establishment of an army air field at the site of the Keens Municipal Airport. Construction of the Kearney Army Air Field (KAAF), one of eleven in Nebraska, was approved on September 5, 1942, and completed February 1, 1943. The KAAF was designated as a processing center for B‐17 and B‐29 heavy bombers and their crews prior to deployment to Europe and the Pacific. Actor Clark Gable, as an army air forces officer, passed through KAAF in 1943 en route to England. During the first six months of 1945, 554 B‐29 crews were processed at KAAF for overseas assignments.
At its peak, some 800 civilians and 3,000 military personnel worked at KAAF, including 200 African American soldiers and as many as 132 members of the Women’s Army Corps. After the war, Kearney fought to keep the air field open, and it was briefly designated as the Kearney Air Force Base to house the 27th Fighter Wing. The air base was closed in March 1949, and the site became the Kearney Municipal Airport.
]]>Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park is comprised of a portion of the original 1280-acre Military Reservation. The nine original permanent buildings on the Park grounds are constructed of grout, a mixture of gravel, lime, and cement similar to concrete. Some former temporary structures and other features such as the original Fort cemetery are on private property. Active between 1874-1881 during the height of Indian warfare on the Plains, the Fort provided protection for both settlers and friendly Indians. At the Fort, a social center for the surrounding area, settlers found employment and a market for their farm produce. Abandoned in 1881, the buildings were purchased by the Union Pacific Railroad, whose intention to establish an immigrant center here was never realized. In 1897 the site was purchased by local investors. It became a farm headquarters until donated to the State of Nebraska in 1961 by Glen and Lillian Auble of Ord. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is responsible for restoration and maintenance of the Park as a part of the state-wide Historical Parks system. The Park and surrounding district was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
]]>The North Loup Valley provided a route for the Sioux raids upon the Pawnee. In 1872 white settlers moved into the valley. Sioux depredations at Sioux Creek in October 1873 and at Pebble Creek in January of 1874 prompted the settlers to request military protection. The fort, originally designated as "Post on the North Fork of the Loup River," was established on September 5, 1874. On December 9, 1874, the post was renamed in honor of Major General George L. Hartsuff. Fort Hartsuff became the center of the social life of the valley, and through disbursement of supplies, helped to offset the effects of the drought and grasshopper invasions of the early 1870's. The fort's major military engagement came at the Battle of the Blow Out in April of 1876. The action resulted in the death of First Sergeant Dougherty when troops commanded by Lieutenant Heyl routed a band of hostile Sioux. By 1881 the railroad was extended into the valley, an orderly civilian government had been established and the threat of hostilities was ended. Fort Hartsuff was abandoned on May 1, 1881. Today it is a State Historical Park.
]]>Bruning Army Air Field, located northeast of here, was one of eleven army airfields in Nebraska during World War II. Construction began in September 1942 on 1,480 acres of farmland, for which the government paid twelve landowners $73,400. The field was activated on March 18, 1943. It eventually included 1,720 acres, 234 buildings, and three 6,800-foot runways. By December 1943 nearly 500 civilians and 3,077 military personnel worked there.
Bruning initially provided training for the 456th, 449th, and 487th Heavy Bombardment Groups, flying B-24 Liberators. The 449th moved directly from Bruning to Italy, where it flew 245 group missions, losing 101 planes, 388 men killed in action, and 363 men as prisoners of war.
In 1944 the field was home to P-47 pilots from the 23rd Fighter Squadron, later sent to Europe, and the 507th and 508th Fighter Groups, which flew in the Pacific. The field was declared surplus by the War Department on November 21, 1945, and transferred to the state of Nebraska in 1947. Bruning was maintained as a state airfield until 1969. The site has reverted to agricultural uses.
]]>About ten miles north are the sites of Spotted Tail Agency and Camp Sheridan. Named for Brule Sioux Chief Spotted Tail, the agency was built in 1874 to supply treaty payments, including food, clothing, weapons, and utensils, under the terms of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The army established Camp Sheridan nearby to protect the agency. A similar arrangement prevailed for the Ogalala Sioux at Red Cloud Agency and Camp Robinson forty miles west. Spotted Tail Agency was generally quiet and peaceful throughout the Indian War of 1876-77. Crazy Horse surrendered there on September 4, 1877, after fleeing Red Cloud Agency. He was stabbed to death the next evening while being imprisoned at Camp Robinson, but his parents returned his body to Camp Sheridan for burial. On October 29, 1877, Spotted Tail's Brules were moved to present South Dakota. In 1878 they occupied the Rosebud Agency, where they live today. Camp Sheridan, with a peak garrison of seven companies of soldiers, was abandoned on May 1, 1881.
]]>Black soldiers of the Ninth and Tenth cavalry regiments (called "buffalo soldiers" by the Plains Indians) garrisoned Fort Robinson for eighteen years and played an important role in northwestern Nebraska's history. Organized in 1866, the regiments first served in the Southwest. In 1885 the Ninth Cavalry arrived at Fort Robinson, which was regimental headquarters from 1887 to 1898. The black troopers helped build the new post during the fort's 1887 expansion and were the first cavalrymen sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation during the Ghost Dance trouble of 1890. Lt. John Alexander, the second African American graduate of West Point, and Henry Plummer, the first black chaplain in the regular army, served here. So did ten buffalo soldier Medal of Honor men. In 1902 the men of the "Fighting Tenth" Cavalry, veterans of the Battle of San Juan Hill, made their headquarters here. Four years later the Tenth helped capture Ute Indians who had fled their Utah reservation, the last military action against Indians on the northern Plains. In 1907 the regiment left for duty in the Philippines.
]]>The first recorded interment in the Fort Robinson Cemetery was James Brogan, July 2, 1875; the last was Fred Lester, June 13, 1945. Among the 258 interments listed in the cemetery records are two officers, Markland Williamson and James A. Swift; two Army scouts, Moses "California Joe" Milner (Custer's favorite scout) and Baptiste "Little Bat" Garnier; ten men killed in the January 1879 Cheyenne Outbreak; two Medal of Honor recipients, Emanuel Stance and George Jordon; and about 140 women and children, dependents of service personnel.
Its location at the confluence of Soldier Creek and the White River made the Fort Robinson Cemetery subject to frequent flooding. In 1926 E.A. Brininstool, chronicler of the West, was shocked to find the cemetery overrun with weeds and underbrush. Later, caretakers were appointed, and the cemetery was well maintained until the post closed.
Shortly before the army abandoned Fort Robinson in 1948, most of the remaining graves, 23 listed as unknown, were moved to Fort McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell, Nebraska.
]]>In March, 1874, the U.S. Government authorized the establishment of a military camp at the Red Cloud Agency on the White River. Home of some 13,000 Indians, many of whom were hostile, the Agency was one of the most troublesome spots on the Plains. The camp was named Camp Robinson in honor of Lt. Levi H. Robinson, who had been killed by Indians the previous month. In May, the camp was re-located on this site, and in January, 1878, was officially designated Fort Robinson. Fort Robinson played an important role in the Indian wars from 1876 to 1890. Crazy Horse surrendered here on May 6, 1877, and was mortally wounded that September while resisting imprisonment. In January, 1879, the Fort was the scene of a major battle as the result of the Cheyenne Outbreak led by Chief Dull Knife. In the 20th Century, Fort Robinson became the world's largest military remount depot, and during the second World War, was the site of a K-9 corps training center, and German prisoner-of-war camp. The Fort's deactivation following the war, marked the end of more than 70 years of service as Nebraska's "outpost on the plains."
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