ODD SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA NORTH OF PLATTE RIVER

FAMOUS SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA

 

This view is near Chadron at the northwest edge of the hills.

 

I had no idea that, as we drove west along the North Platte on #26 and north on #385, we bordered one of the Midwest's most famous areas. The rolling hills look like just another extension of more modest hills and plains. Wrong! The 20,000 acres of Sand Hills in the north of the Platte Valley lie atop the Ogallala Aquifer of 172,000 square miles that provides drinking water and irrigation water to portions of eight adjoining states. No wonder the grass is green in spring.

When I saw the hills in 2015, I realized I had driven through them about 10 years ago on an assignment in Kansas and South Dakota. I had been surprised by the virtual wilderness of grassy hillocks and hills, punctuated by ponds and smallish lakes along the winding road. For many miles I saw nothing but grass and water and wondered about it. Clearly, I had been driving through the Sand Hills.

Perhaps 8,000 years ago the hills were, indeed, sand or alluvial deposits left by receding glaciers and a major drought. The complex terrain was and is wonderful for an array of wild animals but, when farmers looked at it in the 1800s, they found the surface land so shallow that cultivation was not practical. The sand or dust would simply blow away, creating a vast desert.  Late in the 1870s, though, ranchers found it made outstanding grazing land for special animals -- cattle that also became quite wild, roaming the thousands of grassy acres. Large ranches prospered and still do, although fewer.  One can imagine cowboys loping through the tall grass between ponds and lakes that made  roundups challenging.

 

The unusual and specialized lands are thought to be the largest sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere and were designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1984. I am sure the Conestoga wagoneers heading west to the Columbia River avoided them totally.