The Railroads and the growth of Lincoln County, Nebraska

The early development of the county was closely linked to the construction of the Union Pacific and Burlington railroads, which expedited settlement and helped sustain a sizeable population throughout the nineteenth century.   The Union Pacific laid track through Lincol County between 1866 and 1867...   The Burlington Railroad was constructed through the southern Lincoln County in 1881 and 1882... 

Of the two railroads, the Union Pacific had the greater influence on Lincoln County, and particularly on the town of North Platte.  In 1867, shortly after it arrived in North Platte, the Union Pacific built a major depot, a twenty-car roundhouse, machine and blacksmith shops, an icehouse, coal sheds, a hotel, and a restaurant.  Because the Union Pacific made North Platte the primary division point between Omaha and Cheyenne, the town quickly became western Nebraska's commercial and population center.  As the predominant railroad town on the Nebraska plains, North Platte attracted a wide variety of enterprising settlers.  Lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, land agents, speculators, and entrepreneurs moved into the community and established lucrative businesses.  Hundreds of men also found employment with the railroad in North Platte, thereby expanding the town's population and economy.  The earnings of firemen, engineers, wipers, blacksmiths, track men, and a variety of other railroad-related workers went back into the local economy, allowing a host of other business ventures to open in North Platte.  By 1875 the town boasted several merchants, dry-goods stores, saloons, jewelers, a gunsmith, a tailor, and a meat market.  Other businesses included a creamery, cheese factory, brewery, wagon manufacturer, flour mill, broom factory, and sugar beet plant. 

By 1875 North Platte had grown to such a size that the citizens voted to incorporate as a city of the second class.  This allowed the town of North Platte to levy taxes, elect city officials, carry out internal improvements, hire a police force, and pass city ordinances.  By 1876 North Platte had an elaborate courthouse, jail, five churches, banks, a twenty-thousand-dollar schoolhouse, a Masonic temple, and a Building and Loan Association.  It became a significant western Nebraska town during the 1870s and blossomed into "the city on the western plains" during the 1880s, when the county's population expanded.  North Platte has always been, and remains, the primary population center for the county. 

Most of the towns in Lincoln County owe their birth to the railroads.  Brady, Maxwell, North Platte, Hershey, and Sutherland appeared along the Union Pacific line, while others sprang up as flag stations along the Burlington Railroad in southern Lincoln County.  Although Sutherland (O'Fallons) and Maxwell (Cottonwood Springs) originated as road ranches along the overland trails, they prospered and survived because of their situation along the Union Pacific line.  Only North Platte, however, had the population to be considered a city.  The other communities remained small villages that grew up around train depots and continue to survive because they are located near a major transportation route.  Most Lincoln County communities reached their peak population by 192o.  Many other towns and villages have existed in the county but have long since disappeared.  The farming communities of Gannett, Gaslin, Garfield, Birdwood, Vroman, and Beck emerged during the late nineteenth century but no longer exist.