Nebraskaland

20 Nebraskaland • November 2023 A River Used to Run Through It Red Wing Wildlife Management Area ams, diversions and development have changed many rivers in Nebraska. The Elkhorn River is not one of them. It still winds its way through the northeastern Nebraska countryside, its channel slowly shifting course from year to year. During fl oods, those shifts can be drastic. That is what happened sometime early in the 20th century at what would, in 1977, become Red Wing Wildlife Management Area between Clearwater and Neligh. Where the Elkhorn had taken a right turn and headed south, it took a hard left and headed north, soon turning east and eventually rejoining the main course more than a mile downstream. During the most recent fl ood in 2019, the Elkhorn changed its mind and jumped back into the channel it had abandoned a century ago. What it left behind has become a haven for wildlife, especially beaver, and a mosaic of plant species sprouting from the sand where the river once ran. A Wild, Meandering River The Elkhorn River is, like many in Nebraska, a meandering, alluvial river. While it has been straightened in places and had its banks armored in others, and irrigation pumps reduce its fl ows during the summer, it has only one small dam on its main stem, and it hasn't been diverted for irrigation and hydropower. As such, it still does what wild, meandering rivers do. It winds its way like a snake through a broad fl oodplain, constantly chewing away at the outside of each bend, the cut bank, and depositing that sand and soil on the inside of the next bend, creating point bars. Through time, those bends become wider and the distance across the neck shorter. Eventually, during periods of high fl ow, the water will take a shortcut across the neck, cutting the bend off from the river and leaving oxbow lakes or marshes behind. Fly over the river in a plane or on Google Earth, and you will see the Elkhorn River valley is littered with oxbows. Some were created many decades ago, while others are more recent. Floods in 2010 and 2019 created six cutoff s in Antelope County alone, including the one at Red Wing and another upriver at Hackberry Creek WMA, adding to the 60 or so that already existed in the county. The result is a maze of lakes, marshes, wetlands and cottonwood forests. My fi rst look at the changed river at Red Wing came while I was taking aerial photos of the river in September 2020. Recognizing what I was seeing was not your typical cutoff , I made several passes. The abandoned channel, 2.4 miles in length, was mostly bare sand, except for a small ribbon of fl owing water. The river's new route was only 1.5 miles long, most of it south of the 316-acre wildlife area. It looked new, with massive point bars on each bend that, like the old channel, were also bare sand. Back at the offi ce, I opened Google Earth and quickly saw the river's new course was actually its old course, a path that for years had been a backwater and marsh. When did the river turn north, I asked? Historic aerial photos did not answer the question. The fi rst available were captured in 1938, and by then the river had been following its pre-2019 course for some time. D Story and photos by Eric Fowler

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