Lynch Dawgs - Info

When Lewis and Clark traveled across Nebraska 200 years ago their expedition came down from Nebraska's historic Mount Old Baldy only to find some very unusual inhabitants already occupying great villages across the Great Plains. Of course, these were the Prairie Dog villages. And, when Lynch, Nebraska celebrates the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark in 2004, they will have some cuddly little critters to help make the festivities complete. Lynch Public School home economics teacher Joan Faith, designed and copyrighted a pattern to produce stuffed Prairie Dog souvenirs for visitors to the area. The money raised from the sales will go right back into making Lynch a tourist hot spot as vacationers seek out the Lewis and Clark trail stops. Currently, a proposed overlook on Mount Old Baldy is just one of the resources that Lynch residents hope to build to give visitors a grand look at their historic community.

The Lewis and Clark expedition was so enamored with the brown furry "barking squirrels" that they actually spent a great deal of time trying to dig the animals out of their holes to attain new pets. When that didn't work several of the men on the expedition found as many drinking vessels as they could locate, filled them with water, and then began flushing the poor "barking squirrels" out of their holes. It worked! The expedition sent back a prairie dog that survived a long trip back east to President Thomas Jefferson in Washington DC.

The following quote (in less than perfect English) comes from a log entry by William Clark on September 7, 1804, "Cap. Lewis and myself walked up to the top which forms a Cone and is about 70 feet higher that the high lands around it, the Base is about 300 foot in decending this Cupola, discovered a Village of Small animals that burrow in the grown (those animals are called by the French ‘Petite Chien’)."

Clark also provided one of the first known English descriptions of the prairie dog. "Their mouth resemble the rabit, head longer, legs short, and tow nails long their tail like a ground Squirel which they Shake and make chattering noise ther eyes like a dog."

Not to be outdone by the prairie dogs, Old Baldy has also received its fair share of notoriety over the years. A painting entitled "Old Baldy" hangs in the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. It was painted by Karl Bodmer in 1831. Bodmer had accompanied the German Lord, Maximilian, on an expedition up the Missouri river and he painted many pictures as they explored the region. These paintings of Maximilian were not discovered until after World War II in a castle in Germany. The works were then returned to the United States as a tribute to Bodmer and his wonderful journey through the early Nebraska landscapes.

Lynch, Nebraska has a population of 269 and is located in North Central Nebraska near the South Dakota border. Ten miles to the north of Lynch lies Sunshine Bottom and the Missouri River which was part of the Lewis and Clark Trail. Five miles to the south of town runs the Niobrara River. Nebraska Highway 12 takes you through Lynch and the Ponca Valley.