Crounse

This marker stands in a park that did not exist when Crounse School closed in 1962. The Flood Control Act of 1958 authorized the Salt Creek and Tributaries project to keep Salt Creek from flooding Lincoln, and Branched Oak became the largest of the Salt Valley lakes. Its valley was flooded in 1967 and the work finished in 1968, leaving about 1,800 acres of water inside a 5,595-acre state recreation area. The park has modern and primitive campgrounds, and the Army Corps of Engineers still manages the dam site.

What the plaque says

Crounse Crounse was once a small village named for Lorenzo Crounse, Nebraska Supreme Court Justice (1867-73), congressman (1873-77), and governor (1893-95). The village had a school (1870-1962), post office (1873-1901), church, general store, and creamery. Crounse School was the hub of the community. Classes met in homes until a schoolhouse was built on this site in 1873. Activities included picnics, bazaars, 4-H, and ball games. After the school closed in 1962, memories were all that remained of the community. Dedicated to the Crounse Community Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Nebraska State Capitol — 15 mi
  Bertram Goodhue's 400-foot tower on the prairie, built in four phases from 1922 to 1932 and paid off on completion, home of the only one-house legislature in the country.

More markers nearby

• Nine-Mile Prairie Memorial — 7.8 mi
• Lincoln Army Air Field/Air Force Base — 8.9 mi
• Plum Creek Prairie Historic Site — 12 mi
• Seward, 4th of July City — 12 mi