June 2025 • Nebraskaland 39
blocks, local officials and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers finalized
plans to build a 4.5-mile-long canal to
carry floodwaters around the east side
of the city.
The river still flowed through town,
with water levels controlled by gates
where it branched off from the flood
channel. But it was neglected and,
for the most part, forgotten, so much
so that Nebraska Avenue was built
through Johnson Park, separating it
from the river. The mill dam, which
had also been producing hydropower
before it closed, remained as an
obstacle.
"The entire area was unsafe for
recreation, and it was kind of an
unsightly mess," Josh Moenning, who
served four years on the Norfolk City
Council and eight as mayor before
stepping down in 2024, said of the
river flowing through downtown. "You
would see, on occasion, people fishing
down there, but certainly nobody was
in the water."
Efforts to revive the river began
in 1974, when the Lower Elkhorn
Natural Resources District and the
city discussed removing the dam and
creating a linear park along the North
Fork. Other efforts followed, but they
remained ideas until local leaders
formed a Riverfront Development
Group in 2008 and began focusing on
creating a River Walk.
Tony Stuthman also had ideas for
improving the river after paddling a
canoe down it with a friend in 2013.
"As I floated, I wondered why in the
heck nobody was using the river for
anything," Stuthman said. "It was
beautiful, and it was neat that it felt
like you were in a different place. It
didn't feel like you were in Norfolk, or
in a downtown area."
He spoke with someone working
on a housing development along the
Jacob Stuthman of Norfolk does a trick on a boogie board as his dad, Tony, rides a surfboard on the surf wave on the
North Fork Whitewater Trail in Norfolk.
