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Title
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Salt Basin Habitat Notes
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Frank Shoemaker - Omaha, Lincoln, and Nebraska Narratives
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Identifier
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321301
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Transcription
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June 29 - continued shallow; and these shallows have afforded, for centuries, a feeding ground for shore-birds - snipe, plover, and their like. Innumerable dipterous insects breed here; and their larvae, by the trillions, have made the Salt Basin a favored stop-over point for migrants, and a residence for many species. - I am tempted to carry on here and tell more about this area and its birds, but the subject is too vast; even my assembled, and those admittedly preliminary, notes, will fill 20 pages like this. I feel in duty bound to cover the topic to the best of my ability, but as an amateur in both ornithology and ecology I am scared stiff; surely the pants of savantship will bag on me when I step in! However & anyhow, my Salt Basin story shall be recorded later. The mud flats about the Salt Basin, wide and level, after a bit of drying show quantities of crystallized salt. These flats afford habitat in their varying zones for many species of beetles, among which the leading interest of Dr. Wolcott and myself centers in Cicindelidae, or tiger beetles. However, on this trip, the soaked earth kept every tiger beetle out of sight; for they are sun-lovers. About 30 years ago (1871 or 1872), records tell us that there was at one time approximately two thousand Indians camped here to get their year's supply of salt from the big spring. The borders of this wet spot - of course within the drainage area but sufficiently elevated to be free from excessive moisture and from destructive salinity - are occupied almost wholly by land under cultivation. A trip around the lake is always interesting to an observer
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Rights
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
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Is Version Of
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image-327.jpg
Salt Basin Habitat Notes