In 1893 the Crystal Ice Company dammed a portion of the Little Blue River 1¼ miles north of Ayr, creating “Crystal Lake” for harvesting and selling ice. A huge storage and loading facility was built on the nearby Republican Valley branch of the . . . — — Map (db m287696) HM
Brickmaking in Hastings began in 1878, six years after the town was established. A year later much of the downtown was destroyed by fire in September 1879. Following the fire, the city passed an ordinance requiring future commercial buildings to use . . . — — Map (db m251211) HM
The Central Hastings Historic District began at this site in 1878 when Samuel Alexander, using his 160-acre homestead, created the first northern addition to Hastings. This National Register district physically documents the three major periods of . . . — — Map (db m251207) HM
From the early 1900s through the mid-1920s, summer circuit Chautauquas brought culture and entertainment to communities across the U.S. The Hastings Chautauqua Association constructed this pavilion in 1907. Local architect C. W. Way designed it to . . . — — Map (db m251214) HM
The Heartwell Park Historic District is significant as an example of a planned residential development. The Heartwell Park Addition was platted in 1886 by J. B. Heartwell and designed by landscape architect A. N. Carpenter. The idea of a designed . . . — — Map (db m251201) HM
McCormick Hall opened in 1884. It is named for Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, who donated $5,000 to help finance construction of the building. The first building on the Hastings College campus, it was the intellectual, social, . . . — — Map (db m287749) HM
The U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot, known locally as "the NAD," was the largest of the navy's World War II inland munitions depots, occupying almost 49,000 acres of Adams and Clay County farmland. Construction began in July 1942; loading, assembly, . . . — — Map (db m78005) HM
The most traveled of the overland routes passed this point on its way to the great Platte Valley, highway to the west. The Oregon Trail started from Independence, followed the Kansas River west, and then the Little Blue north into Nebraska. It . . . — — Map (db m251198) HM
To overland emigrants the rigors of the trail
began with the "Coast of Nebraska," the ridge of sandhills separating the Platte Valley from the open
prairie behind it. Thousands of emigrants passed
this way during the peak emigration years of . . . — — Map (db m257803) HM
The Kingston Cemetery is located on the hill just west of this marker. Founded in the early 1870s, the cemetery was the final resting place for nearly thirty of Kingston’s early settlers. In 1887 the Kingston settlement was moved to the rail . . . — — Map (db m287680) HM
A marker, 200 feet to the south, recalls the death of White Buffalo Girl of the Ponca tribe. The death of this child, daughter of Black Elk and Moon Hawk, symbolizes the tragic 1877 removal of the Ponca from their homeland on the Niobrara River to . . . — — Map (db m182053) HM
With the establishment of the Neligh Mill and the platting of the town of Neligh, a crossing of the Elkhorn River here aided farm-to-market commerce. This bridge, built in 1910, replaced an earlier span at this location. It is a pin-connected Pratt . . . — — Map (db m158998) HM
The Neligh Mills, built from locally fired brick in 1873 by John D. Neligh, was the first business and industry in the then newly platted town. Later owners and operators of the mill included William C. Galloway, Stephen F. Gilman and J. W. Spirk. . . . — — Map (db m159000) HM
The Prairie States Forestry Project was initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to combat the severe wind-caused soil erosion of the Dust Bowl days. From 1935 through 1942, the U.S. Forest Service, working with the Works Progress . . . — — Map (db m9633) HM
The invention of mechanical balers in the mid-1800s led to the use of bales of hay or straw as building blocks. Pioneer builders developed structural bale walls using cuttings of either native prairie flora — baled-hay — or of agricultural waste, . . . — — Map (db m223422) HM
Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter and Omaha chief, was born at Bellevue in May, 1825. His father was Lucien Fontenelle, a noted fur trader both on the lower Missouri River and near Fort Laramie, Wyoming. His mother was a daughter of Big Elk, noted . . . — — Map (db m179377) HM
For more than ten thousand years the Beaver Valley and surrounding prairie, with their abundant water and wildlife, nurtured Native Americans. The Pawnee Indians, whose permanent earthlodge villages were a few miles to the south, claimed this area . . . — — Map (db m181373) HM
In the spring of 1942 the U.S. Army selected a site one mile south of here for an airfield. The dry climate and open landscape afforded ideal flying conditions. Ample water, cheap land, and Alliance’s new power plant, new hospital, and railroad . . . — — Map (db m178807) HM
By the mid-1880s the Sandhills had become an important cattle-raising region. The extension of the Burlington and Missouri Railroad westward through the Sandhills in 1877-1888 made ranching more profitable by making more accessible eastern markets. . . . — — Map (db m178801) HM
A flat-topped hill to the southeast was named Box Butte by early cowboys and travelers. This area is part of the Box Butte Tableland, semi-arid short grass country that stretches far to the west.
Box Butte has given its name to the creek that . . . — — Map (db m89342) HM
On this day the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean camped on the bank of the Missouri River at the base of a river landmark near here, now called The Tower. Clark wrote, “Capt Lewis & my Self walked up to the top which forms a Cone and . . . — — Map (db m181800) HM
On August 3, 1944, a C-47 transport carrying twenty-eight men of the U.S. Army Air Forces crashed in a ravine six miles southwest of Naper during a severe storm. There were no survivors. It was the largest single military air disaster in Nebraska . . . — — Map (db m70623) HM
Ainsworth Army Air Field, completed on November 30, 1942, was a satellite of Rapid City Army Air Field and under command of the Second Air Force. The field was one of eleven Army Air Force training bases built in Nebraska during World War II. The . . . — — Map (db m77760) HM
Lakeland High School was constructed 20 miles south of this site by ranchers from several rural school districts during the summer of 1934. School began that September with 11 students. Constructed of prairie sod, with a sod roof supported by pole . . . — — Map (db m9623) HM
Like many Nebraska communities, Long Pine's history is tied to railroad development. When the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley line arrived in 1881, Long Pine became a bustling railroad town. The Chicago & North Western Railroad (CNW) built a . . . — — Map (db m182061) HM
Gibbon, on the old Mormon Trail, was the site of a unique experiment in homestead colonization. Originally conceived as a financial venture by Colonel John Thorp of Ohio, the Soldier's Free Homestead Colony was responsible for bringing the first . . . — — Map (db m79880) HM
Gibbon, near here, was the site of a unique experiment in homestead colonization. The Soldiers' Free Homestead Temperance Colony was responsible for bringing the earliest settlers, mostly Union veterans, to this locality. Traveling via the Union . . . — — Map (db m79716) HM
James E. Boyd settled near here in 1858 and by 1860 operated a trail ranche supplying travelers on the Platte Valley Overland Route (Mormon Trail). The ranche included 2200 acres of corn and barley. Nebraska Centre Post Office was here until it was . . . — — Map (db m45425) HM
The Lincoln Highway Association was founded in 1913 to promote a transcontinental automobile route from new York City to San Francisco. Dedicated on October 31, 1913, the route was marked by the letter “L” within red, white, and blue . . . — — Map (db m45520) HM
In 1847 Brigham Young led the first migration over the Mormon Trail along the north bank of the Platte River, and in 1866 the Union Pacific Railroad pushed its main line westward to this valley, bringing pioneer settlers. However, it was not . . . — — Map (db m45427) HM
In the late 1880's, Kearney business leaders envisioned the city as a major manufacturing center. The Kearney Cotton Mill was among the many enterprises launched as part of this venture, which included paper, woolen, and oatmeal mills; plow and . . . — — Map (db m101852) HM
West-bound travelers will leave the prairie regions of eastern Nebraska and
enter the Great Plains the next within fifty miles. This semi-arid region stretching from Canada to Mexico and westward toward the Rockies was long known
as the Great . . . — — Map (db m228360) HM
In 1888, H. D. Watson established the historic Watson Ranch, at one time containing 8,000 acres, reaching from the fertile Platte Valley on the south to the rolling hills on the north and from downtown Kearney to a point five miles west.
. . . — — Map (db m101853) HM
In 1903 the legislature appropriated $50,000 to establish a state normal school in central or western Nebraska. After 111 ballots, the State Board of Education chose Kearney as the site. The city donated twenty acres on the west edge of town for . . . — — Map (db m45500) HM
From 1934 to 1939, Companies 2741 and 2732 of the Civilian Conservation Corps occupied a camp near this site. Barracks housed about 200 men, ages 18 to 25, who built soil conservation dams and planted shelterbelts on nearby farms. The camp moved to . . . — — Map (db m181771) HM
On the South Loup River southwest of here was the site of the U.S. Army’s Post South Loup Fork. This small outpost of Fort Kearney was established in May 1865 by Company “E”, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, under the command of Capt. James B. David and . . . — — Map (db m181699) HM
In April 1860 Joseph E. Johnson, a Mormon, established a road ranche at Wood River Center, today’s Shelton, and began publishing The Huntsman’s Echo, the first newspaper in Nebraska west of Omaha. He had earlier edited papers in Council Bluffs, . . . — — Map (db m45423) HM
The first settlers of Lyons came in the summer
of 1866. The fertile soil of the Logan Valley, combined
with the commercial promise provided by access
to the railroad after 1881, assured the life of the
town. Incorporated in 1884, the village was . . . — — Map (db m269772) HM
Val Peterson was born July 18, 1903, in the Oakland Swedish Lutheran Church parsonage, where his grandfather R.N. Swanberg was the pastor. Returning to live in Oakland at age fourteen, Peterson kept busy with school activities and various jobs, . . . — — Map (db m266055) HM
The Aron Arlington family arrived as the area's first Euroamerican settlers in 1857, later moving near Decatur.
Norwegian John Oak and his wife, Inger Askwig Oak, came to the Logan valley in 1866, occupying the abandoned Arlington cabin. As . . . — — Map (db m266049) HM
Logan Creek was named for Logan Fontenelle, a chief of the Omaha tribe killed by Oglala Sioux in 1855. The first recorded settlers in this area were the Aaron Arlington family, 1857, who settled at the site of present Oakland, and John Oak, 1862, . . . — — Map (db m266046) HM
In the summer of 1866 John Oak (namesake of Oakland) assisted Swedish immigrant families to take up homesteads here in the Logan Creek Valley. Among the first settlers were Victor Colson and his family. He is said to have broken the first sod in . . . — — Map (db m266100) HM
Tekamah, county seat of Burt County, was laid out
on October 7, 1854, by a group of settlers led by
Benjamin R. Folsom. They chose this location for
its abundant water, timber, stone, and the rich soil
of the Missouri River Valley. The site was . . . — — Map (db m269773) HM
Moses Shinn and his son Dick began operating Shinn's Ferry across the Platte in 1859. The original site was near Savannah, the first Butler County seat, and a short distance from the present Schuyler bridge. Just above this location the Platte was . . . — — Map (db m39143) HM
From 1050-1400 the lower Platte and Missouri River valleys were home to prehistoric Indian farmers. These people lived in small villages and isolated farmsteads, cultivated corn and beans, and hunted game. The Indians built square-shaped houses . . . — — Map (db m298136) HM
"Love is more like a light that you carry .... that is what love is to a woman - a lantern in her hand," says Abbie Deal the courageous heroine in Bess Streeter Aldrich's novel about the pioneers who with dreams and hard work forged this great . . . — — Map (db m82510) HM
When the outbreak of war between the states became imminent in the spring of 1861, the citizens of Plattsmouth were quick to respond to the impending crisis. Without waiting for President Lincoln's call for volunteers, Dr. Robert R. Livingston . . . — — Map (db m78024) HM
This building was constructed by community effort in 1871 of native limestone as the Congregational Church and served in that capacity until a new brick church was constructed 1887-1890. The nearby stone parsonage, first occupied in 1867, was sold . . . — — Map (db m82521) HM
During their exploration of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, Lewis and Clark held councils with Ponca, Omaha, and Sioux Indians inhabiting this region. The council with the Sioux occurred August 28-31, 1804 at Calumet Bluff now the southern . . . — — Map (db m101395) HM
This scenic overlook provides a clear view of the valley of the Missouri River,
the longest waterway in North America. To the west is the Gavins Point Dam and
the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area. The dam was built to harness the fury of
the . . . — — Map (db m101391) HM
Much of the early history of Cedar County involves the Indian inhabitants, the Ponca, Omaha, and Sioux. Several prehistoric and historic Indian villages were located in the region. In 1804, Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri River near here . . . — — Map (db m181311) HM
This marker, dedicated on the 100th anniversary of Hartington High School, June 25, 1988, is in honor of two graduates who became governors of Nebraska. Dwight Burney, born in 1892, graduated from Hartington High School in 1910. Burney attended . . . — — Map (db m181317) HM
Champion, on the Frenchman River (Creek), is the site of probably the oldest functioning water-powered mill in Nebraska. Preliminary construction on the mill was begun in the fall of 1886. The work was completed and the mill placed in operation by . . . — — Map (db m79376) HM
The first ranch in this area was set up on the Niobrara River about five miles south of here in 1877. E. S. Newman established his ranch to sell cattle to the government for delivery to the Indians at the Pine Ridge Agency to the north.
The . . . — — Map (db m9622) HM
This natural valley extending east and west across the Sandhills became known as Survey Valley after the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad surveyed a prospective line from O’Neill to Alliance in 1887. No rails were ever laid. On January 19, . . . — — Map (db m178711) HM
This arched cantilever truss bridge, connected in the center with a single pin, is the only one of its kind in the United States. It was built in 1932 by the Department of Public Works and named by the local citizenry in honor of Governor Charles . . . — — Map (db m70625) HM
When a Sioux Indian reservation was established north of here in Dakota Territory in 1878, early settlers in the region grew fearful of attack. They requested military protection, and in 1880 Fort Niobrara was built a few miles east of present-day . . . — — Map (db m77753) HM
At 10:45 a.m. on February 5, 1944, 1st Lt. John B. Beatty of Sandusky, OH, and 2d Lt. Earnest W. Fanslau of Mantua, NJ took to the air from the Ainsworth Army Air Field in two P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighter planes for an instrument training flight. Lt. . . . — — Map (db m77754) HM
On August 9, 1949, the first successful oil well in western Nebraska came in for 225 barrels of oil per day at a total depth of 4,429 feet. Marathon Oil Co. completed the discovery well, Mary Egging No.1, located four miles east and two miles . . . — — Map (db m223425) HM
On June 1, 1926, George A. Coulter completed one of the first four irrigation wells in Cheyenne County, among the earliest in western Nebraska, on his farm just south of here. He and his son, James, dug the first twenty-two feet by hand. Charles . . . — — Map (db m231142) HM
Potter began as a small Union Pacific Railroad settlement and depot midway between Kimball and Sidney. The station house was built by Union Pacific in 1870 and, as the only building in the settlement, also served as the post office and school. Its . . . — — Map (db m231144) HM
Cheyenne County was organized in 1870 from lands ceded by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Dakota Sioux Indians. In the panhandle of Nebraska, it is part of the Cheyenne tableland portion of the Great Plains. Some fifteen miles west of Sidney lies the . . . — — Map (db m231054) HM
Sidney Barracks, when established in 1867, was a temporary camp with one permanent structure, a blockhouse located to the north. In 1869 the Fort was relocated at this site and in 1870 the name was officially changed to Fort Sidney. The primary . . . — — Map (db m76864) HM
A distinct group of prehistoric hunter-gatherers known to archeologists as the Oxbow Complex once occupied the northern High Plains from western Nebraska to southern Canada. About 2500 B.C. a band of Oxbow people interred two of their own near . . . — — Map (db m231081) HM
In 1867 an Army tent camp was established near here to provide protection for Union Pacific Railroad construction crews. Three years later it became Fort Sidney, the nucleus for the town of Sidney, county seat of Cheyenne County. The rush to the . . . — — Map (db m231061) HM
Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in August, 1874. By the spring of 1876, the Army had stopped enforcing a treaty which reserved the hills for the Sioux Indians. Miners soon began to pour into the gold regions. From 1875 to 1881, the . . . — — Map (db m231079) HM
Sioux Army Depot was established on 23 March 1942 as Sioux Ordnance Depot. It was the only U.S. Army Ammunition Depot in Nebraska during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The depot was initially under the command of the U.S. Army . . . — — Map (db m76863) HM
The town of Clay Center was laid out in the summer of 1879. An election on November 4, 1879, confirmed Clay Center as the location for the Clay County seat, following months of heated competition with rivals Sutton and Harvard. W. D. Young erected . . . — — Map (db m287737) HM
The original Spring Ranche, located two miles south of here on the north side of the Little Blue River, was founded about 1863. James Bainter, the first permanent settler, operated a store and inn for travelers along the Oregon-California Trail. . . . — — Map (db m287728) HM
Tracks of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad reached Harvard on December 20, 1871. The town was surveyed in March 1872 and platted on a section of land pre-empted by Newman W. Brass, George Van Gilder, Elijah J. Stone, and Levi W. Mosher. . . . — — Map (db m251240) HM
Harvard Army Air Field, located two miles northeast, was one of eleven army air forces training fields in Nebraska during World War II. The 1,759-acre base included runways, hangars, barracks, and fuel and munitions storage. Construction began in . . . — — Map (db m251249) HM
The jail was inadvertently sold to Robert Pinckney, 16, in a delinquent tax sale in 1943. When the city refused to buy back the jail, sparking a legal battle that earned national publicity, Pinckney put the jail up for auction at a West Coast war . . . — — Map (db m287727) HM
Harvard’s first library in 1885 was a traveling one established in Church’s Drugstore, and moved to other buildings until Mayor George H. Thomas appointed a committee in 1914 to contact the Carnegie Foundation. Citizens pledged $3,175.25 and . . . — — Map (db m251252) HM
As eight B-17F “Flying Fortresses” returned to Harvard AAF after training exercises on August 28, 1943, three collided. One crash-landed and two were demolished. Fourteen airmen died, including co-pilot Carl Hansen, whose parachute failed. . . . — — Map (db m251244) HM
The congregation organized in May 1881, building a church that fall on Oak Street east of the Harvard Courier building. The first service was in March 1882, with consecration by Bishop Robert Clarkson, Missionary District of the Platte. Five . . . — — Map (db m251260) HM
The first permanent settler in the town of Sutton was Luther French, who arrived in 1870. He and his seven children lived near here in a dugout on the bank of School Creek. This dugout had a tunnel to the creek bank and the inside entrance could be . . . — — Map (db m78007) HM
Twenty-two German families from the Russian villages of Worms and Rohrbach arrived in Sutton in September 1873, the first of many German Russians to settle in Nebraska. The immigrants were descendants of ethnic Germans who began colonizing the Volga . . . — — Map (db m251263) HM
On March 27, 1879, George G. Meade Post 19, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Nebraska, was founded in Sutton by twenty former Union soldiers. The G.A.R. was a national fraternal organization created to provide for the welfare of Union . . . — — Map (db m78006) HM WM
By the early 1600s, the ancestors of the Pawnee Nation began consolidating into a few large communities. Each was home to hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Some of these were built along nearby Shell Creek. These Shell Creek cities may have . . . — — Map (db m179394) HM
Bancroft was the home of John G. Neihardt between
1900 and 1920. Here he wrote all of his short stories
and lyric poetry including A Bundle of Myrrh, The
Splendid Wayfaring, and the Quest and began his epic
poem A Cycle of . . . — — Map (db m159850) HM
John Gneisenau Neihardt (1881-1973), teacher, philosopher, and Nebraska Poet Laureate, moved to Bancroft in 1900. Here he first became acquainted with Indians, married, and began his major work, A Cycle of the West, a five-part epic poem . . . — — Map (db m161558) HM
The building was erected on this site in
the 1890s for August Hartman and used as a
residence by various owners until 1964. Poet
John G. Neihardt rented the building from
1911 through 1920 for a study. Here he wrote
his lyrics, prose, and part . . . — — Map (db m161556) HM
Anselmo began as a railroad town along the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. The Burlington needed a stop for water, coal, and switching facilities. It built a depot, and the town itself was platted in November 1886. A Lincoln Land Company . . . — — Map (db m223426) HM
In 1886 Ansley was platted in southeastern Custer County by the Lincoln Land Company, headed by R.O. Phillips. Ansley was named for Eliza J. Ansley,
who invested in real estate there. The site was purchased from ranchman Anthony Wilkinson. The . . . — — Map (db m311615) HM
The most infamous Nebraska showdown between settlers and cattlemen began in 1878 on the Custer County homesteads of Luther Mitchell and Ami Ketchum, located one mile to the south. Conflict arose when Ketchum’s crops were trampled by cattle belonging . . . — — Map (db m250175) HM
A discarded Indian bow suggested the name for a town. Wilson Hewitt, an early homesteader, had applied for the location of a post office on his place. Approving the location, the government rejected Hewitt's first three suggested names as being too . . . — — Map (db m77816) HM
Broken Bow was platted 1882 by Jesse Gandy. He donated lots to people who would build a house or establish a business. He did this to influence voters to make the new town the Custer County seat, which they did in an election that fall. The . . . — — Map (db m180947) HM
The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was organized in Washington, D.C. in 1867. During the 1870's, it was the major voice of the American farmer and its social, educational, and fraternal activities brightened farm life. "Granger Laws", . . . — — Map (db m77761) HM
Custer County, named in memory of General George Armstrong Custer, was organized July 27, 1877. Frontiersmen and pioneer ranchers had been living in the area since 1872. Earlier, soldiers from Fort McPherson and settlers from the Platte River . . . — — Map (db m179199) HM
The first Etna post office (1885-1895) was located three miles to the northwest. A new post office operated 1.5 miles east until 1921. In 1907 Etna saw the opening of a school, store, and telephone exchange. The store was enlarged by Andrew . . . — — Map (db m181798) HM
Westerville, nestled in picturesque Clear Creek Valley, was the first town in Custer County. It was named for James H. Westervelt on whose land the townsite was platted August 11, 1880. The town became an important early trade center after pioneer . . . — — Map (db m77819) HM
Here stands the first Lutheran church building constructed in Nebraska. It has occupied this site since 1860. The congregation was first served by Reverend Henry W. Kuhns, a missionary sent by the Allegheny Synod to Nebraska Territory. Kuhns . . . — — Map (db m206698) HM
The frame schoolhouse in the background is part of Nebraska’s pioneer heritage-the oldest in Nebraska.
Originally erected in the spring of 1857 at Omadi, four miles south of Dakota City, the school shared the townsite’s peril when the Missouri . . . — — Map (db m154877) HM
An important Omaha Indian village called Tonwantonga (Large Village) by the Omaha stood on Omaha Creek in this area. Ruled by the great chief Blackbird, an estimated 1,100 people lived in this earthlodge town about 1795 and it played an important . . . — — Map (db m206966) HM
When the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean went through this area their mood was undoubtedly gloomy. On the previous day they had buried their comrade, Sergeant Charles Floyd, who died of a ruptured appendix. Although he was the . . . — — Map (db m206919) HM
About 1½ miles north of this spot is the abandoned site of "Old St. John's," one of the first towns established in Dakota County. The townsite was settled on June 2, 1856, by the Father Trecy Colony — sixty people, with eighteen ox-drawn covered . . . — — Map (db m158996) HM
From about 1846 until 1872, an Indian "trading house" occupied a site near here. Built by James Bordeaux, the trading station was once attacked and set afire by hostile Crow warriors. Fortunately, some friendly Sioux Indians came to the rescue and . . . — — Map (db m4529) HM
Employees of Lancaster P. Lupton built a trading post on the creek near here in 1841 to trade with the Sioux Indians. From 1842 until at least 1845 this post was managed by Louis B. Chartran, first for Sibille and Adams and later for Pratte & . . . — — Map (db m89344) HM
Chadron was selected as the site of the fourth Nebraska State Normal School on January 8, 1910, and located on the grounds of the former Chadron Congregational Academy. Classes began in the summer of 1911, concluding with the dedication of the . . . — — Map (db m234618) HM
America’s longest horse race began here June 13, 1893. The 1,000 mile race ended June 27 in Chicago at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. The race apparently was the idea of Chadron jokester John G. Maher. Seven of nine riders finished, some traveling . . . — — Map (db m51693) HM
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