Kayaking Nebraska’s Niobrara river reveals bald eagles, prehistoric landscapes and one of America’s most overlooked wildernesses

Deep in a sea of grass, you’ll find a surprising landscape of tiny towns, rolling dunes and sandy beaches nearly 1,000 miles from an ocean. Grab a tube.

Next weekend, the Cedar Point Biological Station – roughly 260 miles west of UNL’s city campus, and a world apart – will celebrate its 50th anniversary.  Long operated on a shoestring budget and lesser known than many of the university’s glossier assets, it has spawned groundbreaking research and bestselling books, novel architecture and soaring scientific careers. 

Thanks in part to roughly 100 years of fire suppression on the Great Plains, the eastern redcedar tree — once primarily confined to river bottoms and rocky outcrops — has crept from the gullies to the grasslands, from the humid East to the arid West from Texas to South Dakota, and is now dismantling what little remains of one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.

The tides were hungry in the winter of 1905, the waves relentless, and Bartlett Richards’ new mansion – his wife called it “Tranquillo” – teetered on the edge.

You can still find traces of Nordic history in the trails and trees of tiny Washington Island, Wis. And take a dip while you’re there — if you dare.

Last September, the International Dark-Sky Association confirmed what veterans of the Nebraska Star Party have known for 30 years: On a clear night, the Sandhills boast some of the darkest skies on Earth. 

When Mari Sandoz, chronicler of frontier life, fled the Sandhills of Nebraska, she found fertile creative ground among the poets and artists of Lincoln. Exploring her world.

Less studied than Mari Sandoz; less sentimental than Bess Streeter Aldrich; more playful than Willa Cather and Wright Morris, too; Mignon Good Eberhart landed somewhere beyond Nebraska’s literary canon. Perhaps somewhere behind.

Last October, wildfire sparked by an ATV consumed roughly a quarter of this living landmark in the heart of the Nebraska Sandhills. But in a man-made forest, officials say, there’s no roadmap for recovery.

Thirty Years Later, A Taylor-Made Mystery Lives On

The Bovee Fire has scorched central Nebraska’s Sandhills region, destroying the storied camp and taking the life of a local volunteer firefighter.

“His fiction is inherently and seductively alienating,” says novelist Timothy Schaffert, creative writing director at UNL and fan of Thompson. “There’s nothing at all precious about his work, or his life, and that makes it hard to cradle him in our arms.”

The Nebraska Department of Education and the Nebraska State Education Association – the teacher’s union – don’t often see eye to eye. Both agree that “The Mind Polluters” has no basis in reality.

In the heart of Cornhusker country, they know how to make their own fun. Native son Carson Vaughan drafted four friends, loaded up on beer, and did what may be the strangest float trip in the world.

A dissertation on Dr. Megan Ross, CEO and Scientist-in-Chief at the Lincoln Park Zoo. In January 2022, Ross became the first woman to lead the zoo in its 154-year history.

Joel Sartore is hellbent on photographing every captive species on earth. So what?

U.S. Naval Academy alumni remember the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years later.

One writer road-trips through the Great Plains, witnessing the effects of the eastward-shifting 100th meridian.

Tailored by and for students over 50, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute offers a buffet of courses big and small, from Free Speech to River Kayaking to Philosopher John Dewey.