Climbing the tower.
Lots of trees!
Or not.
Ann, Jeff, and the Rialto.
Fifty miles east of Mullen lies the Bessey District of the Nebraska National Forest. This section of the forest is the largest hand-planted forest in the country. Not a single tree in any of these pictures is growing there because a seed fell to the ground and took root. The Bessey District is 90,000 acres, 20,000 of which are trees. The forest is the century-old idea of University of Nebraska professor Charles Bessey, a renowned botanist. Willa Cather was one of his students! Bessey's idea was that the Sandhills could be developed if only there were wood to build things. It was also thought at the time that "rainfall follows the plow". That is, if man would improve the land by planting crops and trees the vegetation would change the climate, bringing on sufficient rains. There's some logic in the latter idea, during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s Franklin Roosevelt greatly favored building shelterbelts east-west oriented strips of trees across the prairies.
Alas, the air that passes over the Sandhills is just too dry to support much more than short grass. One of the interpretative signs we read said the trees aren't regenerating on their own. To sustain the forest the USDA is going to have to cut down the old trees and continue planting saplings. Several thousand acres of trees burnt down in 1965. It is probably just a matter of time before lightning strikes and takes a good portion of the forest with it.
You can climb the fire watchtower at the forest. I didn't take a picture but at the base of the tower there's a sign that says something along the lines of "No climbing unless someone's on duty." The only way to tell if someone was on duty was to climb to the top. The stairs are rickety, but you're rewarded with great views from the top.
After a picnic lunch in the intoxicating pines Jeff, Ann and I went on our separate ways. They went to Burwell and points north while I continued on Route 2 through Broken Bow and Mason City before stopping in Hastings for the night.
The sign at the base of the tower states:
1. Do not climb tower unmanned.
2. Do not climb tower during lightning storms.
3. Climb tower at your own risk.
I guess if you climb it during a lightning storm you take a risk of being unmanned?
Posted by: jeff | 02 May 2006 at 09:05 PM
Yes, or that eunuchs aren't allowed to climb the tower.
Posted by: Joe | 03 May 2006 at 06:59 AM