The Cowboy Trail
Tour Description
The "Cowboy Line" was once a rail line established in the late 1870s. After the line was fully abandoned in the early 1990s, the railroad's right of way was purchased and donated to the state of Nebraska. Nebraska Game and Parks has developed the one-of-a-kind Cowboy Trail, one of the largest rail-to-trail projects in the United States. This tour highlights the historic markers along the Cowboy Trail.
Locations for Tour
Camp Sheridan and Spotted Tail Agency
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…
Rushville
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 for hay. The natural meadows along Rush Creek…
Lone Willow
A single willow tree on the banks of Antelope Creek served as a landmark along the Gordon Trail for settlers, fur traders, and Native Americans.
In 1885, Reverend John Scamahorn and 104 settlers from Indiana set up camp at the Lone Willow. Later…
Deer Park Hotel
Deer Park Hotel was located near this site. Established in 1880, the roadhouse was a large building made of native logs. It was built just opposite the Niobrara River from the Fort Niobrara cantonment. The fort, also established in 1880, served the…
Fort Niobrara
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…
Bryan Bridge
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…
Midair Collision of P-47 "Thunderbolt" Fighter Planes, 1944
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…
Lakeland Sod High School
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…
Ainsworth Army Air Field
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…
Long Pine - A Railroad Town
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)…
Spring Valley Park
Welcome to Spring Valley Park. Pioneers of this region, eastern Rock County, recognized it as a great natural haying region extending over twenty miles south down this valley. The nearby village by Newport, established in 1883, became one of the…
O'Neill, Irish Capital of Nebraska
The Irish were a major immigrant group contributing to the settlement of Nebraska. Speaking the English language, they blended into the population and were found in many communities. However, due to ancient animosities with Britain, some of them…
O'Neill
One of the most colorful leaders in the early development of Nebraska was General John O'Neill, founder of O'Neill. After leading several ill-fated raids against British military posts in Canada, 1866-1871, O'Neill lost his leading…
The Savidge Brothers, Aviation Pioneers
Near here was the scene of some of Nebraska's earliest experiments with flight in a heavier-than-air vehicle. Sometime before late 1907, Martin P. Savidge's sons set out to construct a flying machine.
They began by studying hawks, then…
The Neligh Mill Bridge
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…
The Neligh Mills
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.…
Ponca Trail of Tears - White Buffalo Girl
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…
Meadow Grove
Near here at a point midway between the source of the Elkhorn River and its entry into the Platte, is the town of Meadow Grove. The Elkhorn Valley has long been an important passageway for travelers and settlers. In 1739, the Mallet brothers made the…
The Skala Timber House
The Joseph and Katherine Severa Skala house, built near Battle Creek by 1869, is a rare product of Czech-American culture. Discovered inside a house being demolished in 1968, the remains were moved here. The timber rooms have been preserved as found,…
Battle Creek
Near this site, July 12, 1859, Nebraska Territorial Militia and U. S. Army Dragoons, totaling 300 men, under the joint command of General John Milton Thayer and Lieutenant Beverly Holcombe Robertson, prepared to attack a large Pawnee village.…
St. Paul's Lutheran Church
In July 1866, a group of German Lutheran families from Ixonia, Wisconsin, arrived in the area that became the city of Norfolk. They staked claims along the North Fork of the Elkhorn River. They were later joined by their pastor, Reverend Heckendorf,…
Verges Park (Norfolk Brick and Tile Company)
This park developed on ground once known as the "clay pit." John F. Flynn came to Norfolk in April 1880 to start a brick factory at this site. Flynn, Dr. Ferdinand Verges, August Pilger, and Herman Gerecke formed the Norfolk Brick and Tile…
Norfolk
In the spring of 1866 a close-knit group of German Lutherans left Ixonia, Wisconsin, and traveled to the banks of the North Fork of the Elkhorn River in what was then Nebraska Territory. They arrived in mid-July and the families claimed land along…