North Omaha Woodland with a Violent History and Enduring Legends
11808 John J Pershing Dr, Omaha, NE 68112
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public city park.
Access
Limited Access
Wooded trails, a 188-step staircase, uneven natural surfaces throughout
Equipment
Photos OK
Hummel Park occupies 202 acres on Omaha's northern edge, donated to the city in 1930 and named for Joseph B. Hummel, superintendent of the city's Parks and Recreation Department. The site has historical depth extending well before the city acquired it: French-Canadian fur trader Jean Pierre Cabanné operated a trading post near the park's northwest corner in the 1820s, and Manuel Lisa's earlier fur trading fort was active in the same vicinity.
Joshua Brown's family owned the land for nearly 70 years before the city's acquisition. The property transitioned from private farmland to a public park that quickly became a destination for picnics, nature programs, and summer camps — activities that have continued uninterrupted since the 1940s.
The park's documented criminal history begins in 1933 with the murder of a radio repairman on the grounds. A 1956 rape and a 1983 robbery and beating that killed a woman in the park followed. In 1992, a high school student was kidnapped and murdered there. In 2006, the body of 12-year-old Amber Harris, missing since the previous winter, was found in a shallow grave. Investigators concluded she was likely killed elsewhere and the body was dumped in the park's dense woodland — the same combination of urban proximity and natural concealment that has made the park attractive to those attempting to dispose of evidence.
The park also features a 188-step staircase that descends through the wooded terrain — a prominent physical feature that has accumulated significant folklore around it.
Sources
The most widely repeated claim about Hummel Park is that the trees arching over the entrance road bow because they hold the weight of lynching victims — that Black Omahans were hanged there during the early 1900s, and the trees still remember.
Local historians and researchers who have studied the park's documented record have found no evidence that any lynching ever took place at Hummel Park. The arching trees, which grow naturally in their shape along the road, have no documented connection to violence. The lynching legend appears to have developed from a combination of the park's secluded atmosphere, its actual history of violent crime, and the broader history of racial violence in the United States during the era in question — which was real, and documented elsewhere in Omaha, but not at this site.
The '188 stairs' — called the Stairs to Hell in local lore because visitors claim to count a different number going up than going down — has an explanation. There are 188 steps. Some are irregular in shape, making a clean count difficult. The apparent discrepancy is a product of the physical structure, not supernatural intervention.
Other claims — a colony of albinos in the woods, satanic altars, animal sacrifice — have been investigated by local journalists and historians. No evidence supports any of them.
What the park does have, documented, is a long series of violent events ending in bodies found in its woods. The apparitions and mist reported by visitors are real accounts, offered by real witnesses. Whether those atmospheric reports reflect something in the physical environment — the park's distinctive topography, its density of vegetation, its acoustic isolation — or something else, remains an open question.
The park continues operating as a public city space, hosting nature programming and picnics alongside its more somber reputation.
Hummel Park's 202 acres of woodland in North Omaha include picnic areas, a nature center, trails, and the 188-step staircase historically associated with counting discrepancies that give it the nickname 'Stairs to Hell.' The park is best visited during daylight. The dense woods and steep topography create an atmospheric setting regardless of the folklore.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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