The hills around North Omaha’s Florence neighborhood have kept their share of wealthy country homes, fancy gentlemen’s farms and old settlements hidden since the 1840s. However, one of the most popular places that ever existed in the area was a picnic resort that’s completely forgotten today. It is not on any modern maps, either. This is a history of Pries Lake.

Settling North of Florence

Frederik Christian “Fritz” Pries was born in Viby, Denmark in 1845. The son of a forester, he immigrated to the United States with his brother Adolphus in 1862. After serving in a New York regiment of the US Army in 1862-63, the brothers came to the Nebraska Territory.

Fritz and Adolphus (1835-1888) homesteaded 160 acres in the Ponca Hills in 1873. Together, they dammed up an old river bed to make Pries Lake and built a seven-story house on their land, along with a farm.

Pries Lake

Advertised as “Omaha’s Delightful Outing Resort,” Pries Lake regularly advertised music, boating and fishing, all for $.25 a day. The well-shaded and forested lake provided a great site for picnics and water sports, including canoeing, swimming and more. More than one old-timer said that “During the summer there were picnics at Pries’ Lake, overlooking the river, and when the heat was not too intense, more dances…”

The Fantastic Fritz Pries

Fritz was notorious for several reasons. A habitual inventor, he also did several conspicuous things that border on suspicious.

He reportedly built several flying machines throughout his life, and is credited for building the first plane in Nebraska, in 1881. His plans for the plane were displayed at Max Meyer’s store downtown for a year while and he and his brother tested it on their farm. Adolphus broke his arm, but they kept trying until the day Fritz almost died when the plane crashed in his lake. It was just a few years later, in 1888, when the Omaha World-Herald announced that Fritz accidentally killed his brother Adolph with a stray gun shot. Apparently he was never the same after this.

He kept creating though, and in 1890 Fritz patented a baseball game.

Around that time, he also built a brick house on J.J. Pershing Drive near Oak Ridge Drive, apparently on his own. It still stands today.

Then in 1899, Fritz made the national news, as I found stories in newspapers from Los Angeles to Colorado to New York City. After his shooting his brother Adolph Pries (1835-1888) accidentally, Fritz buried him in a fine coffin on the top of a hill on his own land.

The controversy came when Fritz dug up his brother’s grave, reburied him in a cloth with no casket, and buried his sister Caroline Marie Pries Neilsen (1843-1899) in his brother’s former coffin. When people got wind of that, the news went national and papers across the country covered the action. After that, there was a big stir and Caroline was apparently reburied in a new coffin. An uncle in the family saw Fritz repainting the brother’s coffin and when Fritz explained it was for his sister, too, the uncle raised a racket, causing an entire media circus.

Eventually, Adolph and Caroline were reburied at the Springwell Danish Cemetery, but not right away.

They were supposed to be reburied there in 1899 when the story first broke, and then again in 1902 when it surfaced that Fritz hadn’t moved them. He said he would move them, but in 1925 some land work was being done on the old Pries farm when bones from two skeletons were discovered. Part of the purchase agreement in 1902 between the buyers Fritz Pries was that the bodies be moved to to the cemetery, but he apparently just moved the gravestones instead. Once the bones were discovered in 1925, they were then permanently moved to the cemetery.

Fritz died in 1910 and was buried in Springwell Danish Cemetery. His funeral arrangements were made by a nephew named George, who was later buried there too.

Selling the Lake

An advertisement ran in the 1907 Omaha Bee that bragged about new management at the lake. The ad said, “We are able to offer special inducements to Societies, Lodges and large Family Parties, and any committee sent by you to investigate will be entirely welcome. Autos will meet every car at end of Florence line.” Of course, the year later the Omaha Bee also reported that the Douglas County sheriff was likely going to shut down the Pries Lake Saloon because of illegal poker and other gambling there.

In 1910, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that a project to build a tuberculosis hospital at Pries Lake was abandoned. By 1915, the land was sold, and although people were still invited to visit, the picnic areas had grown over and few people still visited

Locating the Lost Pries Lake

Pries Lake was located right along present-day John J. Pershing Drive near Dodge Park. The 1908 advertisement below says it was ten blocks from the end of the Florence streetcar line, which ended at N. 30th and McKinley Street.

The following 1915 map shows exactly where Pries Lake was.

In the 1910s, the City of Omaha became concerned about the amount of water that was being absorbed by Pries Lake. Contending that it was illegally restricting the flow of water to the city, they insisted that it be drained and the water allow to return to the water table.

The lake was drained and never came back again.

There’s some irony about the fate of the land where Pries Lake was though. Today, the Dodge Park soccer fields are across the road from where the lake sat. If old Fritz Pries really wanted people to recreate and have fun, he’d be happy at what the area has become.

Special thanks to Michele Wyman, Micah Evans and Amy Leibman for their contributions to this article.

You Might Like…

My Articles About the History of Ponca Hills
Ponca Road | Ponca School | Latenser Round House | Blue Windows House | Pries Lake | Hummel Park | Cabannè’s Trading Post | Wyman Heights | Fort Lisa | Forgot Store | River Drive | J.J. Pershing Drive

• A Short History of Florence, Nebraska
• A History of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station
• A History of Florence Lake
• A History of Florence Boulevard

Elsewhere Online

• “A Dreamer and an Original” from the Danish Immigrant Museum.
• Burial information for Pries and his family members from the Springwell Danish Cemetery.

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BONUS PICS!

Many interesting events were held at Pries Lake, including the Cowboy Mayor Jim Dahlman’s celebratory events.