Nebraskaland

July 2023 • Nebraskaland 43 trapped in paneled pens on the edge of the riverbottom: The gates were open, but the cows would not go through the deep, fast-moving water to get to them. Allen and his daughter- in-law, Kari, struggled to open the gate of one pen located in only knee-deep water, but its bottom was frozen in mud. He hurried to a shed for a handyman jack and, standing in ice-cold water and with tears in their eyes, they pried the gate out of the mud to free 60 cows. They were left to watch helplessly as 80 head in other pens drowned. By evening, the fl oodwaters had receded, leaving ice, logs, brush and miscellaneous trash scattered across the riverbottom. Along with the debris, a thick layer of "powder sand" coated Allen's previously rich hay meadow. Parked in the bottom, his tractors, a caterpillar, combines and new pickup were ice-dented and waterlogged, mostly ruined. He later salvaged the caterpillar and a couple tractors by fl ushing their engines with oil and making other repairs, but now questions the eff ort. "It cost me $10,000 to fi x one tractor worth $7,500. Does that make sense?" he said. It took his son, Nyal, weeks to pile the logs and trash in the meadow for burning. Allen considers himself lucky that he hadn't built his house on the fl oodplain. His brother-in-law, Kenny Angel, who ran Angels' Straw Bale Saloon located on the fl oodplain just below the dam, lacked Allen's luck and encountered tragedy that night: His house near the saloon was washed away by the fl ood waters, his body never found. Allen said that Angel's pickup, tractors and campers have also never been found, and likely lie buried deep under sand. Recently, he found the toolbox from Angel's pickup on his ranch; it had been exposed by river cutting. A Changed River With Spencer Dam no longer interrupting its fl ow and hijacking its sand load, the lower Niobrara once again functions as a natural, braided prairie stream. The river is now wider with constantly-shifting sandbars, pools, riffl es and runs. The deep, stable holes Allen once fi shed no longer exist. "It's a diff erent river. It changes so fast," he said. In addition, migrating catfi sh, as well as other river fi sh, are now free to keep swimming upstream, and no longer stockpile below the now-breached dam. For Allen, this means that there are fewer catfi sh to catch, but on the fl ip side, those fi shing upstream of the dam have more. Despite the changes to the Niobrara, Allen has few complaints. While he is no longer pulling big cats hand over fi st from his rock-ledge honeyhole, his fi shing is still good overall. Since the dam breached, the main river channel has swung away from the ledge, and the hole is shallower. But Allen still fi shes it. "I'll be there next summer," he said. N Gerry Steinauer is a botanist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. He has been writing and photographing for Nebraskaland Magazine since 1990. An aerial photo captured in June 2019 looking eastward shows Spencer Dam and the U.S. Highway 281 bridge that were both destroyed by the catastrophic March 2019 fl ood. With the dam no longer interrupting its fl ow, the Niobrara River now carries a heavy sand load and has fi lled many of Allen's longtime fi shing holes along his ranch 5 miles downriver. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND

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