Blackbird Hill

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Blackbird Hill, also known as Big Elk Hill, is a historic site in Thurston County, Nebraska, about three miles south of Macy. The 47-acre property is on private land and is not open to the public. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1979 (reference number 79001456).

Why it matters:
- It was a traditional burial place for Omaha chiefs, including Chief Blackbird.
- The site was visited by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804.
- It contains petroglyphs (rock carvings).
- The hill has been painted by artists George Catlin and Karl Bodmer.

Folklore and accuracy:
- Blackbird Hill is tied to a popular early 20th-century folk tale about lost love, published in 1939 as part of a Works Progress Administration project. The story describes a shipwrecked man who returns to find his sweetheart married to another, travels west, and, at Blackbird Hill, tragedy ensues involving the couple and a furious husband.
- This tale is almost certainly not an Omaha tradition and contains several historical inaccuracies. For example, it describes wigwams for the Omaha (they traditionally lived in earth lodges), places events in the mid-1700s before significant U.S.–Omaha contact, and confuses historical timelines such as the California gold rush and U.S. nationhood.

In short, Blackbird Hill is important as a sacred Omaha burial site and an artistic subject, but the dramatic love-story associated with it is likely a later, fictional addition.