Prairie Wilderness
At Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, some of North America 's best-preserved grasslands are getting even better.
Story and photography by Stephen R. Jones
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Sunlight
reflects off retreating storm clouds at Crescent Lake National Wildlife
Refuge. |
Somewhere along the one-lane country road from Oshkosh north to Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, travelers begin to feel as if they've passed through a time portal. Houses, road signs, other vehicles, even barbed wire fences and road cuts dwindle away. All that remain are the grassy dunes, rising and falling beneath the pavement, rolling away like ocean swells toward the edge of the earth. Click here for a map of Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
This is the boundless prairie of Frémont and Parkman, of Crazy Horse and Cheyenne chief Little Wolf. It's one of the finest expanses of native grass remaining in North America, home to long-billed curlews and sharp-tailed grouse; burrowing and short-eared owls; pronghorn, mink, and badgers. Add in several dozen lakes and ponds flecked with ducks and shorebirds, and you have a wildlife-watchers' paradise.
Most visitors come to Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge for the birdwatching, fishing in Island Lake , and seasonal hunting for deer, game birds, and waterfowl. What they take home with them is a peaceful feeling of solitude and connection with the grassland landscape.
“The Sandhills provide people a glimpse of what the prairie was like before settlement,” said refuge manager Neil Powers. “There are hills that you can get up on top of and as far as you can see it's all grass, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to visualize a bison herd moving through the lowlands or over the dunes.”
The refuge protects 70 square miles of lakes, marshes, and grass-covered dunes. Refuge staff maintain more than 30 miles of sand trails (two-track roads suitable for hiking or four-wheeling) and a universally-accessible nature trail. But most of the refuge retains its wild, empty character. Winter and spring winds can buffet the nearly treeless landscape for days. In summer, violent thunderstorms create dazzling light effects as they rumble eastward over the dunes.
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| White pelicans gather on refuge lakes throughout the summer and early fall. |
(The complete story appears in the March/April 2006 issue of Nebraska Life Magazine.)