The Niobrara: Nebraska's Wild River

The Niobrara River rises in eastern Wyoming and runs more than five hundred miles across the northern Nebraska plains before joining the Missouri. For most of its length it is a quiet, clear-running stream cutting through canyon walls of chalky white limestone. In a state known for flatness, the Niobrara canyon system comes as a genuine surprise: fifty to one hundred fifty feet deep, carved into the tableland, shaded by bur oak and paper birch.

Congress designated seventy-six miles of the Niobrara as a National Scenic River in nineteen ninety-one. The designation recognized something that canoeists had known for decades: this stretch, running through northern Cherry County and into Knox County, is one of the most biologically diverse river corridors in the central United States. It sits at the convergence of multiple ecological regions: the eastern deciduous forest, the western ponderosa pine, the Rocky Mountain flora, and the Great Plains grassland. Species from all four regions overlap along this narrow canyon. Rocky Mountain juniper and plains cottonwood grow within a few hundred feet of each other.

The Niobrara has waterfalls. This surprises people. Smith Falls, on the south bank, drops sixty-three feet into a fern-lined gorge; it is the tallest waterfall in Nebraska and sits inside Smith Falls State Park. The falls were formed by a spring seeping out of the limestone wall and eventually cutting its own descent.

In summer, the river draws thousands of canoeists and inner-tube floaters. The current is gentle, the water is clear, the canyon walls block the wind, and the experience of drifting through it on a July afternoon is one of the quiet pleasures that Nebraska offers to people who know where to look.