My fall road trip: Still in Cherry County, Nebraska

...and heading home. Yes, the Sandhills of Nebraska consist of sand. How did that sand get there?

From Bob Dexter in 2003 for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The Sandhills have their roots in an inland sea that covered much of the United States 60 million years ago. When the continent pushed up, river systems ran down, carrying a thick layer of sand across the plains. After the last glaciers rumbled through about 10,000 years ago, the sand blew into a desert of undulating dunes. Over time, grass gained a foothold, holding the dunes in place.

The Sandhills aren't fertile country. It takes a massive amount of land to make a functional ranch, and many of them are measured in square miles instead of acres. There are more cows than people in the Sandhills. (Only 1.1 humans, on average, occupy each square mile in Cherry County, which is substantially larger than Connecticut.) But the people you find are usually happy for company.

Tomorrow: Leaving Cherry County.

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Geology