Nebraska National Forest at Halsey

National Forest (Bessey Ranger District); Often Described As The Largest Hand Planted Forest In The United States · Halsey, Nebraska

The Nebraska National Forest at Halsey, run as the Bessey Ranger District, is a block of planted pine forest in the middle of the Sandhills, the vast grass-covered dunes of north-central Nebraska, just west of the village of Halsey on Highway 2 and between the Dismal and Middle Loup rivers. In 1902 the botanist Charles E. Bessey of the University of Nebraska persuaded the federal government to test whether trees could be grown on the treeless plains, and foresters began planting seedlings by hand from a nursery they built on site. The result, roughly 20,000 acres of ponderosa pine, jack pine and eastern red cedar, is often described as the largest hand-planted forest in the United States, set inside a much larger district of open grassland. Visitors come to drive up to Scott Lookout Tower for a view over pine and dunes, to camp at the Bessey Recreation Area, to tube or canoe the rivers, to ride horses, to watch prairie grouse in spring and to hunt. It is a small forest island in a sea of grass, and most sights are short visits.

40637 River Loop, Halsey, Nebraska, 69142, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the national forest is open all day, every day, all year. The Bessey campground has its main season from roughly May to September, with some loops or services closed in winter, and the pool, in years it has operated, opens only in midsummer. The Bessey Ranger District office near Halsey keeps weekday business hours, roughly 8 am to 4:30 pm, and is closed weekends and federal holidays. Nursery tours, if offered, need arranging ahead. The traps that ruin a day are finding the office shut on a weekend when you need road or tower information, a fire ban that rules out a campfire, soft sand on the road to the lookout, and arriving in November deer season expecting a quiet walk. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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