Marlboro Man - Sandhills Info

The Sandhills of Nebraska are the largest sand dune formation in North America. They were formed as rivers carried rocky debris from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains. Then wind and other natural forces turned the debris into sand and loess, the building blocks of much of the Plains soils. The Sandhills cover about 20,000 square miles.

Here are some background video stories taken from the NETV program "A Sandhills Story." At the bottom of this page is a bibliography for additional information about the Sandhills.

Throughout geologic history, the Sandhills have been changing and they may be much younger than previously thought. They have gone through relatively wet periods and droughts. Find out how geologists are reading that record.

In the archeological record, there is evidence that humans started coming to the Sandhills around 11,000 years ago. But then there's a mysterious gap in that record.

The cultural development of the Sandhills region is fascinating and still evolving. But there are common themes imposed by the environment itself.

What would happen if another cycle of very dry years comes about? Geologists find clues in a dune field in neighboring Wyoming.

For further reading

A sandhills atlas
Ann Bleed and Charles Flowerday, editors
Conservation and Survey Division, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska Ð Lincoln, 1989

This Fragile Land
Paul Johnsgard
University of Nebraska Press Ð Lincoln, 1995

"Evidence of Active Dune Sand on the Great Plains in the Nineteenth Century from Accounts of Early Explorers."
Quaternary Research 43 (1995): 198-208.

"While the Prairie Slumbers"
by John Farrar.
The Nature Conservancy News, Volume 31, Number 6.
November/December 1981.

Northern Prairie Wetlands.
Edited by Arnold van der Valk.
Iowa State University Press, 1989.

The Nebraska Sand Hills: The Human Landscape
Charles Barron McIntosh
University of Nebraska Press Ð Lincoln, 1996

The Last Prairie
Stephen R. Jones
Ragged Mountain Press / McGraw-Hill, 2000