Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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One hundred and fifty years ago on December 2, 1863 the bronze sculpture of "Freedom Triumphant Over War and Peace" was hoisted to the top of the United States Capitol building in Washington DC. A 35-gun salute boomed across the Capitol grounds and echoed back to the assembled crowd from each of the twelve forts that surrounded and protected the home of liberty and justice. "Freedom," as she is called, was designed by American born artist and sculptor Thomas Crawford in 1855. Her journey, from...
This Thursday, November the 28th, will be another of many Thanksgiving Days for me and my family. Deb and I plan to gather with her mother and other family at the ranch near Rushville. It will be a day of celebration and a day of memories. There will be laughter, and there will be tears of remembering for those who are no longer with us. It will be a day that we will remember our blessings and be thankful for them as new memories are made and untold blessings continue. I will always remember...
The recording and preservation of history is usually a painstaking and meticulous endeavor involving careful documentation of events and guarded safekeeping of records to insure its availability for future generations. Too often some of the most interesting and personal aspects of historical events and day-to-day living are lost in forgotten diaries, untold stories and sometimes accidental or even deliberate disposal. Oftentimes it is by mere happenstance that important historical documents are...
Ninety-five years ago, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month the "War To End All Wars" came to a close. November 11, 1918 marked that ending and was known as Armistice Day, for many years, until it became Veterans Day. Had it been a true and lasting worldwide armistice it would likely still be called Armistice Day. But sadly, it seems that it actually spawned a proliferation of world conflicts that continue to this very day. And so to honor those who have served in subsequent wars...
“A messenger arrived from the great west with news of a wonderful water which, he said, had been touched by the finger of the Great Spirit…” These are the beginning words of the historical marker titled ‘Battle Mountain’ at the northwestern edge of town above the Fall River that runs through Hot Springs, South Dakota. The brief narrative continues with the messenger’s news of the waters ability to cure disease and the subsequent migration of Native Americans to the sacred site. The brass lette...
After three years of world conflict, in 1917 a few countries remained neutral in The Great War, among them were the United States, Sweden and Spain. However, between February and April of 1917 German submarines had torpedoed and sunk seven U.S. merchant ships and President Wilson would no longer tolerate the blatant acts of war against the U.S. And so, on April 6, 1917 the United States Congress declared war on Germany. Twenty-three days later on April 29, my grandfather, Wilhelm Fredrick Gustav...
Long before the early trappers, traders and explorers ventured into the Great Plains the Pawnee claimed a territory that included more than half of what would someday be called Nebraska. From the fork of the Loup and the North Platte Rivers, west to the confluence of the North and South Platte their hunting grounds covered an expanse of land that stretched from present day Ogallala to Lincoln. Their northern boundaries reached into the Badlands of the Dakotas and lurched southward across the...
During the late 1860s and throughout the 1870s Spotted Tail was a principle chief of the Brule Sioux and a tireless advocate of peaceful relations between the tribes of the western plains and the ever-increasing influx of white settlers and seekers of gold. Born in 1823 in the White River country, which is now South Dakota, his father Tangle Hair and his mother Walks-with-the-Pipe gave him the name Jumping Buffalo. As a young warrior Jumping Buffalo was given the tail of a raccoon by a white tra...
As the first visible arc of the rising sun pushed against the bounds of a dark horizon and the soft pink light of pre-dawn spread across the north Texas plains, nearly one thousand Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne warriors seemed to erupt from the earth. Like lava pouring from the cauldron of the blazing, morning sun they swept forward in a mass of rage and revenge against the buffalo hunters at Adobe walls. Had it not been for the cracking ridgepole in Hanrahan’s saloon, several hours earlier, t...
In 1843 William Bent established a trading post, near the Canadian River, in the north-central panhandle of Texas. From 1843 until 1848 the outpost served as a gathering place for trappers, traders and the Native people of the region. Originally a log fortification, enclosing 6,400 square feet, the post was soon reinforced with adobe blocks nearly two-feet thick. As hostilities between the whites and the local Kiowa and Comanche tribes escalated the outpost was abandoned. After it was abandoned...
William ‘Billy Dixon began his life’s journey on September 25, 1850 in Ohio County, West Virginia. His father, an emigrant and adventurer, had crossed the Atlantic to settle in America and had taken a Native American woman as his wife. At age 12 Billy Dixon was orphaned. After the deaths of his parents, Billy lived with an uncle in Missouri until age 13 when he struck out on his own, following the Missouri River northward. His life on the river eventually found him at Fort Leavenworth in Kan...
“My grandfather [Edmond Alfred Cook] was a stagecoach driver on the Cheyenne to Black Hills Stage Line. He grew up working in a livery and knew how to handle horses. One day, at the Hat Creek Station, a driver for the stage line had shown up for work, drunk. The station manager shouted, ‘Does anybody here know how to drive a six-up team?’ ‘I do!’ Grandpa said, as he raised his hand. He was 14 years old.” This was the beginning of a wonderful day-long tour that my wife, Deb, and I received as...
One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, in late July, there occurred one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit the Heartland. From the central regions of Canada, out of the Rocky Mountains, the path of destruction swept ever south and eastward. The eastern slope of the Rocky Mountain Range was its western boundary as it stretched across Montana, the Dakotas and into the western parts of Minnesota. The destruction continued south into Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa, then marched furth...
On the day before his 27th birthday Sam Bass, along with several of his gang, walked intothe general store in Round Rock, Texas for a fresh pouch of Bull Durham. The local Deputy Sheriff A. W. Grimes recognized the group and approached them, demanding their surrender. In response, Deputy Grimes was shot and killed. As the gang attempted their escape, Texas Rangers George Herold and Richard Ware shot and fatally wounded young Sam Bass. Although he escaped, Bass was later found in a nearby...
On January 24, 1848 near a little sawmill on the South Fork of the American River in Colona, California, James Marshall raised a fistful of yellow nuggets and started a stampede of fortune seekers with a single word, “Gold!” Sutter’s Mill would forever be indelibly inked on the pages of history and the Gold Rush was on. Over the next seven years more than a quarter of a million people would point their wagons toward California and pin their hopes on the promise of gold. Later discoveries in Co... Full story
It is little wonder that the Humane Society had grave concerns over the possible mistreatmen t of the horses that would be ridden in the 1,000-mile race from Chadron to Chicago. There was, among the supporter s of the race, one J ames C. Dahlman who was well known throughout the panhandle a s an avid racing promoter. Dahlman came to Nebraska under the name of J im Murry, a cowboy on the Texas Trail, with the first h erd of Longhorns to be trailed to the Red Cloud Agency near White Clay Cr eek in South Dak ot a . Jim Murry (Dahlman) brought...
One hundred and twenty years ago nine riders, mounted on western-bred horses, gathered on the street in front of the Blaine Hotel in Chadron, Nebraska. Eight riders held the lead rope of a second horse that would be used alternately during the 1,000 mile ‘race’ to Chicago. More of a test of endurance for man and horse than a race against time, the idea for the event began as an attention grabbing press release for gullible eastern newspapers. Not only did the public take the bait, but also the interest and enthusiasm for such an event bec...
From that day way back when, that day so long ago that no one remembers exactly when it was. It was the remarkable day when a man first threw his leg over the back of a horse. That was the day when a kinship began that would set the stage for the evolution of one of the most remarkable partnerships between man and beast, the cowboy and his horse. To the cowboy of the old west his horse was more than just a mode of transportation. His horse was much more than a mere tool of the trade. His horse was a partner in the work to be done and a friend... Full story
This week marks the final column of a five-week series in celebration of the 140th anniversary of The Sidney Sun-Telegraph. As written earlier, the Telegraph was the first newspaper to be published in the Nebraska Panhandle and has remained a constant chronicler of the ongoing history of the Panhandle and this proud state of Nebraska. When the Union Pacific Railroad made its historic push westward from Omaha toward a place called Promontory Point, Utah, Sidney began as nothing more than a tent town at end-of-track. Rough and work-hardened men d... Full story
Sidney Telegraph: The missing pages of history M. Timothy Nolting In the spring of 1876, Texas cowboys, James M. Riley and his brother Joe took part in the roundup of 2,500 head of longhorn steers on the Nueces River. After the herd had been gathered and road-branded the brothers joined the drive that was headed for the Dakotas. It was the first large herd of Texas longhorns to cross the state of Nebraska for delivery to Sioux Indian Agencies on the Missouri River. Although Joe apparently made a good hand, James was a bit more restless and...
