When the riparian owner of lands on one side of a navigable river above the flow of the tide owns to the thread of the stream, if the river suddenly changes its channel and leaves its former bed, the boundary does not change, and the owner still holds to the same line. Valder v. Wallis, 242 N.W.2d 112, 196 Neb. 222 (1976). See also Monument Farms, Inc. v. Daggett, 2 Neb. App. 988, 520 N.W.2d 556 (1994).
Grants of land bounded upon rivers in this state carry with them the exclusive right and title of the grantees to the center or thread of the stream, unless the terms of the grant clearly denote an intention to stop at the bank or margin of the river. “The thread or center of a channel, as the term is above employed, must be the line which would give the owners on either side access to the water, whatever its stage might be, and particularly at its lowest flow.” Stubblefield v. Osborn, 149 Neb. 566, 31 N.W.2d 547 (1948); Higgins v. Adelson, 131 Neb. 820, 270 N.W. 502 (1936). See alsoHardt v. Orr, 142 Neb. 460, 6 N.W.2d 589 (1942).