Burt County, Nebraska (Plate 31)

Burt County, Nebraska

County Seat: Tekamah
Founded: 1854
Named For: Francis Burt, first Governor of Nebraska Territory
License Plate Prefix: 31
Population: 6,722 (2020 census)
Area: 493 sq mi

History

Burt County was established in 1854, one of the original counties created when Nebraska Territory was organized. It was named after Francis Burt, the first territorial governor. Early settlement was shaped by the Missouri River, which provided transportation, trade, and fertile bottomlands for agriculture. Tekamah, founded in 1854, became the county seat and developed into a regional hub for farming, commerce, and civic life. Lyons, Oakland, and Decatur grew as important agricultural and cultural communities with strong immigrant roots, especially Swedish and Danish.

The county’s history reflects the growth of river towns, pioneer agriculture, and the development of rural communities that remain central to local identity.

Geography

Location: Northeastern Nebraska along the Missouri River
Landscape: River bluffs, fertile bottomlands, rolling prairie, and rural farmland

Adjacent Counties:

• Thurston County (north)
• Cuming County (west)
• Dodge County (southwest)
• Washington County (south)
• Harrison County, Iowa (east, across the Missouri River)

Culture & Landmarks

• Lewis and Clark Scenic Byway – A historic route along the Missouri River with scenic overlooks and interpretive sites.
• Tekamah and Oakland Historic Districts – Architecture and landmarks reflecting early settlement and immigrant heritage.
• Decatur Bend – A notable Missouri River feature with wildlife and recreation areas.

Notable Communities

• Tekamah – County seat and regional commercial center.
• Oakland – Known as the “Swedish Capital of Nebraska.”
• Lyons – Community with strong agricultural and cultural traditions.
• Decatur – Historic river town with deep pioneer roots.

Events & Attractions

• Swedish Festival in Oakland – Celebrating the county’s Scandinavian heritage.
• Burt County Fair – Livestock shows, rodeo events, and community celebrations.
• Outdoor Recreation – Fishing, boating, and scenic drives along the Missouri River.

Living in Burt County

Burt County blends river‑valley agriculture, immigrant heritage, and small‑town life. Tekamah, Oakland, Lyons, and Decatur provide essential services and cultural identity, while rural areas maintain long‑standing farming traditions. Residents value the area’s history, natural beauty, and strong community connections.

Outdoors — Camping, RV, Hunting & Fishing

Burt County has two state recreation areas, four municipal campgrounds and the only full-hookup RV park for miles — unusually good provision for a county this size, and most of it sits on or near the Missouri River.

Summit Lake State Recreation Area — 2787 County Road G, Tekamah; (402) 374-1727. Reservations 1-844-637-2757 or online, up to 180 days ahead. A 190-acre lake surrounded by 345 acres of land, three to five miles west and north of Tekamah.

• 43 Electric Plus pads (reported as 50-amp — call to confirm), plus roughly 25 to 33 basic non-electric and tent sites; sources differ on that count. Primitive equestrian camping and a prearranged group area as well.
• Dump station: yes. Water hydrants throughout. Coin-operated showers; restrooms are otherwise vault.
• 2026 fees: Electric Plus $30, basic $15, primitive $10, with $5 off per night mid-October through April. A park entry permit is required on top — $7 daily or $35 annual on Nebraska plates, $14 or $70 out of state. Sites not reserved are paid at Iron Ranger boxes, cash or check only.
• Open year round, 24 hours; reservable camping currently runs through 15 November 2026. Maximum rig length is not published anywhere — phone before bringing a big coach.
• 2 boat ramps, 5 docks, 13 fishing jetties, an accessible fishing pier and a fish-cleaning station. 5 mph no-wake, lake-wide.
• Swimming beach (no lifeguards), archery range, playground, horseshoe pits, more than 70 picnic tables, 64 grills and two shelters.
• Trails: a 10-mile equestrian trail, the Centennial Trail, plus two to four miles of hike-and-bike trail.

Fishing at Summit Lake: bluegill, channel catfish, crappie, largemouth bass and walleye. Two things anglers should know: the lake is designated an aquatic invasive species infested water body, so clean, drain and dry; and yellow bass are present, an unmanaged nuisance species that tends to hold panfish quality down. This is a pleasant local fishery rather than a destination one.

Pelican Point State Recreation Area — 4699 County Road KL, Tekamah. 36 acres with six primitive campsites, first come first served, at the primitive rate of $10 plus a park entry permit, paid at the Iron Ranger. No electricity, NO potable water, no dump station, vault toilets, no showers. What it does have is one ramp and one dock with direct Missouri River access — this is the county’s state-park river launch, and its bare character should be planned around.

Municipal campgrounds.

• Oakland City Park, 953 County Road K, Oakland — (402) 870-1419. 30- and 50-amp, water, dump station and a heated shower house, on paved pads, reported open year round. Arguably the best-equipped municipal option in the county, better than the county seat’s. Riding arena, playground, ball fields, tennis and walking paths on site. Close to the railroad and highway, so expect some noise. No reservations.
• Beck Memorial Park, Decatur — (402) 349-5360. About 50 sites on the Missouri River with large flat pads, water, dump station, clean shower houses and a boat launch. Season roughly 1 April to 31 October. Sources disagree on amperage (20 vs 50), on rates (around $22–$25) and on whether reservations are required — call before you count on a site, as reviewers report heavy seasonal occupancy.
• Tekamah Memorial Park, North 13th Street — City of Tekamah (402) 374-2521. 30-amp and water, with the dump and potable-water station on 11th Street just past the ball field. Restrooms but no showers. First come first served, register at the site, seven-day maximum stay. A $10 nightly rate was reported in 2021; confirm with the city.
• Island Park, 7601 County Road Rs, Lyons — (402) 687-2485. 20-amp — low, and worth noting for a big rig — with water, a dump station beside the bathrooms and push-button showers with no temperature adjustment. Season roughly 15 April to 15 October, no reservations. Fishing, tennis, sand volleyball, basketball and horseshoes on the grounds.

Ridgeview RV Park, 1810 P Street, Tekamah — (402) 374-2000. 14 pads with city water and city sewer at every site, plus 50-amp, 30-amp and 110V, open year round, with complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi and dumpster service. This is the only confirmed full-hookup, sewer-at-site option in Burt County — everywhere else is dump-station only. Rates are not published; book by phone or online. A second private park, Hwy 32 RV Park in Tekamah, exists but publishes no detail.

The Missouri River. The county has about 30 miles of river frontage. Species in this reach: buffalo, common carp, channel catfish, flathead catfish, freshwater drum, sauger and walleye, and the state’s 2026 forecast rates sauger fishing best on the Missouri in northeast Nebraska. Public access is at Pelican Point SRA, Beck Memorial Park and Pop-n-Doc’s Decatur Marina (3000 Hutton Drive, Decatur, 402-349-5357, river mile 691.4) which has a ramp and full-service boat gas.

Two cautions. Most Missouri River bankside land is privately owned — launch and fish from the water, not the bank. And the Missouri is Nebraska’s deepest river at 25 feet or more, with submerged hazards, strong current and prevailing south winds that make upstream travel hard. Wear a life jacket.

A useful licensing quirk for a border county: an angler licensed in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa or Missouri may fish all Missouri River waters of the state they are licensed in plus the Missouri River waters of the state immediately across the river. An Iowa licence works on the Burt County side.

And one correction worth making: Burt County is outside Nebraska’s paddlefish snagging reach. Snagging is permitted only from Gavins Point Dam downstream to the mouth of the Big Sioux at river mile 734 — Decatur sits at mile 691.4, some forty-three miles below the lower end of it.

Paddling. Logan Creek is one of Nebraska’s designated water trails, with a kayak and canoe access at Highway 32 and K Road, Oakland (402-685-5822).

Hunting. There is no state wildlife management area in Burt County — an unusual gap, and worth saying plainly. Public hunting ground is:

• Summit Lake SRA — 345 acres, open to hunting from the first Tuesday after Labor Day through the end of spring turkey season. The largest single block in the county.
• Pelican Point SRA — 36 acres of river-bottom timber, the right habitat for deer and waterfowl.
• Middle Decatur Bend — 1,385 acres of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land spanning Burt County and Monona County, Iowa, at river miles 686.3–689.5. Open for birding, hiking, fishing and hunting under special regulations; no target shooting and no camping on Corps land, and vehicles must stay on established roads. Contact the Corps’ Omaha District for the current rules.
• Open Fields and Waters walk-in tracts are where most public hunting here actually happens. No landowner permission is needed — access is pre-paid by the state — but it is walk-in only, hunting, fishing and trapping only, with no camping, and enrolled ground changes every year. Use the current Public Access Atlas.

Principal game: whitetail deer, wild turkey, ring-necked pheasant and bobwhite quail on the uplands and creek draws, with ducks and geese along the Missouri corridor and on Summit Lake. Pheasant is what the county promotes. Pheasant Bonanza Hunt Club & Kennel, 3097 County Road O, Tekamah, (402) 374-1765, is an Orvis-endorsed wingshooting lodge with guided hunts, lodging, gun-dog training, a sporting clays course, five-stand, trap, skeet and a rifle range.

Plan ahead if you are routing an RV: the Decatur bridge (NE-51 to Iowa 175) is scheduled for reconstruction in 2027–2028. Past closures of this crossing have forced detours of more than eighty miles.

Nearby but not in this county: DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges are both in Washington County, not Burt — DeSoto, with the steamboat Bertrand and its half-million recovered artifacts, is five miles east of Blair. There is no national wildlife refuge and no state park in Burt County.

Burt County at a Glance

Burt County, Nebraska — created 23 November 1854, one of Nebraska’s eight original territorial counties, and named for Francis Burt, the first governor of Nebraska Territory, who died within days of taking the oath. County seat Tekamah, whose Beaux-Arts courthouse of 1916–17 carries a floor mosaic of the Seal of Nebraska and murals commemorating county service. The county reached its population peak of 13,062 in 1930 and stands at 6,722 today. 14 National Register listings — the most of any county in this part of the state. 81 listings across 5 towns.

Getting there: US-75 runs the length of the county through Tekamah and Decatur, and this stretch is the designated Lewis and Clark Scenic Byway; US-77 passes through Oakland; NE-32 ends at US-75 in Tekamah; and NE-51 ends at the Burt County Missouri River Bridge at Decatur, becoming Iowa Highway 175 on the far bank. Central Time.

For visitors: two landscapes in one county — the wide, fertile Missouri River bottoms on the east, and the rolling loess uplands west of the bluff line, Nebraska’s answer to Iowa’s Loess Hills across the river. Summit Lake State Recreation Area, 190 acres of water three miles west of Tekamah, is the county’s outdoor centre; Pelican Point SRA is its Missouri River launch. The Swedish Heritage Center at Oakland is a nationally recognised museum, and the Center for Rural Affairs — a nationally known rural policy nonprofit — has been headquartered in Lyons, population 824, since 2004. The Burt County Fair has been held at Oakland since 1913.

Lewis and Clark passed the length of this county in early August 1804. On 8 August they found enormous flocks of American white pelicans on the sandbars — Lewis wrote of feathers floating down the river spread over sixty or seventy yards for several miles, and Patrick Gass recorded that the pouch beneath one bird’s bill held five gallons of water. Pelican Point takes its name from that encounter, though the expedition’s camp that night was on the far bank.

Born here: Hoot Gibson, the rodeo champion turned silent-era cowboy star and second only to Tom Mix as a Western box-office draw, was born at Tekamah in 1892. Jon Kyl, United States Senator for Arizona and Senate Minority Whip, was born at Oakland in 1942. Also Tekamah-born: Don Stenberg, Nebraska Attorney General and State Treasurer, and Robert C. Holland, Governor of the Federal Reserve Board.

Burt County · Northeast · Highway 75 Corridor · Explore Nebraska