Nebraskaland

say it was discovered state law didn't allow it. Instead, he lies in his family's plot in the Fairbury cemetery. That was the plan all along, according to other accounts. The tomb "was never intended to be a tomb but simply a hobby," W.F. Cramb, editor of the Fairbury Journal, wrote in a postscript to McDowell's obituary a week after his death. "It was all in accord with the waggish nature of Nels McDowell. Its real purpose was to keep him in good health as he had been threatened, in the early days of manhood, with TB and realized that an outdoor life was what he needed." McDowell's prescription apparently worked. "At the time of the accident Rose Creek WMA McDowell's Tomb is on Rose Creek Wildlife Management Area on 566th Avenue, 1 1 ⁄2 miles south of Highway 8 southwest of Fairbury. The 384-acre area includes a mix of oak woodlands and savannahs, native tallgrass prairie and former farm ground now maintained as food plots. It is popular among deer, turkey and quail hunters. Trees and brush growing along two abandoned railroad lines add to its diversity. So does its namesake, Rose Creek, which winds for 1.3 miles through the area and is "a great catfishing creek," said Brad Seitz, who manages the area for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Seitz initially thought the historical value of the mausoleum might preclude the land being acquired by Game and Parks when the agency was considering its purchase. "Another way I thought was it would be great if the state got it," Seitz said. "Maybe we aren't going to do anything special, but at least we've got it in public domain and people can come see it." The Nebraska State Historical Society determined the tomb, while unique, did not meet the National Park Service's requirements to be included on the National Register of Historic Places, and the acquisition was completed. Seitz said he's sometimes surprised at the number of people who visit the mausoleum, including a few that camp in it. Generally, they leave it alone and clean up after themselves. But vandals continue to carve their names in the rock. Graffiti covers nearly every inch of the tomb and the rocks around it as high as a person can reach, and even higher, suggesting some folks must have hauled ladders to reach a clean slate. Some of the oldest etchings have certainly been covered by new ones. The oldest legible date I could find is 1933. The newest: 2021. Scofflaws have also used inscriptions created by a Fairbury tombstone carver as target practice. The Mausoleum inscription above the door remains intact. Lookout Mountain is riddled with bullet holes. Another carving is illegible. Three others known to have existed cannot be found. The bigger threat to the tomb is erosion from Rose Creek, which continues to carve away at the bank below it, and the trail leading to it, taking a large swath of soil and toppling several trees during flooding in 2019. No trails are maintained on the wildlife area, but there are two primitive paths that lead to it. From the parking lot, follow a two-track maintenance road for a quarter mile and take another right on a less-traveled road. From this junction, it is just 250 yards to the tomb, but the last 80 yards require traversing a steep slope and climbing several eroded banks. The second option is to follow the road 650 yards south of the parking lot and head west before you reach the pond. A faint trail will lead you up a hill, across the ridgetop prairie and back down through the woodland, winding back east to the tomb. 26 Nebraskaland • December 2021

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