The Missouri & the Northeast

Northeast Nebraska divides into river and farm country. Along the north edge the Missouri still runs as a river, braided around islands and sandbars, on two stretches Congress set aside as the Missouri National Recreational River in 1978 and 1991, the only reaches between Montana and the river's mouth that are neither dammed nor channelized. Inland, the Elkhorn drains rolling farmland past Neligh, Norfolk and West Point.

The bluffs are the homeland of nations that are still here. The Ponca, forced to Indian Territory in 1877, came back in part with Standing Bear and, after Congress terminated them, were restored as a tribe in 1990; their museum and bison herd are at the old agency near Niobrara. The Santee Sioux Nation, Isanti Dakota relocated from Minnesota, holds the land downstream at Santee. In the southeast corner the Umóⁿhoⁿ, the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, gather at Macy under the August full moon for the Hede'wachi, their harvest celebration, now past its 220th year, and the Ho-Chunk, brought here by way of Crow Creek after their removal from Minnesota, hold the northern part of the old Omaha reservation at Winnebago.

West to east the anchors are Ashfall, where rhinoceroses and horses lie in volcanic ash twelve million years old, the Neligh flour mill, the Ponca museum, and Ponca State Park's overlook above the free river.

What to See in The Missouri & the Northeast

6 places across the region, grouped by what they are.

Scenic Drives through The Missouri & the Northeast

Stories from The Missouri & the Northeast

The Missouri & the Northeast rewards the unhurried. Pick a base, fan out, and let the country between the headline stops surprise you.