Valleyview

The water beside this marker is Calamus Reservoir, which the Bureau of Reclamation created when it closed Calamus Dam, northwest of Burwell, in 1985. It is an irrigation supply reservoir, so its level moves through the season, and at full pool it covers about 5,125 surface acres. Valleyview's store, hall and school stood on the flat now given over to campsites, a parking lot and a boat ramp, and anglers come in every season for walleye, northern pike, largemouth bass, rainbow trout and crappie. The reservoir is open around the clock.

What the plaque says

Valleyview Settlement promoted by the Kinkaid Act of 1904 was directly responsible for the establishment of Valleyview, originally called Riverview. In February 1912 Walter Hesselgesser and Earl Cronk opened Valleyview Store, which included a grocery, living quarters, lunch room, lodging rooms, and gas station. A community hall was located on the second floor. A post office opened in 1914. By the 1920s the village consisted of several residences, a livery stable, a garage, a blacksmith shop, and School District 17 which was moved to Valleyview in 1916. The post office closed in 1937 and the store in 1939 due to decreasing population and better transportation and roads in the area. On October 16, 1940, Sheriff George Brock of Taylor was murdered at Valleyview by John Birkes. He had come to serve an eviction notice to John and Willard Birkes, who had brought their nephew Richard to town to register for the draft. A chase, utilizing an airplane, resulted in the trio's eventual capture and imprisonment. The site of Valleyview is now part of the Valley View Flat Recreation area at the Calamus Reservoir. Loup County Historical Society Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park — 19 mi
  A small infantry post of 1874 in the North Loup valley, built of local lime concrete on the raiding road between Lakota and Pawnee country, and kept nearly whole by eighty years of farming.

More markers nearby

• The Calamus Valley — 6.8 mi
• The North Loup Project — 6.8 mi
• Harrop — 11 mi
• Railroad Turntable, 1887-1983 — 12 mi