Near here are ruts left by the famed 1874 Sioux Expedition, a U.S. military force sent to establish Camps Sheridan and Robinson. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie had guaranteed food and supplies to the…

On September 9, 1878, after a year of suffering on an Oklahoma reservation, some 300 Northern Cheyenne Indians began a trek back to their homeland. Dull Knife's band of 149 Indians were captured and…

Jenner’s Zoological, Educational, and Amusement Park was the creation of Henry Jenner and his brother, Robert Bond Jenner. These young Englishmen left London for Nebraska in the 1880s, making them…

Austin was named in honor of Simeon Austin, a circuit rider. In 1877 the Austin post office was established on the farm of Oliver S. Brown and continued until 1919. The Union Pacific Railroad arrived…

During the Depression low farm prices, accompanied by dust storms and drought, created unrest among farmers and workers in Sherman County and across Nebraska. The Farm Holiday movement, which…

In April 1873, Headquarters, Department of the Platte at Omaha, ordered a military scout of the North and Middle Loup River Valleys. The detachment of soldiers was commanded by Captain John Mix of…

During World War II the Japanese built some nine thousand hydrogen-filled, paper balloons to carry small bombs to North America, hoping to set fires and inflict casualties. The first was launched…

The city of Rushville began as a settlement called Rush Valley, two miles north of its present location, in 1884. Buffalo grass pastures west of the Sandhills provided good grazing, but were too short…

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,…

Twenty miles northeast of here is Spade Ranch headquarters, a National Register of Historic Places site. In Ellsworth are the business offices (built c. 1890) and home (built 1902) of cattleman…

For a few years, the Antioch vicinity was one of the most important potash-producing regions in the nation. Antioch grew from a small village to a town of about 2,000. When the First World War broke…

This is the country of Mari Sandoz--historian, novelist, teacher--who brought its history and its people to life in her many books, articles and stories. She was born in Sheridan County, Nebraska.…

In 1877 the Ponca Tribe and Chief Standing Bear were forced from their Nebraska homeland along the Niobrara River to an Oklahoma reservation. Hardships followed them during the more than 500-mile…

Founded by J. L Davison in 1864 near the limestone ford where the Nebraska City to Fort Kearny "Steam Wagon Road" crossed the Blue River, Milford is the oldest town in Seward County, serving as the…

On January 2, 1863, Robert T. Gale filed the first homestead in Seward County, then "Greene County." A surveyor, he chose an irregular tract along Plum Creek that provided shelter from the north winds…

This millstone is believed to be from the gristmill built by William Smith in 1871 on the Big Blue River south of Beaver Crossing. W. J. Thompson took over the mill in 1873, and it continued to…

The original site of Beaver Crossing was located about three miles to the northwest. Here a trail from Nebraska City to Fort Kearny crossed Beaver Creek. John Leonard and Daniel Millspaugh were the…

Since 1868, Seward has, with but few interruptions, sponsored a yearly 4th of July celebration which has gained national attention. This square, the original site of the festival, is today its focal…

Except for the occasional Indian or white hunting parties, the scenic valley of the Big Blue River was seldom visited prior to 1860. The establishment of the Nebraska City-Fort Kearny Cutoff in 1861…

This rest site is near the center of Nebraska's tall-grass prairie on the eastern edge of the hunting grounds once used by the Pawnee Indians. Nebraska's largest tribe, the Pawnee located villages on…

(Legend under map) Beyond the tree line about 2 3/4 miles in front of this marker, Horse Creek flows into the North Platte River. There the treaty was signed September 17, 1851. Officially known as…

The treaty was proposed by former fur trader Thomas Fitzpatrick, Upper Platte Indian agent, supported by David D. Mitchell, superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis. The treaty provided that the…

From all directions they came in late summer 1851--Plains Indian tribes, summoned by government officials so their chiefs could smoke the peace pipe and sign a treaty with representatives of "The…

During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces operated a satellite airfield at this site. In the fall of 1942 twenty-eight farms were vacated so construction could begin. Some 600,000 cubic yards of…

Mitchell Pass and the city of Mitchell, Nebraska, derive their names from a military post built near here during the Indian Wars. No trace of the sod structure remains at the site on the North Platte…

Rebecca Winters, daughter of Gideon Burdick, a drummer boy in Washington's army, was born in New York State in 1802. She was a pioneer in the Church of the Latter Day Saints, being baptized with her…

During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in October 1957. A perceived “missile gap” led to the massive construction of…

During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in October 1957. A perceived “missile gap” led to the massive construction of…

The Armour and Company Icehouse was built in 1897-98 northwest of Memphis, Nebraska. It was one of the largest icehouses in the country, measuring approximately 180 feet wide, 700 feet long, and 52…

Spanish colonial correspondence from 1777 noting the presence of an Oto Indian village on the Platte likely refers to the Yutan site, named after the Chief Iatan. Yutan would have been the first…