07 August 2020

A ‘B’-Word Brief About Beautiful Cherry County

James E. Ducey. June 18, 2020. A ‘B’-word brief about beautiful Cherry County. Grant County News 135(46): 4, 7.

B is a bestest letter to bestow upon Cherry County, a Nebraska space well beyond banal and a beacon that has beckoned many with beguiling features to behold and which cannot be belittled.

This biggest county in Nebraska has more than 3.8 million acres. Its beginnings and subsequent bibliography of prose represented by some of the best and most brilliant writers is beatific.

Back in history, brave warriors bareback on their best buckskins chased bunches of roaming buffalo at one time, using bows and arrows and bone tools to gather natural bounty for winter days when there would be blowing snow blizzards and brutally cold days. There were no buildings.

A land of many grasses beckoned. Brash men from Omaha and North Platte with bravado and a bunch of bucks began brazen efforts that brought Texas beeves to the broad plains of the sand hills, bursting forth a big beef industry. Boys on horses briskly brought big herds to begin a cattle business. Beneath many bluffs, the cowboys with big guns – some loaded with buckshot – rode broncs beside sheltered herds were bugs were boisterous and making every attempt to bite. Meals of bacon and beans came from skillets bright from burning boughs. There was no bunkhouse buffet.

Bullwhackers brought supplies that certainly included bacon and other grub basics for a bland diet.

Burly men with bold brio in local bars and brothels used bullets blasted from barrels of big guns to settle disputes, often after only moments of bickering. They cowboys were boisterous. It was no bother to have a burial beneath a hillside bounded with bunch grass.

Basics of grass and water brought hearty settlers and their belongings for a new beginning, often behind a buckboard or after riding behind the whistle blast of a locomotive driven by essential black nuggets. Often on a bowed and bridled horse burdened with packs of basic supplies, or while breaking a team to pull beyond a bunch of reins as the drover built up the movement to get to the place where they would maybe break some sod. There were families big or small. Perhaps, buried between the canvas and between the board slats what was decided to essential to their bundle of a new life, including some beautiful and notable bibelots.

Women in bonnets walked town boardwalks looking for provisions, perhaps including some warm bread or getting some fine beef from a butcher. Maybe a few shiny pennies were spent to buy a broadcloth to make a dress of special bright colors that could raise the family spirit on a dreary day when there was a basic realization that there would be better times.

Beneath blue sky bunches of country boys gathered at small burgs of board-built havens, wearing ballcaps and carrying bats and gloves. With big swings, bounds with much bravado could make it to each beckoning base.

Amidst the big or little hills and meadows, small boys chased after bugs in the farmyard. Cute little girls wore bonnets as they roamed the ranch yards. There was a whole bunch of land to discover. There was more than once occasion when a bouquet was plucked and taken home to mom in the kitchen.

Basically now in this most beautiful of counties there are many bright basics. Bovines abound and browse the bunches of grasses including the bluestems. Mother cows are within barbed wire spaces. Beefy bulls from the best of the cattle breeds are brought forth and then basically bought with some bucks at some local sale barn. Bouncy and growing are growing baby calves. Then there are the essentials of a branding by a dedicated bunch that includes cowboys and cow girls. Please notice that horses are so essential and their name may start with the letter B.

Bison still roam now even during blinding blizzards or days with blistering heat. Bucks wander and at times avoid a bullet shot. Cottontail bunnies with bravado jump around. Bobcats slink beneath bodacious skies.

During the bountiful season bales of hay get bound with twine by balers. There are bountiful crops of amber waves of grain beneath the basic covers of big rig trailers bouncing along Main street.

There is a bevy of birds including the bluebird and Bobolink, also notable the Brown Thrasher and Brown-headed Cowbird. Grackles can do their best to empty my bank account while eating incessantly at the bird seed buffet. Majestic Bald Eagle soar above and treasure their little ones nestled amidst brought to build their home place using twigs or sticks suited built one at a time atop big tree branches. Binoculars are beneficial to get a bead on a bittern or bland warbler among some bulrushes, as well as many other sorts of biota. When the Great Horned Owl hoots it is a voice of their necessity while the land is dark space where they hunt without being able to see. They listen to bits of sound before swooping down to snag a bit to eat to take back to their babies in a branchy nest nearby.

There are the endangered American Burying Beetle that belay an indication the and Blowout Penstemon are a beatific bit of flora in broad, wind-blown blowouts where particular bugs occur. Or perhaps a bellowing bull frog or Blandings Turtle blending within a wind-blown meadow. Butterflies fly. Even brownish bats echo. A couple of local two local buff bunnies appreciate a basic, local, bird seed buffet without any blandness near the bluebird shack.

It is basically a broad basis for another breeding season, associated with the basics of boundless beginnings well known by nature.

B-places could be the place to be? There is Berry Bridge at the broad Niobrara. Borman Bridge has its own birdly boughs. Ballards Marsh has its own basics of origins. Brownlee has unique chronicles for the black settlement when softballs games were bunches of boys and men running the bases and throwing friendly bards with bawdy back talk. Brush Creek is biologically important because of itty-bitty fish. Anybody can go to Anderson Bridge and see how the beaver have established a hefty mound of mud and branches. Boardman Creek is a reality of times back in time and still now. How about learning via some book or another about the Badger Lake post-office. Big Springs on the North Loup River has its own video broadcast. Bowring Ranch is a special ranch of basic Hereford history and has its own Sunday day when friendly times blossom. Besides there is the Boiling Spring – which also once had a post-office. Buckhorn Spring that bubbles forth beneath hardy pines that have their own bit of sway in the breezes. The buck deer that was the basis for the name is long gone but the reality of the time meant its loss meant its loss was believed and thus the bequeathal of the name. There is Big Creek. Boardman Creek is a basic reality of times and now. What does the name Dipping Vat Meadow belay? Don’t forget Old Baldy Hill where cerulean blue meets sandy brown even when winds are boisterous and seem to be a bit much. The story of Bartlett Richards and the Spade Ranch is a grand story that can be enjoyed by reading a book of many words.

A bailiwick might include bicycling along B Street, shopping a nearby business in the biggest city within the boundaries of the county.

Merritt Reservoir is a beachy blue place for a boat with the basics to build memories for a beautiful day. Besides, there is the basis to bring bait to get a beautiful blue-gill or big-mouth bass near the boat after a delish breakfast or brunch.

Biodiversity is basic in Cherry county. Bioreserves associated with the Niobrara Valley Preserve with its basic herds of big grazers. The broad McKelvie Division of the Nebraska National Forest could be a beginning to beckon a nightly backdrop of beautifully bright stars. Birch boughs along the Niobrara River in the valley bluffs are part of the botany. Breath deep amidst the balmy blowing breezes of many times. There have been billions of billowing clouds bourgeon during a building thunderstorm as they have for centuries.

Don’t forget, there is a bunch of bloviating being done associated with what may not be the best for Cherry County. Brisk is an appropriate word to broach. There are braggarts. Some are brusque, others bumptious, perhaps because of a bureaucracy of bumpkins. Enjoy without bliss and boffo this basic land that does not need to be further bolstered with no bosh. There is no need to burnish because the reality belays some of the bestest of earth!

The history of our beautilicious Cherry county is not blah-blah-blah. It is known and beloved and written about by a bunch of believers that have known brave ancestors and have a belief in sharing essentials of this broad and essentially beautiful place in the world. It is a big land of grass and blowouts and beef and beautiful grasses that nourish.

Phantasmagoric by golly.