Small Town along the Way + More (6)

…continuing with our July road trip through Illinois, Missouri and Nebraska.  In this chapter, we find ourselves in north central Nebraska and moving west.

At least at this point in our journey, Johnstown Nebraska was the smallest town we’d visited.  I didn’t intend to stop but as I drove by, this scene down Main Street grabbed my attention.  If this isn’t small town America, I don’t know what is! 

Like most towns along US Hwy 20, the coming of the railroad caused Johnstown to be settled in 1883.  The town was named after the man who owned the site at the time…John Berry.  At its height in 1920, the village had a population of 290 residents.  Today, the estimate is 61.

A made for TV movie for the Hallmark Channel was filmed here in 1992.  Its name was “O Pioneers”, and it starred my well known Hollywood actors.  They included Jessica Lange, David Stratham, Anne Heche and Heather Graham.  It was all about the struggles of a Swedish family of immigrants around the beginning of the 20^th century.

FYI, there is a place to grab a beverage and get something to eat in Johnstown.  We were too early to partake but I love the photos of the interior of the L Bow Room Saloon.  That’s the tan building by the American flag at the right of the photo.  You can check it out at   https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Bar/L-Bow-Room-173171246945/.

This group of adjoining buildings actually are an ongoing business…a store…but definitely not your typical retail store!  Sandhills Sage specializes in re-purposed and up-cycled furniture and home décor. (What?  How?  In a town of 61 people?  Heck, the whole county has less than 3,000 resident!)

They are all about rehabbing old pieces and making them work again.  The store is only open 4 times a year…spring, summer, fall and winter…and then just for a couple of weekends at a time.  The pieces are unique and the owner and her partners avoid sameness.  Consequently, the items on display are different every time people come to visit.  On those weekends when the store is open, Main Street in Johnstown is packed with vehicles and visitors!  To learn more about this unusual store as well as to view a range of photos, go to: https://www.facebook.com/Sandhills-Sage-125181087591106/.  

Along with the buildings, those wooden sidewalks and hitching posts were featured in that aforementioned Hallmark TV movie, “O Pioneers”.  The movie was based on a book of the same name written by Willa Cather.  Willa had spent her formative years in Nebraska and she became known for her novels of life on the Great Plains.  Other books included “The Song of the Lark” and “My Antonia”.  In 1923, Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for “One of Ours”, a novel set during World War I.

On to the city of Valentine in Cherry County Nebraska where we were staying overnight…  After checking in to our hotel, we were off again for a bit of local exploration.  Our first stop was a state fish hatchery but there wasn’t much to see…wrong time of the year…so we moved on. 

Our next stop was the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge.  Naturally, that didn’t start well either.  The Refuge office and visitor’s center was closed due to Covid-19 concerns.  So we had to wander off on our own and hope for the best… Bummer!

The Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge is fairly expansive, covering 19,131 acres.  It borders the Niobrara National Scenic River on the west.  The river has eroded into the limestone, creating cliffs and a varied topography…unusual in what you can see in this photo is an otherwise featureless view of the Great Plains. 

From 1879 until 1906 the Fort Niobrara Military Reservation occupied this land and housed a garrison of the U.S. Cavalry.  Fort Niobrara was constructed after the Great Sioux War of1876.  It was part of a military strategy to surround and contain the bands of Lakota people on their reservation lands.  The garrison’s specific mission was to oversee Chief Spotted Tail’s band of about 8,000 Brule Lakota at the nearby Rosebud Agency.  When the garrison was disbanded, an effort was initiated to preserve the former military reservation as a wildlife refuge.  That effort resulted in the creation of the refuge in 1912.

The website for the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge can be found at Home - Fort Niobrara - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (fws.gov).

When we came to this narrow bridge over the Niobrara River, we realized that somehow we must have taken the wrong turn on one of the roads winding through the wildlife refuge.  Consequently, we didn’t see any of the numerous species of wildlife that are reputed to live here.  We didn’t see any Buffalo or any of the elk (wapiti) that allegedly roam the area…

As it turned out, this is the Berry State Aid Bridge.  This historic Pratt through truss bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Less than a month before we drove across this bridge, it had celebrated its 100^th birthday.

We stopped on the bridge to take a photo of a number of folks tubing down the Niobrara River.  The river, called the “Ni Ubthatha khe” by the Omaha-Ponca Native Americans, literally means “water spread-out horizontal-the” or “The Wide-Spreading Water”.  It is a tributary of the Missouri River and I was impressed to learn that this stream stretches for about 568 miles.

There are several campgrounds along the river that provide opportunities for tubers… In addition, Smith Falls State Park is located just a bit further east.  It features a 63 foot tall waterfall, which is the highest waterfall in the state of Nebraska.  The park offers picnicking facilities, hiking, tent camping, canoeing and fishing and it is very popular in the summer months.  Website: Smith Falls State Park - Nebraska Game and ParksNebraska Game and Parks | (outdoornebraska.gov).

Once we crossed the Niobrara River via the Berry Bridge, we drove along back roads until we came to NE Hwy 12, which is called the “Outlaw Trail Scenic Byway”.  Website: Nebraska Outlaw Trail Scenic Byway Hwy 12. 

We headed west on NE Hwy 12 toward Valentine but we had to stop suddenly when Laurie spotted this herd of buffalo north of the highway.  She took a few photos but they weren’t close to the road.  Apparently they were someone’s private herd as the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge is located south of the Outlaw Scenic Byway.  At least we saw some buffalo!

As a scenic highway it was only natural that there was a scenic overlook along the way.  These impressiveviews from the bluffs just south off of NE Hwy 72 overlook the Niobrara River valley.  It should be noted that a 76-mile stretch of the river, stretching from the town of Valentine east to NE Hwy 137, has been designated as the Niobrara National Scenic River.

For some great photos of this National Scenic River, just go to niobrara national scenic riverway - Bing images.

But wait!!  All is not lost!  This is proof that the Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge is the home to buffalo!  These are genuine buffalo patties so apparently they wander around the scenic overlook from time to time.  Then Laurie took the photo of the wildflowers to offset the buffalo ‘sign’ that we’d just spotted.

Buffalo can jump almost 6 feet vertically and they can run between 35 and 40 miles an hour if agitated.  They are difficult to confine as they can easily escape of destroy most fencing systems.  About 500,000 buffalo, aka bison, currently exist on private lands and another 30,000 are located on environmental and government lands.  Roughly 15,000 bison are considered wild…free-range not primarily confined by fencing. 

Before 1800, it is estimated that there were 60,000,000 buffalo in North America.  By 1830, due to hunting, that number had declined to 40,000,000 and my 1900 there were only 300 left in the USA.

We needed gas and I’d learned that South Dakota was just about 12 miles north of Valentine Nebraska.  I’d also noted that the price of gas just over the state line at the Rosebud Casino was significantly lower than in Nebraska.  Plus, the extra drive gave me an excuse to ‘touch’ yet another state on our trip.  FYI, the price of gas at the casino as of 10/4/21 is $2.82 per gallon for regular gas. 

The Rosebud Casino, which is located on US Hwy 83, also features a convenience store with the gas station.  The casino is located on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.  It is the home of the Upper Brule Sioux Nation and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe…a branch of the Lakota people.  The reservation used to be much larger before encroachments by white settlers and ranchers.  Today it covers 1,970,362 acres of mostly arid land.  To learn more about the reservation and the Native Americans that live there, just go to Rosebud Indian Reservation - Wikipedia.

FYI…While I do like playing the slot machines, doing so would have defeated the drive north for cheaper gas, so we gassed up and headed back to Valentine for dinner and our hotel.  For more information about the casino, go to Rosebud Casino.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave