40 Nebraskaland • June 2025
North Fork on 1st Street on the north
edge of town about creating a put-in
for float trips. The developer donated
the land to the city, which developed
a put-in and parking area there. The
city also built a take-out above the old
mill dam and in 2014, Stuthman and
his wife started outfitting kayak and
tubing trips on the North Fork and on
the Elkhorn River southwest of town.
"The first three years, it was
relatively difficult to even convince
people to float [the North Fork]
because they considered it a drainage
ditch," Stuthman said. "Once I got
them convinced, then it was plain. It
wasn't the excitement of Niobrara."
And the 1.5-mile trip was short, taking
an hour in a kayak, 90 minutes on a
tube. Stuthman hoped the dam could
be removed and the trips extended.
A few years later, when talk of a
whitewater park surfaced, Suthman
and a friend floated over the old dam
on innertubes and sent a video to
Riverwise Engineering, a Colorado
company specializing in building
whitewater parks around the country.
They asked, "What could we do with
this?" Riverwise said the dam, while
an obstacle, provided opportunity: The
12-foot drop below it could be spread
across eight shorter drops that could
create whitewater features. Riverwise
also said the North Fork had two more
features a whitewater park needed:
sufficient river flows for most of
the year and — being a block from
downtown — the proximity to people
who will use it.
Revitalization
Realized
With city and other leaders sold
on the idea, the Lower Elkhorn NRD
contributed $1 million to get the
project started. Private donations
and grants covered the rest of the
Elizabeth and Mya Silva of Norfolk body surf down one of the waves in Johnson
Park.
A family rides a stand-up paddleboard, kayaks and a tube down the North Fork beneath the 1st Street bridge.
