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The Sandhills
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The Sandhills“One minute, my station
wagon was a car, and the next, it was a boat,” wrote travel writer Chris Welsch, describing
the curious sensation of entering
Nebraska’s sea of grass, the Sandhills. |
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Though the Sandhills cover 19,000 square miles, the comparison to the sea isn’t merely a reference to its vastness. It also refers to the hills themselves, which look like gigantic waves (as tall as 400 feet and as long as 20 miles) frozen in time in a storm-tossed sea.
The hills are sand dunes, the largest tract of stabilized dunes in the Western Hemisphere. Th e grass holds them in place.
Considered an inhospitable desert by early settlers, the Sandhills proved instead to be prime rangeland. Today, it’s
no accident that cows outnumber people here. Th e Sandhills sit atop the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest sources of
groundwater in the world. Much of the area is dotted with small, spring-fed lakes and marshes – providing outstanding
wildlife habitat.
On most maps, the Sandhills are unlabeled and appear mainly as a large, virtually blank area in northern Nebraska. Blank spots on maps have always lured explorers, so take this as your cue. Th e strangely beautiful Sandhills landscape is something you won’t fi nd anywhere else. |
Valentine Chamber of Commerce, Valentine Nebraska- The Sandhills
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