Discover Saunders County

When exploring Saunders County, visitors will encounter a range of travel themes: lakes and trails, wildlife encounters, and historic sites. At the recreation areas, the focus is on acreage and trail connections; at the Wildlife Safari Park, it is on animals and unique visitor experiences. Museums and historic homes, meanwhile, tell stories of very different individuals and areas of life.

Lakes and Trails

The size figures for Lake Wanahoo and Czechland Lake illustrate their different scales. The Lake Wanahoo NRD Recreation Area encompasses 662-acre Lake Wanahoo within a total recreation area of 1,777 acres. The Czechland Lake Recreation Area includes an 82-acre lake on 260 acres of publicly accessible land. When comparing the two, be sure to distinguish between the water surface and the total area of each recreation area.

Lake Wanahoo has hiking and biking trails around the lake. The Czechland Lake Recreation Area is one mile north of Prague, Nebraska, on Highway 79. On the north side of the lake, trails connect three day-use areas with the tent and RV campgrounds. Both the trail connections and the adjoining day-use and camping areas are clearly identified there.

The Memphis State Recreation Area covers 163 acres of land and includes a 48-acre lake. The lake is designated as a no-wake lake.

Wildlife and Experiences

The Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Safari Park is located on 440 acres outside Ashland, Nebraska, in Saunders County. The park is home to breeding programs for cheetahs and Amur tigers. Behind-the-scenes experiences give visitors the chance to get closer to the animals. Thus, in addition to the two breeding programs, unique wildlife encounters are a distinct aspect of the park.

For another activity in Ashland, the Ox-Bow Disc Golf Course is located along Salt Creek, east of downtown.

Historic Buildings and Notable Figures

The Saunders County Historical Society Museum complex includes a train depot, a caboose, a post office, an agricultural building, a church, a schoolhouse, and a log cabin. The buildings represent a range of topics, from transportation and agriculture to education and religion. The museum also features exhibits about Carl Johnson, a Titanic survivor, and Darryl Zanuck, a movie mogul and co-founder of 20th Century Fox. This brings together an extraordinary personal story and the career of a man from the film industry.

The Hanson House is the restored home of Howard Hanson. In 1944, Hanson received the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished contemporary musical composition. Memorabilia in the house also relates to “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and George Beadle, a Nobel laureate in science. The connections therefore range from musical composition to baseball and science; the house itself remains associated with Howard Hanson, while the memorabilia also commemorates Crawford and Beadle.

Discover more destinations: Ceresco, Wahoo, Franklin County, Dodge County, Otoe County, Washington County, Phelps County, Wayne County.

For the main travel overview: Nebraska.