willa cather memorial prairie

We took a short walk through the prairie in early October. It was so quiet. I am sure it can be stark and severe in the winter, but that day was beautiful and it gave me a sense of the prairie before it was settled. I highly recommend a side trip to this spot. It is a short drive from Red Cloud.

Every evening, we went to the Cather memorial prairie; it was different every time: different lighting, different clouds, different birds. Best way to get an inkling of what pioneers faced.

This swath of original prairie is carefully tended and shows what the prairie looked like when early settlers, like Willa Cather's family, arrived, with native grasses, wildflowers, and animals. It's evocative and incredibly beautiful.

Start your Cather experience in the old opera house. If you want to tour the home and the museum then a guide will take you there, but recommend you call in advance to arrange this. The staff is most accommodating. Right now they have a temporary traveling exhibit from the National Endowment of the Humanities that chronicles America from the time of the Great Depression to World War Two. It is a great exhibit. Red Cloud is small, but still has that atmosphere that served to inspire the unique story and writing style of Willa Cather.

This is a small remnant of prairie left from Willa Cather's time. There are trails to walk through it. If you are going through Red Cloud, I recommend stopping.

The prairie was just about to bloom when we visited. I wish we had arrived in June for the wild flowers that were described on the informational poster.

I am a huge fan of Willa Cather's novels, and I have always wanted to see the prairie country that she describes so beautifully in her book My Antonia. I googled the name of the town in the book - Black Hawk and found that it was a fictional town based on the town of Red Cloud, NE. There is a wonderful Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud that offers guided tours of the town and country but they do not give tours of the Cather Prairie. (I would still recommend stopping at the Cather Foundation book store to get directions and souvenirs.) The Prairie is located five miles south of Red Cloud along 281 right before the Kansas border. There is no marking for it along the road, but once you pull into the parking lot, there is a sign marker.The parking lot is small. There is no bathroom facility, gift shop, ranger station, etc. at the prairie, just a sign marker and a garbage can.To the right of the sign, there is a gate that marks the entrance to a walking trail. The trail is simply a wide mowed path through the prairie. The onset of the trail is on higher ground so you can easily take a nice photograph of the prairie from the parking lot or the start of the trail. I imagine that sunrise or sunset would be a great time to visit. We visited in the middle of a July day and it was very hot.As you walk along the path, you dip down in elevation among the rolling hills and you feel as if you were the only person in the Prairie (you can imagine that you have gone back in time since you are surrounded by 600 acres of never-been-plowed native grasses and wildflowers). You can not see the road, just windswept prairie and sky. Much of Nebraska is planted with corn and wheat, so I am so glad that they have preserved this beautiful corner for those who want to see what it would have looked like a hundred years ago.One note - we found several tics on our clothing after walking through the prairie, so wear long sleeves and pants and check for tics after a hike if you visit in the summer months!