The river pasture is located about 1 mile north of Meadow Grove, NE. At one time it was much bigger, but the Elkhorn river determines the boundary of one side of the property and is constantly changing as the river changes.

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The Elkhorn River is a typical Sand Hill river, carrying silt and sand in large amounts. The quality of the water is good and  thus makes for good pastures for cattle.

 

We would look forward to moving cattle to this pasture in the spring and take them back to the East or West Place in the fall. We could count on the help of either a horse or a pony. The main problem was crossing the river over a fragile, rickety bridge the cattle did not like.

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The pasture was a great place to escape to, either to have a picnic or to swim in the river when it got hot. That was before air conditioning. It was also a great place to hunt ducks in the fall. We always had a duck blind on the Elkhorn River and the Elkhorn River provided excellent fishing for carp and catfish. There my brother Jack would have his duck blind and hunt pheasant and deer.

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The Elkhorn River is constantly changing its channel, especially in times of a flood. As you can see in the Google photo, a huge bend in the river is depositing sand on the south while taking away pasture to the west. Nebraska has had an abundance of rain during the last five plus years, losing fences, farm buildings and homes. The Elkhorn River can be treacherous and unpredictable. Many times we had to move cattle out of the pasture because of flood water that would completely cover the pasture for a short period of time. My brother Jack and I have lost many decoys which were washed away because we did not store them properly along the river,

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