Nebraskaland

May 2024 • Nebraskaland 21 t's reassuring to return to places that don't change much over time. While such can be said of other Nebraska rivers and streams, there's something exceptional, and especially enduring, about this spot tucked away in a canyon 250 yards from the Niobrara River. A place where one can rely on the water fl owing from more than 60 feet overhead and splashing into the shallow pool below. Where children can stand below the towering waterfall on a hot day, feeling the force of cold water rush over their bodies just as generations have before them, their shrills barely audible over the roar of the natural spectacle itself. Even though Smith Falls State Park between Valentine and Sparks is Nebraska's youngest, the property's main attraction has surely been recognized as a scenic jewel since its discovery by humans, whenever that may have been. An early 1900s newspaper account said Native Americans had referred to it as the "Place of the Roaring Water," reporting an initiative to have it named Roaring Falls. The waterfall was instead known to the settlers of the times as Arikaree Falls. The name is a reference to the Arikara, the semi-nomadic tribe of Native Americans that has a rich history along the upper Missouri Valley and migrated to northern Nebraska for about a decade in 1823. Regardless of its name through time, the roar has always been the same. 'Fred's Falls'? In 1896, when Frederic Smith obtained the fi rst homestead patent for land on which the waterfall resides, the attraction gradually became known locally as the "Smith fall," a description that eventually became a proper noun. Early newspaper stories also refer to it as Honey Smith, or Hunney Smith, Falls. Later, under the ownership of another "Fred," Smith Falls gradually picked up steam as the tourist attraction we know today. In 1941, Sandhills farmer-rancher Fred Krzyzanowski bought the property for $7 per acre as a place to graze cattle, reportedly not knowing there was a waterfall on it. He owned the property a month before visiting the falls. With vehicle access to the falls locked behind private lands on the south side of the Niobrara, Krzyzanowski allowed the increasing number of people fl oating the river to park their vessels for a visit. He later catered to the falls' popularity by adding a campground and picnic tables. Visitors shared space with his cattle herd. In 1983, Krzyzanowski began charging 50 cents for those arriving by raft or inner tubes and $1 for canoeists, with proceeds used for trash clean-up and the installation of outhouses. Visitors also could pay 50 cents for a ride across the river on the "cable car." It's not a cable car resembling those carrying passengers around San Francisco. Instead, it's something of a gondola lift — a steel cage hanging on a cable spanning the river with Fa l l i n g T h r o u g h t h e T i m e s Story and photos by Justin Haag I Park visitor Lauren Hudson of Broomfi eld, Colorado, stands below Smith Falls. M o r e t h a n 2 3 0 w a t e r f a l l s a d o r n t h e N i o b r a r a Va l l e y , b u t o n e s t a t e p a r k a t t r a c t i o n s t i l l s t a n d s a b o v e t h e m a l l

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