20 Nebraskaland • June 2021
hen Victoria Springs State
Recreation opened in August
1925, an estimated 4,500 people
attended the celebration. These
days, around 6,000 people visit in an
entire year. It's a quiet little park, which
is exactly why those who visit do so.
Some folks will say the 60-acre
park is in the middle of nowhere. But
that isn't true. I t's only 6 miles off the
beaten path of Nebraska Highway 2 if
you head west from Anselmo.
Others have called it "an oasis in
the Sandhills," but that's not entirely
true, either. The park sits in a narrow
valley alongside Victoria Creek at the
southeastern edge of the Sandhills,
which you will soon fi nd if you drive
north or west. To the south and east are
the rugged central loess hills.
But the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission's second-oldest park is
indeed an oasis. Here you can fi sh
or take a paddleboat ride around the
picturesque 5-acre spring-fed pond,
have lunch in the picnic area shaded
by towering cottonwoods, take a walk
through a prairie, and spend a night in
the campground or one of two rustic
cabins, which just received a facelift.
The area has a rich history. Charles
Mathews, one of the fi rst settlers in
Custer County, staked his claim along
Victoria Creek in 1874. He built two
cabins there, one his home and the
other the county's fi rst post offi ce. That
was the beginning of the town of New
Helena, where Mathews' home would
later become the fi rst general store.
Those cabins stand today, as does the
District No. 2 schoolhouse, completed
in 1889 and used until 1964.
Mathews and his partners also
founded the Victoria Springs Mineral
Co., bottling and selling the mineral
water nationwide for its therapeutic
value. The latter wasn't entirely true,
either, as science would explain, and
the area never became the health
resort some envisioned.
But there is indeed therapeutic value
in Victoria Springs SRA. For some,
peace, quiet and solitude are indeed the
elixir of life.
N
Vi c t o r i a
S p r i n g s
S t a t e
R e c r e a t i o n
A r e a
An Oasis at the Edge of
the Sandhills
Story and photos by Eric Fowler
W
