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/695082
JULY 2016 • NEBRASKAland 37 newspaper: "Saw plenty of pine timber on the north side of the Niobrara, whose banks are covered with beautiful pines and various other kinds of timber ... The bluffs back from the bottoms are full of springs, and covered with tall pines from two to three feet in diameter; and sufficient in quantity to supply several mills for many years to come." As early as the mid-1800s, lumber- hungry settlers in northeastern Nebraska had their eyes on the "beautiful pines" found along the central Niobrara. In 1859, Dr. B.Y. Shelley, a prominent citizen of the town of Niobrara located at the river's mouth in Knox County, made the first attempt to harvest this timber. Hoping to take advantage of the June rise of the Missouri River from mountain snowmelt, which backed water up into the lower Niobrara, forming "to all appearance near its mouth, a large navigable river," he schemed to float logs down the Niobrara to his hometown. Shelley and his party struck out for "the pinery ... on the banks of [Long] Pine Creek" a Niobrara tributary in Brown County. In short order they cut 53 "very fine pine logs" and floated them down the Long Pine where they lodged in the sandy bottoms at its mouth. While washing out a channel to run the logs to the Niobrara's main channel, the sawyers had a run in with "20 rather cross Indians of the Two Kettles band of Sioux" who took claim of the logs. Avoiding a fight, Shelley abandoned his bounty and high-tailed it back home. Even without the confrontation, Shelley's adventure was doomed for failure, as the Niobrara was too shallow, sandy and braided for rafting logs. With no railroads or roads leading to the area, the Niobrara pines were safe for a few more decades. Around 1880, as the region was settled and towns erected, sawmills sprang up in the central Niobrara valley to meet the growing demand for lumber. One such mill, a combination flour mill and sawmill, built in 1892 and owned by William Kuhre, was located at the mouth of Fairfield Creek a mile upstream from the present day Norden Bridge spanning the Niobrara. "They put a dam across the Fairfield forming a pond, and water flowing through the spillway turned paddles powering the mill," said Doug Kuhre, great-great-grandson of William whose family still owns the mill site. Steam- powered saws were also operating in the valley. Pine logs thinned from the Nebraska National Forest near Chadron after the 2012 wildfire. These logs were bound for the boiler- driven heating and cooling plant at Chadron State College. Pine logs thinned from the Nebraska National Forest near Chadron after the 2012 wildfire These logs were bound for the boiler- PHOTO BY JUSTIN HAAG Distribution of ponderosa pine in Nebraska (source: 2003 Native Vegetation of Nebraska Map by Kaul and Rolfsmeier). MAP BY TIM REIGERT