44 NEBRASKAland • JUNE 2016
G
eologists refer to it as inverted
topography. It's not easy to fathom
the relative enormity of a river
in this region flowing strong enough to
move bowling-ball-size stones along its
bottom, but that's what is believed to have
once been the scene above this location at
Buffalo Creek Wildlife Management Area
near Melbeta. That massive river has long
been dry and erosion has removed the
less bound sediment alongside it. In more
recent times, many chunks of the riverbed
with those cemented stones have tumbled
more than 200 feet below to a much newer
river valley – that of the North Platte.
