Since 1841, Nebraska's Platte River Valley has been the historic highway of westward migration. In this area, the overland trail divided into two branches, one which followed the North and the other the South Forks of the River. Emigrants bound…

During World War II Nebraska was home to eleven air bases, which filled the sky with planes engaged in training aircrews. On June 7, 1944, fifteen B-24 bombers departed from the Lincoln Army Air Base en route to the west coast. During a…

Here is the valley of Lodgepole Creek through which passed historic trails, telegraph lines, and railroads. The famed Pony Express followed the valley in 1860-61. "Nine Mile" Pony Express station was located just southeast of present…

The Wallace W. and Libby King Waterman sod house, located nine miles north of here on the Day Road, was built about 1886. The original dwelling had three rooms. In 1925 it was enlarged and remodeled by Virgil and Helen Burke Waterman, and the sod…

The Phelps Hotel was built in 1885 by the Edwin A. Phelps family, who were among the first settlers in the Big Springs area. Also known as the "House of Three Chimneys," the hotel was the most important nineteenth-century landmark in Deuel…

The history of Big Springs, northeast of here, has been closely associated with the Union Pacific Railroad since 1867, when a station was established at that point. A nearby spring, from which the station derived its name, provided an abundant water…

The first and greatest robbery of a Union Pacific train took place near here on the night of September 18, 1877. The legendary Sam Bass and five companions, after capturing John Barnhart, station-master, and destroying the telegraph, forced Union…