NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/625084
50 NEBRASKAland • JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016 B ack then, of course, none of us gave a second thought to its namesake. To a bunch of 16-year- old boys, Pressey wasn't a man with a history or a mission or a gift to bestow – Pressey was an escape. Pressey was 17 miles from school, from parents, from our summer jobs. Pressey was 17 miles south of responsibility. Pressey was a bonfire and too many hot dogs; a forgotten beach ball floating downstream; a stolen can of Old Milwaukee split five ways. And at the moment, Pressey was four pretty girls on the far side of the South Loup River, tan skin and coy smiles, laughter whispering across the water. We'd found this spot – our spot – the summer before. We followed the river well past the bridge, crawled up the bank, cut through a clearing in the trees, and there it was: a full campsite completely hidden from view, inaccessible by vehicle, the only road in or out blocked by a hundred yards of downed trees and undergrowth. A rusty old fire pit lay in the center, the iron grill rack still attached. Sunlight filtered through a canopy of cottonwoods and northern catalpa. As if forgotten from time: our secret, teenage Eden – and that was before we had company. So captured we all were by our fondest memories we often forget the backdrop. As I grow older I find myself daydreaming more often, chewing on scenes from a grainy past. So many of them, I've come to realize, spawn from the Pressey Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Custer County. Different stories, all of them connected by a single park, beautiful and unassuming, split sideways by what early Custer County resident and sometimes-poet George B. Mair repeatedly called "the laughing South Loup River." Boy Scout campouts. Elementary school field trips. Family reunions. Pressey blooms behind them all like a lesser- known Bierstadt painting, slanted sunrays and muddy banks. Few of us ever pictured a time when the picnic grounds weren't maintained, or when a clean gravel road didn't usher us into the valley. We never questioned the land's public use. Nor did we ask perhaps the most obvious question: Who is Pressey? A Celebration You're not likely to find Pressey WMA on a top-ten list anytime soon, but when it first opened on May 6, 1930 – the country still on edge just months after the Wall Street Crash of '29 – nearly 4,000 people attended the dedication ceremony for Nebraska's newest state park. They started trickling in around 11:30 that morning, toting toddlers and picnic baskets, checker-boarding their blankets and auto- cushions along the river. The church ladies set up lunch stands, and the men cobbled together a speaker's platform beneath the trees. Cardinals chirped. Hammers cracked. Later, a concert band from nearby Broken Bow filled the air with brass and woodwinds, and a group of enterprising locals staged a cowboy parade, complete with horseback acrobatics and re-enactments of the cattle days of yore – all of it a primer for the main event. In the midst of a Great Depression, good news swelled quickly. Directing the whole affair was local luminary Emerson R. Purcell, editor of the Custer County Chief and a member of what was then called the State Game, Forestation & Parks Commission (NGFPC). Just months before, he'd been approached by a man – a farmer with a mustache like steel- The Continuing Legacy of H.E. Pressey A Precedent of Public Spirit By Carson Vaughan Pressey Wildlife Management Area Pressey is located 5 miles north of Oconto on Nebraska Highway 21 in Custer County. The area consists of 1,700 acres of land, including hills and steep canyons mostly covered by grasslands of the South Loup Valley. Diverse habitat types include riparian woodland, wetlands, native prairie and agricultural areas. Land management activities such as grazing rotations and prescribed fire are used to control the spread of invasive plants and to maintain wildlife habitat. Hiking trails and a campground are also available.