The Nebraska Outback is the north-central region of the U.S. state of Nebraska. It comprises Boyd, Holt, Rock, Blaine, Brown, Keya Paha and Cherry counties.
The Nebraska Outback is the north-central region of the U.S. state of Nebraska. It comprises Boyd, Holt, Rock, Blaine, Brown, Keya Paha and Cherry counties.
Calling this region the "Nebraska Outback" is part of a tourism campaign led by a nonprofit organization called the North Central Nebraska RC & D Council. It is sponsored by six counties, five Natural Resource Districts, 29 local communities and three local Chambers of Commerce. [1]
The North Central Nebraska RC&D Council partners with communities, organizations and agencies to assist the local people in the development of their communities, counties and region. The Outback is bordered by South Dakota on the north, and a small section of the Missouri River runs at the region’s eastern edge. The area has a population of 26,984 people on 12,627 square miles (32,700 km2) of land, or 2.1 people per square mile.
The outback is connected with the rest of Nebraska by way of four Nebraska byways: Bridges to Buttes Byway (Highway 20), the Outlaw Trail (Highway 12) and small sections of the Loup Rivers Scenic Byway (Highways 91/11), and the Sandhills Journey (Highway 2) in Blaine County. The Cowboy Trail is a bicycling, walking and equestrian trail that will eventually cross 321 miles (517 km) east-west from Norfolk to Chadron. [2]
Particular attractions in the area have been identified in order to promote tourism throughout the Outback. [3]
| Visitor attractions in the Nebraska Outback | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Location | Notes | |||
| Arthur Bowring Sandhills Ranch State Historical Park | Merriman | ||||
| Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest | Nenzel | ||||
| Spade Ranch | Ellsworth | Listed on the National Register of Historic Places | |||
| Merritt Reservoir | Valentine | ||||
| Snake Falls | Valentine | ||||
| Smith Falls State Park | Valentine | ||||
| Downtown Valentine | Valentine | ||||
| Valentine Fish Hatchery | Valentine | ||||
| Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge | Valentine | ||||
| Lovejoy Ranch Bed and Breakfast | Valentine | ||||
| Turtle Butte Lodge | Springview | ||||
| Uncle Buck’s Lodge | Brewster | ||||
| Sandhills Guest Ranch Bed & Breakfast | Brewster | ||||
| Norden Dance Hall | Ord | ||||
| Keya Paha County Fairgrounds | Springview | ||||
| Brown County Fairgrounds | Ainsworth | ||||
| Niobrara River Road | Norden | ||||
| Meadville | Ghost town | ||||
| Winnetoon | Replicas of early storefronts, schoolhouse, trading post, prairie grass gardens, log cabin and historic city jail. The town "mall" includes a working 1890s post office, antiques, carvings and natural foods store. | ||||
| Sunshine Bottom | Lynch | Settled by German emigrants from the Russian Empire, Sunshine Bottom features settlement patterns and homes similar to those the emigrants left behind in Ukraine. [4] | |||
| Sturdevant-McKee House Museum | Atkinson | ||||
| Something Special by Marilyn | Atkinson | ||||
| White Horse Museum | Stuart | ||||
| Rock County Oil Company Phillips 66 | Bassett | Constructed in 1927 in the Spanish Revival style | |||
| Cowboy Trail | Norfolk to Chadron | ||||
| Happy Hollow Cabins | |||||
| Outlaw Trail Scenic Byway | South Sioux City to Valentine | ||||
| Old Baldy | Lynch | Listed on the National Register of Historic Places | |||
| Butte Historical Center | Butte | ||||
| Spencer Museum Village | Spencer | ||||
| Strawbale Saloon | Spencer | ||||
| Brown County Historical Society & Coleman House Museum | Ainsworth | ||||
| Holt County Historical Society Museum | O'Neill | ||||
| Long Pine Heritage Society & Heritage House Museum | Long Pine | link | |||
| Sellor's Log Cabin | Ainsworth | ||||
| White Horse Ranch Museum | Stuart | link | |||
| Rock County Historical Museum | |||||
Rock County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 1,526. Its county seat is Bassett.
Keya Paha County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 824. Its county seat is Springview.
Cherry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 5,713. Its county seat is Valentine. The county was named for Lt. Samuel A. Cherry, an Army officer who was stationed at Fort Niobrara and who had been killed in South Dakota in 1881. Cherry County is in the Nebraska Sandhills. It is the largest county in the state at nearly 6,000 square miles, larger than the state of Connecticut.
Chase County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 3,966. Its county seat is Imperial.
Brown County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 3,145. Its county seat is Ainsworth. The county was established in 1883 and named for two members of the legislature who reported the bill for the county's organization.
Boyd County is a county in the State of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 2,099. Its county seat is Butte. The county was formed in 1891 and named after James E. Boyd, the Nebraska Governor at the time.
Sedgwick County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,404. The county seat is Julesburg. The county was named for Fort Sedgwick, a military post along the Platte Trail, which was named for General John Sedgwick. It is located near the state border with Nebraska.
Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of Denver.
Ozark is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States and one of the county's two seats of government. The community is located along the Arkansas River in the Arkansas River Valley on the southern edge of the Ozark Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 3,684.
Brewster is a village in, and the county seat of, Blaine County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 17 at the 2010 census.
A Pure Michigan Byway is the designation for a segment of the State Trunkline Highway System in the US state of Michigan that is a "scenic, recreational, or historic route that is representative of Michigan's natural and cultural heritage." The designation was created with the name Michigan Heritage Route by the state legislature on June 22, 1993, and since then six historic, seven recreational and seven scenic byways have been designated by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and another two have been proposed. These byways have been designated in both the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the state. The current name was adopted on December 30, 2014, and it references the Pure Michigan tourism marketing campaign.
Highway 16 is an east–west state highway in Arkansas. The route begins in Siloam Springs at US Highway 412 (US 412) and Highway 59 and runs east through Fayetteville and the Ozark National Forest to US Highway 67 Business (US 67B) in Searcy. Highway 16 was created during the 1926 Arkansas state highway numbering, and today serves as a narrow, winding, 2-lane road except for overlaps of 10 miles (16 km) through Fayetteville. Much of the highway winds through the Ozarks, including the Ozark National Forest, where a portion of the highway is designated as an Arkansas Scenic Byway. The route has two spur routes in Northwest Arkansas; in Fayetteville and Siloam Springs.
The Cowboy Trail is a rail trail in northern Nebraska. It is a multi-use recreational trail suitable for bicycling, walking and horseback riding. It occupies an abandoned Chicago and North Western Railway corridor. When complete, the trail will run from Chadron to Norfolk, a length of 321 miles (517 km), making it the longest rails-to-trails conversion in the United States. It is Nebraska's first state recreational trail. The trail runs across the Outback area of Nebraska.
Lowman is a small unincorporated rural census-designated place in the western United States, located in Boise County, Idaho. It is nestled along the north bank of the South Fork of the Payette River in the central part of the state, at an elevation of 3,800 feet (1,160 m) above sea level. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42.
K-99 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Kansas. The highway runs 234.473 miles (377.348 km) from Oklahoma State Highway 99 (SH-99) at the Oklahoma state line near Chautauqua north to Nebraska Highway 99 (N-99) at the Nebraska state line in Summerfield. K-99 connects Emporia with several smaller county seats to the south and north, including Sedan, Howard, Eureka, Alma, and Westmoreland while passing through the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas.
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U.S. Highway 136 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs for 804 miles (1,294 km) between Edison, Nebraska and Speedway, Indiana. It is a spur route of US 36 despite never intersecting its parent. Within the State of Nebraska it is a state highway that begins at a junction with US 6 and US 34 north of Edison and travels east across the southern part of the state to the Nebraska–Missouri state line in Brownville along the banks of the Missouri River. Throughout its 239.88-mile (386.05 km) length, the highway is known as the Heritage Highway, one of nine scenic byways in the state. The highway travels across the grassland prairies of southern Nebraska to the woods of the Missouri River Valley encountering winding rivers, farmlands, and historic settlements. These landscapes were featured in stories from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather recounting life on the Nebraska Plains during the end of the 19th century. For its entire length, US 136 is a two-lane highway with the exception of a 0.51-mile (0.82 km) stretch of divided highway within Fairbury.
Lindy is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located on the Santee Sioux Reservation in Knox County, in the northeastern part of the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 13.
The Trail of the Ancients is a National Scenic Byway located in the states of Colorado and Utah. The route highlights the archaeological and cultural history of southwestern Native American peoples, and traverses the widely diverse geological landscape of the Four Corners region of the Colorado Plateau. It was the first National Scenic Byway that was designated solely for its archaeological sites. The entire route is approximately 480 miles (772.5 km) long.
Minnesota Scenic Byways are a system of roads in the U.S. state of Minnesota which pass through areas of scenic, cultural, or recreational significance. There are currently 22 scenic byways in the system with a total length of 2,948 miles (4,744 km). Eight of these byways are also designated as National Scenic Byways, and the North Shore Scenic Drive is further designated as an All-American Road.
