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 Rowe Sanctuary & the Ian Nicolson Audubon Center
44450 Elm Island Road
Gibbon, NE 68840
308-468-5282
www.rowesantuary.org
Rowe Sanctuary offers guided trips to view the world's largest concentration of sandhill cranes from observation blinds on the banks of the Platte River. The trips are conducted every year during March and early April, when over 500,000 sandhill cranes converge on the Platte River valley in order to ‘fuel up’ before resuming their northward migration.
The Iain Nicolson Audubon Center was constructed on the sanctuary in 2002 and serves as a visitor/education center and office space for the staff. A straw bale structure, the Nicolson Center is a prime example of using a renewable resource and recycling. With the Platte River channel just out the back door, visitors get great panoramic views that are seldom seen anymore along the river. During late winter and early spring, the center serves as an information hub for birdwatchers, especially crane watchers as they come to witness one of North America’s greatest wildlife spectacles. The center has a gift shop with interpretive displays and two walking trails that start from the building.
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