 |
|
| Slideshow with photos from Bobbi and Steve Olson |
OGALLALA. FOR MANY, the name rolls out as easily as wads of cash passed during cattle sales at the local livestock market.
OH-GA-LA-LA.
But others are left tongue-tied by one of the most famous names in Nebraska that was mysteriously twisted away from its original form.
The Ogallala spelling was taken from the region’s Sioux tribe called the Oglala. The Sioux pronounced it as Oklada, and it means “scatter,” or to “scatter one’s own.” Somehow, all of that was scattered when the town was officially mapped out by Union Pacific Railroad in 1875 as Ogallala.
Things got even more confusing in 1899 when noted geologist Nelson Horatio Darton officially named the High Plains Aquifer and its nearly a gazillion gallons of underground water after the Nebraska town, even though the formation was under eight states. Then, Darton really stirred the confusion when he changed the spelling yet again, and dubbed it the Ogalalla Aquifer. But by the 1930s, other researchers noted Darton had spelled it both ways and switched the aquifer back to Ogallala.
This followed another controversy in 1928 that was reported on April 19 of that year in the Keith County News. In the article provided by local historian Ron Wolvin, the Keith County clerk shared the following quote sent to him from the U.S. Geographical Board: “It would seem that the proper way to spell the name of your city would be Oglala, as that is the way the tribe was designated.”
Ogallala officially became incorporated as a city in 1930, and the name change officially changed for good.
 |
IT IS AN IRONIC TWIST OF FATE that what turned Ogallala into one of Nebraska’s most uplifting places to visit was born out of the Great Depression.
After decades of debate, construction began in 1936 on a massive irrigation project to bring water to the drought-plagued regions of south central Nebraska thanks to funding from President Roosevelt’s New Deal mission.
Within five years, America’s second largest hydraulically-filled dam would be built just nine miles north of Ogallala, and after some area farms and ranches were seized, the North Platte River poured over the land to create a spectacular sea that would become Lake McConaughy.
Although it filled a massive empty bucket for the agricultural industry, the lake also became the beloved “Big Mac,” Nebraska’s most popular summer vacation site.
At 22 miles long, 4 miles wide, more than 140 feet deep and with 100 miles of shoreline, the state’s largest lake could easily hold the billions of Big Macs from the world’s golden arches. The natural beauty that surrounds this lake makes it one of the most spectacular water wonders ever created by shovels and bulldozers.
Scott Eveland, who is in charge of boating safety enforcement and education for 23 counties of the Nebraska Game and Parks Division, in describing Lake McConaughy easily clues you into his enchantment with this giant body of water.
“It’s an inland oasis,” he said. “A big lake in the middle of rural western Nebraska. You’ve got sandy, ocean-like beaches in probably one of the last places in the world that you’d expect it.”
On most days in the summer, there are three times as many people filling up the lake’s shores as Ogallala’s regular population of just less than 5,000, and nearly two-thirds of those beach invaders plunging into Nebraska water are from Colorado’s Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.
You would think that the great swell in population would overwhelm Ogallala, but Orla Kitt, the tourism events director of the Ogallala and Keith County Chamber of Commerce, says it’s as welcome as a refreshing summer night’s rain.
