Sandhills question (Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte: taxes, restaurants, swimming pool)

[Darrow]

I read about the NE sandhill region. Can you please list some towns that are included in this region? Is Kearney, Grand Island and Holdrege part of that region?

[SCGranny]

Actually - and remember I am not a local, and traveled via interstate - I don't remember any hills til we got west of Grand Island. We stayed in York on our last leg of the journey, and it was flat plains as far as the eye could see. It didn't start getting hilly til we got west of Kearney. North Platte, Valentine, Chadron, Ogallala, Alliance, and south and west are in the Sandhills. The land gets hillier and hillier the further you get to Wyoming, and starts to slope gently downwards as you head east. Those are the "big" towns. (Again, "big" depends on your perspective.) There are lots of little quaint towns, with mostly gas stations, feed and seed stores, and farm equipment supply stores, a little restaurant or bar, and lots more of wide open places. You might do a Google Earth or Mapquest Satellite map to see where the sloping begins.

What exactly are you looking for? Valentine has a golf course, I don't know about the other places (I'm sure Chadron probably would). As for restaurants and other amenities, not a lot of franchise places other than McDonalds, Subway, and Pizza Hut unless you get into North Platte or Chadron. (What amazes me and tickles me to death is that the folks in Valentine built their own swimming pool. They set up a tax and paid for it themselves (with help from the summer tourists who tube the Niobrara). I tried for 10 years to get the same thing done back east in a town twice Valentine's size, and no one would do it.) Folks here are PRACTICAL, and don't go hog-wild with do-gooder stuff, raising taxes indiscriminately "for the CHILDREN!" or for anybody else. It's pretty much pay-as-you-go here.

[IsThisOneTaken?]

Kearney/GI/Holdrege are not part of the Sandhills. Neither are Ogallala or Alliance, but you're getting close. You can see them from there.

Although not generally the best scientific source, this map at Wikipedia outlines it well:

File:Map of Nebraska Sand Hills.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some towns that are in the Sandhills: Arthur, Mullen, Hyannis, Thedford, Lakeside. All bustling metro areas.

[vpandora]

If you use Google Maps to show Nebraska, and click satellight view, zoom in a bit on the middle of the state, you will clearly see the sandhills. They are ridges of brown and green that resemble sand dunes, and it is a big area.

Not a lot of big towns, as the others have said. The Sandhills are the most sparsley populated in the state, as far as I know. When my fiance and I drove across the region two years ago, we'd pass the gate for a ranch... then miles and miles later, we'd pass yet another gate for the same ranch!

[Sandhillian]

Some of the towns I associate with the sandhills are: Hyannis, Seneca, Mullen, Thedford, Arnold, Stapleton, Brownlee, Halsey, Dunning, Brewster, and Anselmo.

[Darrow]

Thanks you guys, that answered it.

[itsMeFred]

Originally Posted by IsThisOneTaken?

Kearney/GI/Holdrege are not part of the Sandhills. Neither are Ogallala or Alliance, but you're getting close. You can see them from there.

Although not generally the best scientific source, this map at Wikipedia outlines it well:

File:Map of Nebraska Sand Hills.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some towns that are in the Sandhills: Arthur, Mullen, Hyannis, Thedford, Lakeside. All bustling metro areas.

Not to mention my corner: Benkelman, Haigler, Champion...

[IsThisOneTaken?]

Originally Posted by itsMeFred

Not to mention my corner: Benkelman, Haigler, Champion...

I've heard your area's sandhills called the sand-sage prairie as the sandhills there have more sage than the northern sandhills.

[itsMeFred]

I guess I've never heard that one, though to be sure we do have a lot more sage.
I think it's a climate thing. we're a solid zone 5 down here, as opposed to a zone 4 up in the central and northern hills. Or maybe because it's a little dryer...

But the actual sand is the same.

[IsThisOneTaken?]

I have a friend in Benkelman who refers to it as the Banana Belt of Nebraska. Must be the zone 5 thing...