36 Nebraskaland • January-February 2023
earney was booming in 1889
when city boosters commissioned
a promotional book The City of
Kearney, Nebraska. A copy of
this boastful, lavishly illustrated book
is in History Nebraska's collections.
Divided into brief sections, the
book covers topics such as "Why
Kearney Must Become a Railroad
Center," "Why Kearney Will Be a Large
Manufacturing Center," "Why Kearney
Will Become a Second Minneapolis,"
and others. Most pages also feature
beautiful engravings of local scenes.
Kearney was serious. This wasn't
even the fi rst time local boosters had
aimed high. In 1870, local resident
Moses Sydenham led an eff ort to
convince the federal
government to
relocate the U.S. capital to the Fort
Kearny military reservation, to be
renamed "New Washington." Congress
didn't go along with the plan, but today
the site is a state historical park.
Front cover of the 1889 promotional book The City of Kearney, Nebraska. Kearney long advertised itself as being exactly 1,733
miles from both San Francisco and Boston. That was true along early railroads. HISTORY NEBRASKA, RG3268-11-14
K
