November 2023 • Nebraskaland 23
a smaller channel fl owing north,
covering part of the course it took prior
to 2019. That leaves me to assume the
1918 fl ood caused the river to shift its
fl ows entirely to the north channel,
and also created another cutoff that
remains as an oxbow marsh today.
Boots in the Sand
I set foot in the old river channel
for the fi rst time in May 2021, not
knowing what I would fi nd. Snags and
sand fi lled most of the upper end of the
old channel, which was disconnected
from the river's fl ows. The water that
was trickling down the former course
was, as the case with many Nebraska
rivers, coming from groundwater
below. It began fl owing a few hundred
yards downstream and continued
throughout most of its length, with
small streams connecting deeper pools
next to the former cut bank or scoured
around snags by the fl ood.
In the lower end of the wildlife area,
a backwater had existed for more than
100 years in the river's former course.
Water taking this path during the 2019
fl ood completely reshaped this oxbow,
carving away 100 yards of land from
its north end and leaving massive
cottonwoods sunk in a 10-acre pond
dotted with sandbars surrounded by
deep scour holes, a haven for wood
ducks. Eventually, the river took an
easterly, overland route, leaving the
pond, another cutoff , behind. A row of
ash trees that once stood on the east
bank of the old oxbow now stands
on the west bank of an island in the
middle.
The 2-plus miles of mostly dry
riverbed between was dotted with
snags toppled or deposited by the
fl oodwaters, including a few bur oaks.
Beavers had only begun to get busy,
having built a handful of dams that
I could fi nd no sign of in the aerial
photos I had captured the previous fall.
Their runs were now plainly visible
wherever there was water. Rushes,
grasses, cottonwoods and willows had
begun to sprout from the moist, sandy
bottom of the channel, and shorebirds
were probing the sand for insects.
By the time I returned a month and a
half later, life had exploded. Beavers had
raised the level of their dams and built
more, a theme that would repeat itself
