White Buffalo Girl, Wonderful Terrific Monds, Ashfall Park, and Tom Rathman

Welcome to Antelope County. The county was formed in 1871 and named because a group of men, chasing cattle thieves, killed some antelope after having been without food for two days. The population is 6,685 and county seat is Neligh.

There are several other communities in Antelope county including: Elgin, Tilden, Brunswick, Clearwater, Oakdale, Orchard, and Royal. This area of Nebraska is where you begin to enter cow country and the Sandhills.

A must-see area is the Ashfall State Historical Park near Royal. Twelve million years ago, a volcano in Idaho spewed ash over a large area. In this particular location, ancient rhinoceros, camels, horses, a sabre-toothed deer, dogs, turtles, birds (and more) gathered around a watering hole and eventually died from breathing so much ash. The area could have been destroyed during the last Ice Age, but fortunately the glaciers did not quite make it to that area, missing it by a mere dozens of miles (or so I am told – I really couldn’t find anything to corroborate this online). Below are a couple of pictures taken 10 years ago – the site has expanded considerably since then.

White Buffalo Girl, Wonderful Terrific Monds, Ashfall Park, and Tom Rathman

Welcome to Antelope County. The county was formed in 1871 and named because a group of men, chasing cattle thieves, killed some antelope after having been without food for two days. The population is 6,685 and county seat is Neligh.

There are several other communities in Antelope county including: Elgin, Tilden, Brunswick, Clearwater, Oakdale, Orchard, and Royal. This area of Nebraska is where you begin to enter cow country and the Sandhills.

A must-see area is the Ashfall State Historical Park near Royal. Twelve million years ago, a volcano in Idaho spewed ash over a large area. In this particular location, ancient rhinoceros, camels, horses, a sabre-toothed deer, dogs, turtles, birds (and more) gathered around a watering hole and eventually died from breathing so much ash. The area could have been destroyed during the last Ice Age, but fortunately the glaciers did not quite make it to that area, missing it by a mere dozens of miles (or so I am told – I really couldn’t find anything to corroborate this online). Below are a couple of pictures taken 10 years ago – the site has expanded considerably since then.