Neale Woods facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Neale Woods |
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| Type | Nature center |
| Location | North of Omaha, Nebraska, United States |
| Area | 600 acres (240 ha) (2.42 km²) |
| Created | 1971 |
| Operated by | Fontenelle Forest |
| Status | Open year round |
Neale Woods is a large nature preserve in North Omaha, Nebraska. It covers almost 600 acres of land. This special place is about 10 miles north of Downtown Omaha. It sits in the beautiful Ponca Hills, high above the Missouri River Valley. Fontenelle Forest takes care of Neale Woods.
History of Neale Woods
Neale Woods started in 1971. A kind person named Edith Neale gave 120 acres of land to begin the preserve. Her family had lived on this land since the mid-1800s.
Later, Carl Jonas gave another 60 acres. His father helped start Fontenelle Forest. After Carl Jonas passed away, money from his estate helped buy 112 more acres.
About 25 acres of this new land were turned into prairies. These prairies were planted to look like the land did in the 1800s. Carl Jonas's old home is now the Neale Woods Nature Center.
Exploring Neale Woods
The Neale Woods Nature Center is a great place to start your visit. You can get trail maps there to help you explore. You can also find a map online to print at home.
The trails at Neale Woods are open every day. You can visit from when the sun comes up until it goes down. The nature center building is open during spring, summer, and fall.
Stargazing at Neale Woods
Neale Woods used to have the Millard Observatory. This was the biggest public observatory in the Omaha area. People could come and look at the stars and planets.
They had many different telescopes to use, including:
- A 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope
- Two 12-inch Meade LX 200 GPS telescopes
- A 14-inch Celestron telescope
- A 13-inch Coulter telescope
- An 8-inch Meade telescope
- Three 6-inch telescopes
Astronomy nights were held twice a month. These special nights usually happened from August to May. The observatory closed in 2013. Its equipment was moved to the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum.
