Nebraska National Forest

Thousands of acres of trees have been planted from seedlings propagated at a forest service nursery.

Explore the rocky hills and plains of the Nebraska National Forest.

Enjoy a bike ride on forest service lands.

From the Scott Tower Fire Lookout near the Bessey Recreation Complex, visitors can view the country's largest hand-planted forest in the sandhills of central Nebraska.

The 20,000 acres of mixed evergreens were propagated at the Bessey Nursery, the oldest forest service nursery, established in 1902.

Grasslands dominate the region. The nearly 1.1 million acres administered by the Nebraska National Forest include the Oglala National Grassland in Nebraska and the Buffalo Gap and Fort Pierre national grasslands in South Dakota.

Camping, hiking, mountain biking, hunting, horseback riding and wildlife viewing are some of the recreational activities, while livestock grazing, timber production and mineral exploration are also practiced in the forest and grasslands.

The Bessey Recreation Complex off Nebraska State Hwy. 2 near Halsey offers campsites and other recreation facilities.

Hikers and horseback riders enjoy the rustic opportunities available at the scenic Pine Ridge National Recreation Area and Soldier Creek Wilderness.

Other forest attractions include Toadstool Geologic Park, known for its unusual rock formations and scientifically valuable fossil deposits, and the Hudson-Meng Bison Kill archaeological site.

When Albert Meng discovered bones in an eroding bank nearly 50 years ago, he could not have imagined how important his discovery would become. A local rancher with many interests including amateur archeology, Meng and his friend Bill Hudson tried to get professional advice to see if the bones were important to science. After several years of setbacks, scientists finally confirmed that this 10,000 year-old site was the largest bison bonebed of its era in the Western Hemisphere.