Comments on: Great, not-so-plain

Great, not-so-plain

dersins — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:43:25 -0800

The Nebraska Sandhills [wiki] make up the largest vegetated sand dune in the Western Hemisphere-- almost 20,000 square miles of rolling dunes covered with prairie grass. The region is sparsely populated-- dotted with tiny towns, and contains the only man-made National Forest in the US and one of the best golf courses in the world. All told, the area's pretty damn photogenic. Just ask NASA.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:45:10 -0800

sorry if this is too travel brochure-y, but there's a lot of pretty pictures to look at.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:52:07 -0800

Ted Turner owns something like 200,000 acres of the sandhills, using it for bison herds.

By: Jody Tresidder

Jody Tresidder — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:53:44 -0800

"sorry if this is too travel brochure-y, but there's a lot of pretty pictures to look at." How could anyone be critical after such a charming disclaimer? The pictures are indeed lovely (even if a bit like the duller bits of New Zealand...).

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:00:40 -0800

And if you want to go a bit north of the Sandhills, you can visit the Ashfall Fossil beds ^. Or on the way out west to the hills, check out the Strategic Air and Space Museum, featuring a few dozen bombers in indoor hangars. was just in Nebraska myself

By: saladin

saladin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:00:43 -0800

Fantastic post, thanks dersins.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:01:23 -0800

And corn. So much damn corn!

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:03:56 -0800

Carhenge is right nearby, too.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:05:36 -0800

And corn. So much damn corn! Not so much corn in the sandhills. It's more cattle country, actually. Most of the corn is in southern Nebraska. It's what you see from the interstate, is why most people think Nebraska's all corn all the time.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:07:53 -0800

Yeah, no corn out west really. But if driving through the eastern part of the state can induce a cornfield psychosis.

By: barchan

barchan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:17:08 -0800

The Nebraska sandhills also host the Loup & Dismal Rivers, beautiful places to canoe, along with boiling sand springs. And unfortunately, recently a fire in the Nebraska National Forest near Chadron burned a great deal of it.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:21:03 -0800

Cool post, dersins. The man-made forest was an experiment by botanist Charles Bessey to see if trees would grow in the fragile soils of the Sand Hills. The Sand Hills were also home to DeWitty, the largest Black township in Nebraska.

By: Fezboy!

Fezboy! — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:26:08 -0800

Carhenge is the most perfectly contrived piece of kitsch in the world. It's so far away from the interstate that only the most dedicated are willing to make the trek. It's the only thing other than Chimney Rock out there. It's not on the way to anywhere. Yet it is so uniquely an American cultural artifact that it should be required viewing. This coming, of course, from a native Nebraskan who finally drove across the state just to see it this summer. As for the Sandhills, they really are kind of magical. The rest of the state is boring and being carved up as a suburban dystopia wherever you find more than a thousand people but the Sandhills will always feel like all the romantic elements of a cattle drive. I'd move out there if only there was anything approaching web or software development work to be had. Thanks for the post.

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:30:39 -0800

Man-made national forest -- who knew? Nice post.

By: rhymer

rhymer — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:31:24 -0800

Esoteric, obscure and very interesting. All told, I'd say that's a pretty exemplary post. Thanks.

By: danb

danb — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:33:31 -0800

Awesome, seriously.

By: barchan

barchan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:33:45 -0800

The Nebraskan sandhills are also not just pretty but are intensely studied as indicators of recent climate changes. There is some evidence they were de-vegetated and moving just 900 years ago, and there is lots and lots of interest in where, exactly, the sand in this area came from. Lots of theories but no clear explanations. Ditto on the post! I love this area.

By: Vervain

Vervain — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:43:16 -0800

Oh, dear god. This is inducing terrible flashbacks of being driven six hours (round-trip) to see the sandhill cranes on a family visit some years back. Very edifying, I'm sure, but really not the sort of thing you want to do when you've spent the entirety of the previous day on a plane. Plus, at the time of year the cranes are migrating, the landscape isn't green and pretty (as seen here) so much as brown and barren. That said, nice post.

By: benk

benk — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:48:49 -0800

I just drove through the sandhills on Highway 2 with my wife on our honeymoon back in June and it is just beautiful. To bad that Interstate 80 goes through some of the most boring parts of the state. The whole Missouri River and Niobrara rivers are amazing. Also the SAC museum is on the complete opposite side of the state: 30 miles from Omaha. But it is awesome!

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:52:16 -0800

sorry if this is too travel brochure-y, but there's a lot of pretty pictures to look at. Sorry? This sort of post is why I love metafilter. Fascinating to me, as a kind of amateur geologist. Well-gathered, sir.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:04:12 -0800

I just drove through the sandhills on Highway 2 Oh, man, I love Highway 2. I should have put it in the post. Duh. The historic museums in Mullen (pop. 550) and Thedford (pop. 180) are really cool, and I don't even like that sort of thing. In Mullen, I had the pleasure of meeting the older gentleman (whose name, embarrassingly enough, I've forgotten) who was instrumental in setting up their museum. He told me that the first time he'd been out of Hooker County was when he served in the Pacific during WWII. In 1955, a decade after he got home from the Pacific, he finally got "the electric on the home place." (This was twenty years AFTER Roosevelt's rural electrification program began.) And I found that just stunning-- a kid from the middle of nowhere, no electricity, never seen a body of water much larger than the Dismal River-- finding himself on a Navy ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:18:37 -0800

Great post, and great story, dersins.

By: camdan

camdan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:22:02 -0800

i am from nebraska. it is boring.

By: diastematic

diastematic — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:35:59 -0800

That golf course looks like fun.

By: MrFongGoesToLunch

MrFongGoesToLunch — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:40:46 -0800

I'm glad the interstate goes through the most boring parts of the state. It 's only the most boring people who travel on it, leaving the treasures of the backroads to those who really love them. The sandhills are beautiful -- I love the wide open spaces and the QUIET. There is a lot of good birding to be done out there and some good geology and history. Great post! Thanks for reminding me how wonderful the Great Plains are.

By: tss

tss — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:26:33 -0800

It seems like everyone I know thinks Nebraska is the I-80 Nebraska, and when they choose to opine obnoxiously on the state's boringness, they get my obnoxious travel guide about the Sandhills and other points away from the Platte River floodplain. I do have to credit my aunt and uncle to opening my eyes. Of course western Nebraska is about the coolest place ever when you're marching around on a butte, looking for Miocene bones with your paleontologist relatives. One of the best things about driving through that part of the US is the little two-finger wave you get from drivers in oncoming cars/trucks. (NB: two fingers.) Maybe Matt "Flyover States" Haughey would be interested in a visit someday.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:48:55 -0800

NB: two fingers Sometimes only one, at least in the sandhills; but always the forefinger, just lifted slightly off the steering wheel, as if to say "yep."

By: Fezboy!

Fezboy! — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:54:24 -0800

According to my pops, who grew up in various locales between Grand Island and the Wyoming border, one finger is "you're heading towards a speed trap" while two is "howdy. everything is clear your way." My dad has always been a one man anti-Snopes though.

By: tss

tss — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:56:08 -0800

Grand Island, meanwhile, is a town with two lies in its name.

By: Fezboy!

Fezboy! — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:05:14 -0800

*snicker* I've heard that one from him ever since I can remember, yet it remains one that elicits a chuckle automatically. It's so funny because it's so damn true! Even moreso since the Platte has been basically bone dry the last few years. The sandbars are covered with vegetation and becoming permanently fixed, eliminating much of the habitat that makes the place such a draw for migrating birds.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:19:32 -0800

As I was reading the links, I was thinking "That looks like a great place to go out and look at the stars." Looks like a lot of other people have had the same idea.

By: hortense

hortense — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:37:02 -0800

Arapaho Indians Arikara Indians Assiniboine Indians Atsina Indians Brule Indians Cheyenne Indians Chipewyan Indians Cree Indians Crow Indians Dakota Indians Hidatsa Indians Kainah Indians Mandan Indians Oglala Indians Osage Indians Oto Indians Piegan Indians Ponca Indians Quapaw Indians Sarsi Indians Siksika Indians Teton Indians Wichita Indians Yanktonai Indians were rather fond of the region also.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:42:16 -0800

Arapaho Indians [snip various and sundry tribes] were rather fond of the region also. Um. Yes.

By: hortense

hortense — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:56:44 -0800

Pawnee Grassland in nearby Colorado.

By: Ostara

Ostara — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:46:51 -0800

I love the Sandhills. They are the epitome of beautiful desolation. Great post.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:52:38 -0800

were rather fond of the region also. Nebraska seems strange like that. Omaha has a bunch of oversized life-like sculptures of American settlers in wagons and bison running around downtown, with plaques on the ground stating the heroics of the settlers discovering the land. Nary a mention of Native Americans. This in a city named after an indigenous tribe. "That looks like a great place to go out and look at the stars." Thought that myself tooling around the NE countryside. Seems that if UNL had more things on its collective mind (think small town Texans have it bad?) than footbal they might've secured a world class observatory somewhere out in the Sandhills.

By: camdan

camdan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:42:06 -0800

Thought that myself tooling around the NE countryside. Seems that if UNL had more things on its collective mind (think small town Texans have it bad?) than footbal they might've secured a world class observatory somewhere out in the Sandhills. go big red!

By: Count Ziggurat

Count Ziggurat — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:55:40 -0800

What a fun post. Thanks!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:22:44 -0800

My favorite thing about Nebraska besides Carhenge which I enjoyed tremendously was seeing the world's largest ball of postage stamps in Boys Town. Nebraska was the last of the continental US states that I visited and I was sorry I hadn't started out there sooner. Despite the sand hills being there, the worlds largest sandhill crane is in North Dakota (self link!). I've been reading the Worst Hard Time this week which I guess everyone in Lincoln Nebraska is reading this year and was just watching the Plow that Broke the Plains. Which is all just a way of saying, great post, and so timely!