If you asked a lot of students around Gretna High what their favorite subject is, there’s a good chance you’ll hear math, art or commonly social studies. From American history and world civilizations to psychology and economics, there’s a lot you can learn. One student’s love for the subject, though, particularly Nebraska History, soars above many others.

Tye Coldiron started loving history from a very young age. His family was involved in the community when he was growing up, which started developing his interest in the past.

“Tye’s grandma, Pat Coldiron, owns a historical Bed and Breakfast and antique store in Seward, Nebraska called The Liberty House. She is also a published historian, and her focus is on Seward County,” Tye’s mother, Monica Coldiron, wrote in an email interview. “His great-grandfather on his dad’s side, James Tietgen, born in 1916 in Wayne, Nebraska, fought in the Battle of (the) Bulge.” This was a major battle between Germany and the allies that was deadly for both sides.

Being surrounded by this love that his family all shared, Coldiron began to truly love history as he grew older and understood more.

“I’ve always had an interest in history and just being able to learn from the past and how that goes and shapes our future and our cultures and how exactly that impacts us as individuals and on a broader scale, how that has shaped our nation and our state,” Coldiron said. “And just, you know, everything that we are is because of what came before.”

As Coldiron grew in his knowledge of history, he chose to focus on Nebraska, particularly the state’s contribution to the Civil War. For this topic, his interest and questions kept on coming. When one question was answered, a new one would arise. Eventually, this led him to write his book titled, “Nebraska’s Citizen Soldiers in the Civil War”.

“The book is about Nebraska’s involvement within the Civil War,” Coldiron said. “It breaks down what units we sent, how many men we sent, where they went, what contributions they gave to our ability to keep the country together and protect the frontier at the same time.”

Coldiron started researching and writing his rough draft of the book the spring of his sophomore year and continued through this past fall, when he self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing Amazon. Many would think that the researching part would be the hardest, finding and recording all of the facts, but according to Coldiron, now a senior, that was the easiest.

“Researching and writing just kinda came naturally to me, and I had connections through multiple museums across the state, so that helped me get through that process,” Coldiron said. “The hardest thing was editing it, just because it takes so long.”

On average, a book usually takes about six to eight months for the developmental editing process to happen, according to Elon University. First, a writer has to reach out to editors and people so they can read their book. Then those editors have to read the book in its entirety and scrutinize it, and tell the author what they think needs to be fixed. After that, the author then has to make the changes to the book and see if it gets approved.

“My brother, who is currently a coach at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, read it,” Coldiron said. “I had some friends who are history teachers in Missouri read it. So just everybody I could get a copy to (read it).”

His book was then published on Sept. 30 last year and is now on Amazon. Since it was published this past fall, the book has been discussed in “Nebraska Life Magazine,” which highlights local works in Nebraska and is a ranked book on Amazon’s best seller list. Through this process, though, Coldiron found a new passion and hobby to get involved in: Civil War reenactment.

“I haven’t ever been to one of his events, but I did ask him to come in. He wore his uniform and kind of explained the process to a couple different classes,” history teacher, Jon Swanson said. “That’s just something as a teacher that I could never do, so to have that was really cool. And he did that for a couple different US history classes I have.”

Coldiron got involved in Civil War reenactment after one of the connections he made through his research process asked him to come to a ceremony going on at the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward. So, he decided to go and check it out and has been involved in this special community ever since.

“We have traveled with Tye as he has attended Civil War reenactments in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and South Dakota. People from all over come to watch historically accurate demonstrations on how soldiers lived and fought during the war,” Monica Coldiron wrote in an email interview.

As the school year comes to an end, Coldiron has one final mission to accomplish before heading off to college. He wants to remember the forgotten and honor the past.

In 1864, Gretna established a militia company of 35 men because there was a threat of a Native American attack, as most of America’s federal troops had been pulled to the South to fight in the Civil War. Gretna then created the group, and they protected the town. They also patrolled the Elkhorn River up from where Forest City sat originally up to Elkhorn and then back. Since they were conjoined with the Omaha unit, none of the Gretna members’ graves are marked as veterans for their service.

“The end goal is I want to get some sort of permanent marker on their gravestones for their service, so that way they can be recognized and memorialized,” Coldiron said. “Something that’ll last longer than me or a piece of paper.”

How do you just go around altering people’s graves, though? What happens if the soldier’s family members say no? With this daunting and complicated task comes the need for a plan that is set in stone.

“I’ve already checked and surveyed most of these graves within the county. They’re all pretty localized around the area, so it’s basically just reaching out to the appropriate organizations, whether it be the VA, the Legion, somebody that has a little bit more resources and has done stuff like this before. This could be like a three, four week process or a three, four month process,” Coldiron said.

Without people like Coldiron keeping this forgotten history fresh in people’s minds, the little known history and niches of Nebraska and the U.S. could forever be lost.

“God really gave me the gift and passion for history, and I really feel like I owe it to these people who came before me, who ensured that I have the ability to live the life that I live, and the experiences I get and that they’re memorialized and that Nebraska citizen soldiers aren’t forgotten,” Coldiron said.

In the end, no matter what happens, Coldiron has left a legacy early on in his life that many can’t say they have. From being a published author to keeping history alive, Coldiron is already making a difference in the world.

“I have a number of students that you see every so often, that like have a passion for teaching, or history, and kinda go down that route,” Swanson said. “To see him find something, that’s pretty exciting as a teacher. You’re always excited to see those students who have that spark and then to follow it through.”