Tekamah Chamber of Commerce

                                   Recreation

Tekamah has a well-established park system comprised of six distinct parks: Memorial Park, Athletic Park, Folsom Park, Fireman's Park, South Park and Mini-Park. The parks and recreational areas offer a wide variety of passive and active recreational activities. Dedicated park maintenance has earned Tekamah the coveted TREE CITY award.

Facilities available at the area parks include: large and small picnic shelters, playground equipment, horseshoe pits, swimming pool, hard-surfaced lighted tennis courts, a basketball court, picnic tables, restrooms, softball & baseball fields, and sand volleyball courts. For campers, electrical hook-ups and dumping stations are also available.

A full range of recreational activities are available in and around the Tekamah area. Youth clubs have been established for the following activities: arts, baseball, basketball, golf, roller hockey, soccer, swim team, softball, and wrestling. Adults can participate in sand and court volleyball,bowling, softball, golf, fishing, hunting, rodeo, and trap & clay target shooting.

Family participation in sporting events is common. Area residents enjoy a wide variety of water sports on the Missouri River or at Pelican Point State Recreation area east of town. Summit Lake State Recreation area west of town provides fishing, camping, swimming, picnic shelters and playground areas. For more information, contact: The Summit Lake Recreation Area at 402-374-1727.

 THINGS TO DO & SEE IN THE TEKAMAH AREA
ARCHITECTURE & HISTORICAL
National Register of Historic Places THINGS TO DO

Rural Sites

Logan Creek Site Hunter-gatherers of the Early Archaic period intermittently reoccupied a campsite on a now deeply buried terrace of Logan Creek located southwest of Oakland. Archeological excavations revealed successive layers, each representing a reoccupation of the site. The site dates 6000-4000 B.C. and offers an unusually rich record of activity during this early period of Nebraska's prehistory. Inhabitants hunted bison and obtained a wide variety of smaller game, fish, and wild plant foods. Logan Creek was occupied during a dry, warm climatic episode in the central and western Plains, which may have forced human groups to relocate to areas like Logan Creek in the eastern margins of the Plains.

Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche (St. Johns Lutheran Church) 

St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran Church is an excellent example of a German folk version of the Gothic Revival style. Unique in its rich wood and metal detailing, St. John's is one of the finest and least altered frame churches in Nebraska. Emigration to the Lyons area began in the early 1870s, when German immigrants who had first settled in Eitzen, Minnesota, moved there. The congregation was formed in 1874. The present church was erected in 1902 and was designed by a German-born architect, J. P. Guth of Omaha.

John Henry Stork Log House 

John Henry Stork came to Burt County from Prussia in 1864 and settled on a farm in Arizona Precinct near Tekamah. Stork later built the log house and in September 1871 received his homestead patent from the U.S. government. The one-and-one-half-story, hewn log structure is a unique example of German culture in Nebraska.

Urban Sites

H. S. M. Spielman House 

Pennsylvania native H. S. M. Spielman settled in Burt County in 1857, ten years before Nebraska achieved statehood. Spielman was a successful, enterprising farmer for over fifty years before moving to this house, in Tekamah, in 1906 after his retirement. He served as director and vice-president of the Farmer's Grain and Livestock Association of Tekamah, director and treasurer of the Tekamah and Farmer's Telephone Company, and vice-president of the Burt County State Bank. The house exhibits both Queen Anne and NeoClassical Revival detailing in its design.

Burt County Courthouse 

Burt County was established in 1854. That same year, a group of settlers established what is present-day Tekamah. The following year Tekamah was named the county seat. From 1857 to 1867 a small two-story log blockhouse doubled as the first courthouse. A second courthouse was used until the construction of the present building. Plans for the new building dated from 1913. In 1914 the county residents voted to accept a tax levy to finance the construction of the new courthouse. No further action appears to have occurred until 1916 when construction began. Built in the Beaux Arts style the courthouse was completed in 1917.

E. C. Houston House The E. C. Houston House was built for Emsley Clinton Houston. Houston was the owner and founder of the Houston Lumber Company in Tekamah and also served as vice president of the First National Bank of Tekamah for over twenty years. He was elected mayor of Tekamah in 1893 and was a state senator in 1919. The large frame house constructed in 1904-5 incorporates Neo-Classical Revival details in its porches, door and window openings, and cornices. The most distinctive part of the dwelling is the prominent porch, which has a wooden railing on the first level and wrought iron railing on the second and attic stories. It is now the Burt County Museum.

Edward W. and Rose Folsom Bryant House 

Located in Tekamah the Bryant House was built in 1890. This Queen Anne style residence is an irregularly shaped, two-and-one-half story structure. The house retains a high degree of integrity and is a good example of Queen Anne architecture, a style popular from approximately 1880 to 1910.

Tekamah Carnegie Library Constructed in 1916 the Tekamah Carnegie Library is a one-and-one-half-story brick building. Previously lacking such a facility the town's Commercial Club began planning for the library as early as 1914. After its completion the Tekamah Carnegie Library made a significant contribution to the community's educational system.

Tekamah City Bridge The Tekamah City Bridge is a concrete rigid-frame style, developed in Westchester County, New York, in the early 1920s. This particular bridge was constructed in 1934 using federal relief money. The Tekamah City Bridge retains a high degree of integrity and continues to carry vehicular traffic.

BOWLING
Tiger Bowl, Main Stret

Hoot Gibson Memorial Rodeo Arena Hosts Tekamah's Tri-County Saddle Club rodeo each year

HUNTING & FISHING
Kohler Commercial Hunting: Duck and Goose Hunting along Missouri River / Central Flyway. 820 Q St, Tekamah, NE 68061, 402-374-2747

Pheasant Bonanza Hunt Club & Kennel:
Resort style hunt club, corporate retreats. Year round training & boarding of sporting dogs. 3097 Co Rd “O”, Tekamah, NE 68061, 866-374-1765, www.pheasantbonanza.com

Cedar Hills Range: 1 1/2 miles West on Hwy 32 and 1/2 mile south of Tekamah
Sporting clays, blue rock trap, sight in rifles, and a target range for pistols and rifles, leagues. Open by appointment. 402-374-1254


GOLF
North Ridge Country Club: Private, 402-374-2661, Follow ‘O’ St West through town. The natural terrain is ideal for a golf course. The course has the length and topography to be quite challenging.


MUSEUM

Burt County Museum: On Highway 75, 319 N 13th St - The historic E.C. Houston House was built in 1904. It is a grand home with fourteen rooms, including a third floor ballroom. The grounds also feature a country school, a museum annex, gazebo, beautiful landscaping, a lighted flagpole and the Folsom Park Bridge.
Hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 1-5pm, Group Tours by appointment
Phone: 402-374-1505, Admission: Free, donations accepted, Estimated time: 1-2 hours
Annual events: Coffee On The Porch, Candlelight Tour -Beautiful Christmas decorations and displays during the holiday season.


PARKS & GARDENS
Mural & Mural Garden: US Highway 75 and NE Highway 32 - The garden celebrates the Bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery and the Sesquicentennial of Tekamah, Nebraska, Burt County, Nebraska, and the Nebraska Territory.The Mural was a Community project and the garden features plants Lewis and Clark saw on their journey. The mural garden is a project of the Tekamah Gardening Club and Chamber of Commerce. Please visit the gardens at the Tekamah Public Library and the Burt County Museum.Lewis and the Corps of Discovery documented 178 plants previously unknown east of the Mississippi River. Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of studying plants: “Botany I rank with the most valuable sciences, whether we consider its subjects as furnishing the principal subsistence of life to man and beast, delicious varieties for our tables, refreshments from our orchards, the adornments of flower boarders, shade and perfume of our groves, materials for our buildings, or medicaments for our bodies.”- Thomas Jefferson

City Park: Over 60 acres of parks. Play ground, park shelters, public pool, tennis court, ball diamonds, rest room, camping, RV dump station

Folsom Park: Features a native rock monument marking the spot of a settlers' camp on October 6, 1854


STATE RECREATION AREA
Pelican Point State Recreation Area 4 miles east, 4 miles North, 1 mile east of Tekamah - On August 8th, Lewis saw feathers of “the breadth of the river” floating down the Missouri. Soon the corps came across hundreds of pelicans. One of the birds was killed and examined; it was reported that its pouch held five gallons of water. This area is now called Pelican Point and is adjacent to the Missouri River on 36 primitive acres.
Activities: Hiking, boat ramp, river access, picnic shelters, grills, fire rings, tables, fishing, 17 primitive camping sites (fee), 17 trailer pads - 40’ limit, fee $6Open year round. 402-374-1727. Admission: State Park Permit required

Recreation Area: Off of Hwy 32 west of Tekamah - The 535-acre recreation area hosts a 190-acre spring-fed lake which is operated by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. It features 42 primitive tent camping spaces ($4 fee), primitive facilities, 27 trailer pads ($6 fee), dump station, picnic shelters, unsupervised swimming, no wake boating, boat ramp, fishing and hiking.
Open year round402/374-1727 www.ngpc.state.ne.us/parks Admission: State Park Permit required.