The Cowboy Capital of Nebraska

Ogallala our first Nebraska stop — was named after an Indian  (Sioux) tribe and is called the "The Cowboy Capital of Nebraska". The small town of about 5.000 people was founded in 1867 as a stop on the Transcontinental (Union Pacific) Railroad. Within ten years it became one of the best-known and one of the most-notorious towns at the end of the Texas Trail - a famous cattle trail. 1875 approximately 75,000 head of cattle were brought to Ogallala and cowboys and gamblers, saloon girls and prostitutes populated the town, which grew slowly but steadily.

Conveniently located just off I-80, the cowboy and ranching tradition is still present today, with the Ogallala Round-Up Rodeo and Ogallala Indian Summer Rendezvous or the Ogallala Livestock Auction Market (photo left ). It was fascinating to listen to the auctioneer and to watch little signs ranchers in the audience were giving. Outside the sales barn cowboys were organizing the auction and brought cattle into the auction hall.

 

The Petrified Wood Gallery - our first stop in downtown - was founded by twin brothers Howard and Harvey Kenfield, who not only created a unique collection of little music boxes and other artwork made of petrified wood chips (below), but collected petrified wood and minerals from all over the world as well as Indian artifacts.

The Wild West lives on at Front Street, a replica frontier town with a general store, museum and the old Crystal Palace Saloon, where we had lunch (delicious burgers). On its stage each sommer the Crystal Palace Revue entertains people with fistfights, gunfights, song and dance.  

Cowboy museum

Afterwards, we explored the Historic Walk of Fame in downtown - remembering important chapters in the city history, like the Mormon and California trails running through the area. We visited a historic gas station, the beautiful art-déco post office and admired the murals in town.

 

 

After a drink at Second Chapter Brewery - in the former city library with books all over the place - we had a wonderful dinner at Driftwood Restaurant (strip steak salad on the right photo) before we called it an interesting day and retired to our new, modern and refreshingly colorful Hampton Inn Hotel.

 

 

Friday morning we drove out to Lake McConaughy. "Big Mac“ is a man-made lake which came into existence by damming the South Platte River. It is considered the largest lake in the state, with 100 mi of shoreline. It’s popular for camping and boating, but also just for recreation and family fun on the beach. When we were visiting, beach was almost spookily empty - season is over. The lake is surrounded by white sand beaches, the result of white sand hills in the area. Besides this largest (irrigation) lake in the state, there is the Ogallala Aquifer, which is World’s Largest Underground Water Supply.

Mansion on the Hill, is an authentic and elegant Victorian style home, completed in 1887 by a gentleman by name L.A. Brandhoefer, made of red brick. The H.L. McWilliams family was the first family who lived in this comfortable and elegant mansion. Also on the grounds is a one room school house, built in 1902, and, the O’Brien/Lute home, an early and modest 1900s homestead era dwelling.

 

Boot Hill Cemetery, nearby, was the area’s first burial ground, which got its name during the Texas Trail era of the 1880s, when unlucky cowboys were buried with their boots on. The bodies were placed in canvas sacks, the graves marked with a wooden headboard. The Statue of a cowboy, „Trail Boss“ (photo far below) was created by Robert Summers, an artist who created many other bronze sculptures all over Texas.

 In his book “Log of a Cowboy”, trail driver Andy Adams wrote, “We finally scaled the last divide and there below us in the valley of the South Platte River nestled Ogallala, the Gomorrah of the cattle trail ,,, ¾ of its business houses were dance halls, gambling houses and saloons.” One trail boss even refused to let his cowhands come into Ogallala because of its wild reputation – it became the “town too tough for Texans.”

Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse in Paxton (below), half way to North Platte,  has been known for eight decades as a unique gathering place. More than 200 big game trophies and countless mementos of Ole’s worldwide safaris make this visit real unique. We had lunch there before departing to North Platte.