Connect With Nature
Even though the Open Frontier Creative District runs through Downtown Chadron, there are opportunities to enjoy nature throughout the district.
Chadron State College
For more than a century, Chadron State College has helped students build their futures. Founded in 1911, it is the only four-year, regionally-accredited college in the western half of Nebraska. Chadron State is located in the scenic Pine Ridge of Northwest Nebraska, where outdoor recreational activities abound. With impetus from the college, the town offers many cultural opportunities, and its charm makes it a desirable place to attend college and live. The campus provides a beautiful place to stretch your legs.
For more than three decades, students, residents and visitors have enjoyed the beauty of the Chadron State College campus, which is an affiliate site of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. The CSC Arboretum fulfills multiple missions: providing a teaching landscape, water and energy management and the development of wildlife habitat. All of those missions combine to provide a beautiful, peaceful environment for visitors to wander through and enjoy.
At the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center, the Heritage Gardens feature a collection of Sandhills plants collected near Mari’s grave and planted in Sandhills soils. An orchard with the same variety of apples Old Jules grew on his homestead is also featured on campus.
Botany, taxonomy and history students study plum trees, buffalo berries, chokecherries and currents, and how plant growth changed when the region was opened for permanent settlement. A pollinating garden attracts butterflies, bees and flies near the Eagle Ridge student housing complex.
Chadron State College’s labyrinth is a recent addition to campus, built through student and staff volunteer efforts in an abandoned water cistern used by the City of Chadron in the early 1900s. Whether you view it as a piece of land art, a quiet walk among native grasses, the ideal spot for a panoramic view or a place to refocus your mind and reduce your stress, the labyrinth is a unique spot. It’s accessible through the Thompson Nature Preserve, established in 1974. The preserve features a concrete trail that winds past Briggs Pond and is popular with walkers, runners and cyclists.
Stand on Main Street and look south and one thing stands out. C-Hill. The concrete C was placed on the hill south of the Chadron State College campus in 1924 and overlooks the city.
The C, designed by CSC math professor T.A.F. Williams, is roughly 80 feet tall. The landmark is featured in “Hillside Letters, A to Z—A Guide to Hometown Landmarks,” written by Evelyn Corning of Arizona and published by Mountain Press Publishing of Missoula, Montana, in early 2007. According to Corning, it’s the only landmark letter in the state. There are an estimated 400 such landmarks across the country.
A trail leads adventurous hikers to the top of C-Hill, where they get a birds-eye view of campus and the city.
Check out a video made to celebrate C-Hill’s 100th anniversary here.
In addition to the Thompson Nature Preserve Trail, the CSC campus offers several other trails to enjoy.
- Mari Sandoz Heritage Trail: This paved trail was established with a Department of Roads grant. Stationary fitness equipment is available at the trail head. Bench seating is available at intervals. No horses or motorized vehicles are allowed on any CSC trails.
- Tenth Street Trail: This seasonally maintained trail provides a connection between the parking lots near the High Rise residence hall complex on the east side of campus to the college’s main trail system. No horses or motorized vehicles are allowed on any CSC trails.
- Cross Country Course: The cross country course is a 5,000 meter run starting at the practice fields, crossing in front of C-Hill, back east along the escarpment, north toward the 10th Street Living Fence, south around the Rangeland Complex, crossing over the initial path, and ending slightly south of the starting point at the practice fields.
Parks & Gathering Spaces
Located right next to Chadron State College, Chadron High School, Chadron Middle School, and Chadron Primary School, War Memorial Park is a great place for students, friends, and families of all ages to spend quality time together. There is a variety of activities offered at War Memorial Park to meet everyone’s needs including a disc golf course, a basketball court, tennis courts, a sand volleyball court, and playground equipment. If you’re hungry, there are also tables and cooking grills at the park that are perfect for a picnic! Location: 10th & Shelton Street, Chadron, NE 69337
The National Register listed Dawes County Courthouse at 451 Main St., Chadron, sits on Mary E. Smith-Hayward Square, named after a prominent businesswoman during Chadron’s earliest days. The Chadron Business and Professional Women’s Club dedicated the square in her honor and named her an honorary member in 1998. Hayward was born in Pennsylvania but became a prominent figure in Chadron after she struck out on her own in 1885. After arriving in Nebraska she took a claim west of Chadron and also opened a dry goods business in town (her building is located on 2nd Street). She was president of the Nebraska Women’s Suffrage Association in the 1890s, and refused to pay taxes in 1895 to protest women’s inability to vote. She represented Nebraska in the Women Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., in 1913, marching with 8,000 other attendees. Hayward was also an animal rights activist and a lifelong member of the Humane Society. She came out against the famed Chadron-Chicago Horse Race in 1893 and once had a man arrested for beating his horse. She also worked to beautify the courthouse square so it’s appropriate that the Chadron Business and Professional Women’s Club honored her with its dedication. Two memorials – a rock memorial on a concrete slab on the north side and a concrete bench near the courthouse – recognize Smith-Hayward and the organization. Also located on the courthouse square is a bandstand, a veterans memorial, and a pioneer memorial. The veterans memorial recognizes Dawes County citizens who died fighting in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. The pioneer memorial is dedicated “to the valor of the pioneers. 1885-1935” and was constructed of local rocks.
Sponsored by the Chadron Chamber of Commerce and various business partners, Bands on Bordeaux is a free summer concert series that takes place in the 100 block of Bordeaux Street in Chadron in July and August at Railroad Park, located at the intersection of Main and First Streets. The series is designed to be family friendly, with kids’ games, vendors, food and the opportunity to dance and listen to live music while catching up with old friends or making new ones.
The current year’s complete schedule can be found here as it becomes available.
The park includes a historical marker recognizing the significance of the railroad to Chadron’s development and will eventually serve as the trailhead for The Cowboy Trail Connection. That trail will be developed to connect with The Cowboy Trail east of Chadron, and become part of the coast-to-coast Great American Rail-Trail. Development plans for the park and trail are currently ongoing.
The City of Chadron purchased two lots at Second and Main streets to convert to a Downtown Plaza in the heart of the Downtown Historical District. Development plans for the project continue, but the plaza currently includes seating (with shade sails during the summer months), a bike repair stand and an information kiosk. Visitors can play cornhole during the summer months, and the plaza is home to the Community Christmas Tree and the annual Country Christmas celebration.
The City of Chadron owns several athletic facilities, all of which are located just outside of the Open Frontier Creative District. They are: Fitzgibbon Field (Little League Baseball), Hampton Field (Women’s Softball), and the Roger Eaton Soccer Fields, all in the 300 block of North Main St., as well as Maurice Horse Field (Legion Baseball) in the 400 block of North Main and Shumway Fields (softball complext) in the 900 block of E. Niobrara St.
Wilson Park in Chadron is a perfect place to spend the day with family and friends. The park offers several features including an arboretum, gazebo, cooking grills, handicap accessible picnic tables, horseshoe pits, picnic shelters, playground equipment, restrooms, and a sledding hill for the winter months. Location: 9th & Morehead Street, Chadron, NE 69337
