Blackbird Hill - Decatur, Nebraska

Blackbird Hill - Decatur, Nebraska

You may have thought that there was nothing special to see or learn about in Decatur but you would be wrong.  How many times will you get to see a place where an Indian Chief is buried upright on his horse?  That’s what is under the mound of dirt 45 feet high just eight miles north of Decatur.  Chief Blackbird, a great Omaha chief was buried here prior to 1804 when Lewis and Clark visited the gravesite.

It is said that Blackbird Hill is haunted and that every year, on the 17^th of October, dozens of people gather at the site.  If you think it is the chief that is haunting the hill you would be in for a surprise to learn that it is actually a young woman who was murdered upon this hill more than 150 years ago!

The story goes that there were a couple of young people that wanted to be together in the 1840’s out east.  The boy finished his schooling and decided to travel overseas before settling down.  He “never” returned and the young girl, after waiting for several years, married another man and they headed west and eventually settled in northeast Nebraska right here at Blackbird Hill.

October 17, 1849 was a fateful day when she saw her old fiancé walking up the path from the Missouri River to her small cabin.  He didn’t realize that she lived there, he just was following the path after traveling to the west coast to try to find her and then giving up headed back east.  He landed, one day, at the foot of Blackbird Hill, saw this windy trail and decided to follow it never thinking that he would find his love in that small cabin.

The girl (not so young now) told him that when her husband returned home that night she was going to ask him to release her from her marriage so she could go with her one true love.  The husband did not want her to leave and begged her to stay.  She refused and he got angry and ended up attacking her with his hunting knife.  She screamed and fell to the floor.  The husband dropped his knife and gathered up his bleeding wife and with her in his arms ran to the cliff at the top of the hill and jumped with her into the river below.

The young man arrived just in time to see his love and her husband as the man leap from the summit and to hear the woman’s final scream of agony. 

The man wandered the hills with grief in his heart until he was finally found half starved and ragged by a group of the Omaha Indians.  They took this delirious and unable to speak man back to their village and nursed him back to health.

The path from the cabin to the cliff edge is barren yet today.  No plant life will grow on the path that was the last path taken by the woman and her husband prior to their death.  According to the legend, each year on the 17^th of October you can hear the woman’s chilling screams at the top of the hill.

So, if you are in the area around the 17^th of October you may want to visit the site just to see if the legend is reality….it could be!

Driving Directions from Decatur:

Head west on NE 51 (7^th St.) toward Broadway (.2 miles) and then turn right at 4^th Ave (US 75) for 5.9 miles, turn right 1.2 miles and then take a sharp left for .3 miles and you will be a Blackbird Hill.