1938 found it better than the Navy's own design, but men had to climb out over the sides. Shown a picture of a Japanese ramp-bowed boat, Higgins had a mock-up built, and within a month a ramp-bow Eureka was running on Lake Pontchartrain.

What the plaque says

Andrew Jackson Higgins (1886-1952) Andrew Jackson Higgins, designer and manufacturer of World War II landing craft known as "Higgins boats," was born August 28, 1886, at Columbus, Nebraska. His parents were John Gonegle Higgins, a prominent lawyer and judge, and Annie Long O'Connor Higgins. Both parents are buried in Columbus. Higgins attended schools in Omaha and served in the Nebraska National Guard. In 1906 he moved to the South, entering the lumber and shipping business. Higgins's expertise would win him fame in World War II, when Higgins Industries of New Orleans produced more than 20,000 boats. Many were LCVPs (Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel), a key to the success of Allied amphibious invasions, including D-Day on June 6, 1944. Higgins boats were also used in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Higgins died on August 1, 1952, and is buried at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. In 1964 Dwight D. Eisenhower said Higgins was "the man who won the war for us." In 2000 the National D-Day Museum opened in New Orleans, honoring Higgins and the city for their vital contributions to the war effort. Columbus High School Students and Staff Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Genoa U.S. Indian School Museum — 19 mi
  The surviving trades building of a federal boarding school that ran from 1884 to 1934 on the Pawnee Nation's last Nebraska land, where at least 86 children died and the cemetery is still lost.

More markers nearby

• The Villasur Expedition, 1720 — 0.3 mi
• The North Brothers — 0.3 mi
• Agricultural Park — 1.8 mi
• Frank Zybach - Inventor of Center-Pivot Irrigation Machine — 1.8 mi