Lodgepole Creek is a tributary of the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwestern United States, Midwest and the American Sout ...

, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 25, 2011 in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

s of

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Lodgepole Creek drains a basin in the interior of a low plateau which lies between the South Platte Basin and the North Platte Basin in the southeastern corner of Wyoming, the southern edge of the

Nebraska Panhandle The Nebraska Panhandle is an area in the western part of the state of Nebraska and one of several U.S. state panhandles, or elongated geographical regions that extend from their main political entity. The Nebraska panhandle is two-thirds as br ...

and several small portions of northeastern Colorado. As its name implies, Lodgepole Creek is a very small stream; for nearly all of its length it flows through the semiarid

High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions: * High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains *High Plains (Australia) The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...

. The Lodgepole Creek Valley has been a major transportation route for over 100 years; the line of the original transcontinental railroad, the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

U.S. Highway 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...

and

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

all run along the stream for much of its length.

Description

Lodgepole Creek rises on the east slope of the

Laramie Mountains The Laramie Mountains are a range of moderately high peaks on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S states of Wyoming and Colorado. The range is the northernmost extension of the line of the ranges along the eastern side of the Rocki ...

of southeastern Wyoming, about east of

Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...

. The creek flows east, north of

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

; it enters Nebraska just east of

Pine Bluffs, Wyoming Pine Bluffs is a town in eastern Laramie County, Wyoming, United States. It is located on the county's border with Nebraska. Pine Bluffs is part of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,129 at the 2010 census ...

. In Nebraska, it flows to the east past

Kimball Kimball may refer to: People *Kimball (surname) * Kimball (given name) Places Canada * Kimball, Alberta United States * Kellogg, Iowa, formerly known as Kimball * Kimball, Kansas * Kimball, Minnesota * Kimball, Nebraska, a city * Kimball, South ...

, Sidney and

Chappell Chappell may refer to: Places * Chappell, Nebraska, United States * Chappells, South Carolina, United States * Chappell (crater) on the moon * Mount Chappell Island, Tasmania, Australia * North West Mount Chappell Islet, Tasmania, Australia Organi ...

; at Chappell, Lodgepole Creek turns to the southeast and flows into Colorado. The stream, by this point flowing south, empties into the South Platte River at

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, south of the Nebraska/Colorado border.

Early irrigation

According to a 1921 history of the Nebraska Panhandle, the first irrigation in that part of the state took place in the Lodgepole valley in 1871. A dam was built across the creek at Fort Sidney and used to provide water for crops raised by the post's soldiers. As more settlers moved into the valley, dams and ditches proliferated throughout the valley; according to the 1921 history, downstream flow was maintained by the narrowness of the valley and the fact that the creek was fed by springs along its entire length."Volume 2, "History of western Nebraska and its people.
General history. Cheyenne, Box Butte, Deuel, Garden, Sioux, Kimball, Morrill, Sheridan, Scotts Bluff, Banner, and Dawes counties. A group of counties often called the panhandle of Nebraska", Grant L. Shumway, editor in chief, Western Publishing & Engraving Company (1921) Volume 2 of a 3 volume work, copyrighted work is now in the public domain due to lapse of time.

References

External links

USGS Lodgepole Creek flow data (Bushnell, Nebraska)Flow data at Ovid, Colorado
Colorado Division of Natural Resources {{authority control Rivers of Colorado Rivers of Nebraska Rivers of Wyoming Rivers of Deuel County, Nebraska Rivers of Cheyenne County, Nebraska Rivers of Kimball County, Nebraska Tributaries of the Platte River

Description

Early irrigation

See also

References

External links