Dreaming of the Sandhills

Years ago on my first travels across the country — the spring of 1984 to be exact — I entered on the fourth day of the trip an expanse of land in the middle of Nebraska so unearthly, unusual and starkly beautiful that I thought I had driven off the map into some uncharted territory.

What was I doing here? I had researched and planned this encounter months earlier, but I could never have been prepared for what awaited me: a vast expanse of gently undulating, grassy “sand hills” with isolated ranches, cottonwood trees, small pothole lakes with abundant birdlife, and sublime springfed rivers that coursed through this “seemingly” empty terrain as if from some eternal source.

I was mesmerized as I gazed out the window at the big open skies and clouds that reached to the horizon in all directions. I felt small and rather insignificant, a mere passerby, a traveler in awe. Words cannot describe the emotions evoked in me by this landscape that few know about outside Nebraska. Yet, it comprises more than half the land mass of that state.

I dream of returning to this magnificent realm of open space and endless back road highway miles of freedom and escape. Freedom from every last vestige of confining city and suburb.

But the literal landscape is also a threshhold, a portal to inner landscapes of the mind and imagination which these hills opened up to me years ago. Once you have passed through such a portal, you always want to go back. This is the land of the winding Loup rivers, North, Middle and South, the Elkhorn, Niobrara, Dismal, Snake, and Calamus rivers. Small towns and ranching communities. Independent and tough people live out there, for in winter it not uncommon to encounter blizzards and below zero cold temperatures, and biting, desolate winds. In spring and summer, the land is tranformed. Its rivers are canoeable, and their steady flows invite adventurers on journeys through the interior of the state, through little canyons cut into the clay and sandstone. Beautiful, enchanting, empty. Unknown, reachable, inviting. Land of prairie dreams and welcoming blue skies.

Will my vacation trip this year carry me west toward this land of rather unlikely enchantment? I think about it often. Fifteen years have passed since I was last in the Nebraska Sandhills. I can’t wait much longer. Sooner or later.

Sandhills essay

Geography

A photographic tour of the Sandhills region

The beautiful Dismal River

I lived in a little town called Platsmouth, Nebraska when I started school. We lived across the street from the jail, and my dad got arrested for being drunk. He waited until I went out to play and he called to me to tell our mother to come and to bail him out. We had no phone. So, my sister, Pooh Bear and I gathered up our pennies and we walked over to the jail to bail Dad out.

We gave the policeman our jar of pennies and he told us that was the exact amount needed to bail Dad out of jail. What a funny memory. It has stood as a lesson for Sis and I that there are good people on this planet, that try to spare the feelings of little girls, in spite of who their parents are. :O) Love,

“a portal to inner landscapes of the mind and imagination” Isn’t it wonderful how certain places can open these doors. Yes, they do draw you back, time and time gain. I’m intrigued. I’m off to look at your links.

Edelweis

April 14, 2002

While having my first morning break on this first day at school, I should have started with my paperwork that’s on my desk…but instead :o) I was reading this entry, the essay and the geography and looked at the beautiful pictures! When the hills are like this, so green, the landscape reminds me at some areas in Ireland and Scotland. When we find us in such a magnificent world, in solitude,

it truly opens that portal to inner landscapes of the mind and imagination! I would like to be there one day. The river is so beautiful, (very nice pictures) it’s a river that one would want to follow on its journey or just sit close, and watch and listen and breath and think and be ourselves! Thank you for this wonderful contemplative moment on a monday morning! Take care,

Well. After the way you’ve written of the Sandhills, I want to go. And I’m sure, even after reading this, that I can’t quite fathom the desolate beauty of the place. You make me want to hit the road. Damn you. 🙂 Take care.

Thanx for the links 🙂

GeekPoet

April 15, 2002

i’m contemplating a road trip to photograph different parts of the country. i think that’d be fun.

bikeonriver

Enjoyed the picture link..

Soft Paws

April 16, 2002

I lived just outside Omaha when I was just very young, ages seven to nine, and yet, I remember the flat open country at the top of a hill and the deep, deep snow in winter. Nebraska is indeed beautiful. Thank you for the wonderful web sites to look at. Someday, I hope to journey to all the places I lived as a child before we settled here and see them with adults eyes.

I had always thought of Nebraska as the state I would like least to live in. I’m not familiar with the sandhill area at all, and the links did make it look beautiful. I just might reconsider about Nebraska.

April 18, 2002

i really miss our conversations sometimes

forever in motion

April 26, 2002

This is a part of Nebraska I haven’t yet seen, but would like to very much. Perhaps my next time across the country I can include this. As always, I love your descriptions.