Across the United States, steam locomotives such as this one can be found displayed at museums, near the railroad tracks, or even in parks. Some are still functional, although the majority are for display only. The steam engine is a symbol associated with the building of America, which happens to be the Union Pacific Railroad’s current motto, as seen on their bright yellow diesel engines today. Engines such as this can be found in so many communities because the railroad was such a large part of shaping the community itself, and many wanted to hold onto a part of that history. Although steam engines were the main locomotive used by railroads across the country, their popularity and use declined due to the amount of coal they required to heat the water they ran on and were phased out in favor of the diesel engines. Diesel engines ran on gasoline, which was preferred over coal as a source of energy. This particular engine, number 481, made its last runs in 1955, and was last used to make trips on the Union Pacific line between Kearney and Stapleton, Nebraska, a small town northwest of Kearney and north of North Platte, Nebraska.

The caboose currently at the Trails and Rails Museum. 

Buffalo County Historical Society website. 

Website

The train located along 11th Street includes the Union Pacific Steam Engine No. 481, a flat car and a caboose. Steam engines were fueled by coal and were used by the railroads until the diesel engines came out in the 1950s. Check out the Trails and Rails Museum to find out which Kearney park the engine was in before it was moved to the museum! - Information provided by the Buffalo County Historical Society.

1903 Engine and 1940s Caboose at the Trails and Rails Museum

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This walking tour offers information about the various buildings and other landmarks within Kearney Nebraska's Trails and Rails Museum. 

Blacksmiths have been around since ancient
times, forming iron, and sometimes steel, into useable objects. Blacksmiths use
a forge to heat a portion of the metal object they are working with; until the
metal is so hot it glows red or orange.
An anvil is often used to help shape the hot metal, as it has a flat top
surface, a curved, pointed side that can be used to bend the hot metal, and
often holes that are used in combination with other tools to form holes in the
hot metal. Although the anvil and hammer are the main tools used in shaping, other, smaller
metal tools may also be used in combination with them such as nail-like objects
and chisels. 

 Blacksmiths forged everything that was made out
of iron before machines were created to do the work. They made door handles,
nails, and tools, they even made the hammers used to make other objects!
Blacksmiths also formed the iron for horseshoes to fit to a horse’s hoof. This
was a frequent use of the Blacksmith’s abilities in the American West as horses
were one of the primary sources of transportation.

Although the J.C. Marlatt Blacksmith Shop was built in 2012, it was built using lumber from barns in the area that were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Inside is a fully functioning Blacksmith shop with a permanent forge and chimney on the west side as well as several tools used to help shape the hot metal. The shop is currently used by a group of Blacksmiths in Kearney; they get together once a month to work on their projects. When you visit the Blacksmith shop, be sure to ask your guide what the Blacksmith’s water will cure!

J.C. Marlatt Blacksmith Shop at the Trails and Rails Museum

Train depots were built quickly as the railroads were built across the country. If a town needed a depot, the Bridges and Buildings department was usually in charge of building it. Some were small buildings hardly larger than an outhouse and were used primarily to store the items the station agent may need. Some were huge buildings with multiple levels and plenty of room for everyone that might work there, or possibly accommodations for the station agent and his family to live, depending on the necessity. Today, many depots such as this have been torn down while others have been repurposed into office buildings, among other things.The Union Pacific Railroad was formally organized in Chicago on September 2, 1862 and was one of the two main railroads, the other being the Central Pacific, that built the Transcontinental Railroad, which was finished May 10, 1869. Currently, the Union Pacific calls downtown Omaha, Nebraska its headquarters, although the rails stretch across the United States. It is currently the largest railroad in the United States with over 32,000 miles of track, the majority being west of Chicago, Illinois.

The Shelton Depot was used by the Union Pacific Railroad as the station for the town of Shelton, located about twenty miles Northeast of the Depot’s current location at the Trails and Rail Museum in Kearney. The museum has three main rooms. The waiting room is where passengers waited for their train to arrive and people waited for their loved ones to arrive. Through the doorway to the west was the agent’s office and the west doorway in the office is the opening to the large baggage room where cargo and bags were held to be loaded on trains as well as held for people picking things up. Visitors to the Shelton Depot should be sure to check out the time table on the south wall and ask plenty of questions to the museum staff and volunteers.

Shelton Depot at the Trails and Rails Museum

The term “freighter” was used to describe the wagon teams that would bring goods from one location to another; often one of these points was a nearby railroad station so they could both pick up goods needed in their communities and drop off items produced by the community to be shipped and sold elsewhere. They made the journey with multiple wagons and some would stay at small boarding houses or hotels such as this if their journey was more than a one-day trip. The freight wagons were larger than most other wagons at the time, with wheels that were easily taller than the men that drove them. The owners of large homes such as the Lalone family would often rent their spare rooms out to travelers such as freighters passing through. Similar to hotels today, the owners would provide a room and basic furnishings for the person or people renting the room such as a bed and dresser. Some accommodations provided less privacy and were much like today’s hostel; many people shared one room. Unlike hotels today, the owners often offered a dinner in the evening; this may or may not have been included in the fee for the night, and everyone staying for the evening ate together in one large group. Today’s bed and breakfast would be similar to the hotels of the past as a traveler was often staying in the same building as the owner.

Jerome Lalone built the Loup River Freighters Hotel in 1884 as a home for his family along the Loup River. Freighters rented the extra rooms as they were traveling from outside of Kearney to the railroad station in Kearney. Felix and Flavia Eckhout purchased the home was in 1898, and several Eckhout generations lived there. When you visit the Loup River Freighter’s Hotel, be sure to find out what is special about the porch!- Information provided by the Buffalo County Historical Society.

Loup River Freighters Hotel at the Trails and Rails Museum

Throughout the plains, children were often taught in one-room school houses such as the one located at the Trails and Rails Museum. Farms were spread out across the countryside, making it hard for children to travel to the closest town for school each day. Parents would join together and build a small school within a reasonable distance for the children to travel each day.Teachers had strict conduct rules to follow; failure to follow the rules could result in their dismissal, even in the middle of the school year. Female teachers often had to retire once they were married, no matter what time of the school year it was. Teachers were not allowed to smoke or drink. The teacher was also responsible for teaching a variety of grade levels at the same time as they were the only teacher; sometimes each child would be in a different grade, or there may have been more than one child in a grade. At times the teacher did not have to teach a certain grade level because there was not a student at that age. They were also expected to take care of daily chores such as warming up the school in time for the children to arrive as well as cleaning the chalkboards and keeping the floors clean.Today there are few one-room schoolhouses still open. Often these schools are referred to as “country schools” and usually only go up to a certain grade; the older children are bused to the closest town. As technologies such as cars and buses have allowed us to travel faster, students are able to travel further to get to school in a reasonable amount of time, which has decreased the need for one-room school houses in the countryside.

The District No. 1 School House was originally built in 1871 when the Oliver family decided to stop in Nebraska for the winter on their journey west. It became the first frame schoolhouse in Buffalo County. The entryway was a place for the children and teacher to hang up their coats and store their lunch. The community used the schoolhouse for a variety of gatherings in town, including plays and meetings as well as various school events. Outside the schoolhouse you will find two outhouses, one for boys, one for girls, as well as a pony barn for the students to keep their horses that they might have used to get to and from school each day. There is also a merry-go-round, although it may look a little different from what you are used to seeing at a school or park today! Visit the school house to find out something unique about the Oliver family. - Information provided by the Buffalo County Historical Society

District Number 1 School House at the Trails and Rails Museum

There are many wagons inside the Livery
Barn at the Trails and Rails Museum that are very familiar to the Nebraska
terrain. The Prairie Schooner was the wagon of choice for most people traveling
to the West Coast, although it was very similar to the Conestoga Wagon, which
was also used to cross the plains.The Prairie Schooner was slightly smaller and lighter than other wagons, and
was pulled by two to four horses or oxen which was less than their larger counterparts
that required six. These
wagons carried everything the family that was traveling West held dear to them.
They had to make the most of the space offered to them and sometimes hard choices
had to be made; which was more important, clothes or books? Fresh water or
blankets? These were important decisions to be made before the they even left
their home.

 Each town had their own way of handling fires;
fire departments as we know them today were not standard across the United
States until recently; some were run by volunteers, some were managed by the
city government, some were independently run. The Village of Poole, located Northeast of Kearney, Nebraska, used the fire
wagon that can be found inside the Livery Barn to help put out fires in and
around Poole. The wagon was pulled to the location of the fire, similar to fire
engines being driven to the fire, although not as fast and efficient as a fire
truck is today!

The Livery Barn at the Trails and Rails Museum holds many wagons and horse saddles donated by Buffalo County community members. It was built to shelter the donated wagons from the weather. Inside the barn you will find a fire wagon and a fuel wagon as well as several others. When you visit, can you spot the item most often used by the people traveling the Mormon Trial?

Livery Barn at the Trails and Rails Museum

The Church of the Brethren was formed in the early 1700s in Germany and officially took the name “German Baptist Brethren” in the 1870s. As with many religions in Europe at the time, they were being persecuted for practicing a different way than the mainstream religions at the time; members of this religious group came to America to find a place to practice in peace and make a living while doing so. They practiced baptism as an adult rather than as an infant and fully immersed the person in the water, which is why this church has such a large area dedicated to the baptism pool. They mainly lived by the words of the New Testament and also believed strongly in living peaceful lives and were against slavery well before the Civil War. Throughout the years, the German Baptist Church has branched off into different divisions. However, the Kearney German Baptists were a part of the “Church of the Brethren” after the first major split of the German Baptist religion. The Kearney Church of the Brethren was originally located at the corner of 18th Street and Avenue A, which is now the location of the Salvation Army building in Kearney. The congregation formally organized in 1898 in Kearney after breaking from the Wood River and South Loup congregations. It was built shortly after that with Ira C. Snavely as the first pastor. There is no longer a German Baptist Church in Kearney; after some decline in attendance, the congregation disbanded in 1963.

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The German Baptist Church of the Brethren at the Trails and Rails Museum was built between 1899 and 1900. In the front of the church’s stage is the original baptism pool, however the addition on the west end included the baptistery behind the altar so that was used instead once the addition was completed. The church has been used by the Church of the Brethren and Church of Latter Day Saints. It was also used as a Kearney Baptist Temple for a short period of time. The church is still used for weddings today, although it is not used regularly for church services. 

German Baptist Church at the Trails and Rails Museum

Ranches such as the Boyd Ranch covered a
large amount of land; it was not unusual for a ranch in Nebraska to cover many acres
of land. They would have several employees, usually men, that often lived on
the ranch as well, or somewhere nearby so it would be easy to go to and from
the ranch each day. Today, these employees are often called ranch hands, hands, or hired men, among
other less common names. The employees made sure the livestock was cared for on
a day-to-day basis and kept up with any maintenance that was required of
buildings and equipment. 

 James Boyd’s wife, Ann, was probably in charge
of the care of the home like most women on the frontier, and United States in
general, at the time. The women of large ranches such as the Boyd Ranch may
have been tasked with providing meals for all the men each evening, as well as
providing a place for them to relax after a long day of working outside in the
harsh and sometimes unpredictable Nebraska weather.
They may have been in charge of keeping up with laundry and keeping the house
tidy, as well as buying the goods needed for the home from the nearest
dry-goods store.
Women of the frontier were often in control of the home and making sure it ran
smoothly as their husband was often away from the home during the day.

The Boyd Ranch House was built by James Boyd in 1864 near the present-day town of Gibbon, Nebraska. Mr. Boyd started a freighting business with the purchase of 24 mule teams; one of their first hauls was the lumber to build the ranch house.  Shortly after the house was completed, Boyd move to Omaha, Nebraska, where he later became mayor. When you visit the Boyd Ranch House, be sure to ask what happened to Mr. Boyd after he was mayor of Omaha! - Information provided by the Buffalo County Historical Society.  

Boyd Ranch House at the Trails and Rails Museum

There were many forts throughout the West
as the United States expanded West; many were major stopping points for those
traveling the Oregon, California or Mormon Trails. The present-day area of
Kearney was called the Great Platte River Road due to its proximity to the
Platte River and the three different routes, as well as other less known
routes, joining around Fort Kearny. Fort Kearny was often the first major fort
travelers would stop at on their journey west. It was built in 1847 and closed
in 1871 as the need for forts in the Midwest declined.


There were several smaller forts that
surrounded Fort Kearny such as the Post South Loup Fort. These smaller forts
provided some additional protection to Fort Kearny, as well as the peaceful
Pawnee tribes nearby, from Cheyenne and Sioux tribes during the Indian Wars.
The Post South Loup Fort was known by many names, including Post Connor, Fort
Desolation and Fort Banishment. Established in May of 1865, this fort was in use for just one summer before it
was abandoned.
The fort was located outside of the present day town of Ravenna, Nebraska,
along Highway 2.
Although it is unconfirmed whether the building at the Trails and Rails Museum
was a part of the Post South Loup Fort, similar buildings would have been used
at the fort. 

Although the exact date this cabin was built is
unknown, it is likely to have been built prior to the Union Pacific Railroad
laying down the rails for the Transcontinental Railroad as they used many of
the large trees in the area for the railroad ties under the tracks, leaving few
trees for anyone else to use in building structures. Many buildings at the time
were made out of sod due to the lack of trees on the prairie.

The cabin on the Trails and Rails Museum property has many unanswered questions to it. It may have been the Post South Loup Fork, also known as Fort Banishment. It may have been built with materials pulled from another log cabin in the area. What is known is that the cabin was found in the middle of a farm house in Hall County by the owner of the farmhouse, who donated it to the Trails and Rails Museum. Visit the cabin to find out what it may have been used for if it was indeed Fort Banishment! - Information provided by the Buffalo County Historical Society. 

Trails and Rails Museum

1903 Engine and 1940s Caboose at the Trails and Rails Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information