January-February 2023 • Nebraskaland 37
By 1889 Kearney was in the midst of
a water-powered real estate boom. The
new Kearney canal promised direct
waterpower and hydroelectric power
to manufacturers. Kearney introduced
the fi rst electric streetcars west of the
Missouri River and got into the textile
business by opening a cotton mill
in 1892.
A local resident named Maud
Marston Burrows described the
Kearney real estate boom in a 1937
speech for the Nebraska State
Historical Society (today's History
Nebraska). She remembered that the
city had "an oatmeal mill, a cracker
factory, a woolen mill, a candy factory,
a bicycle factory that turned out an
excellent wheel." (The high-wheel
bicycles of the day were often simply
called "wheels.")
Work began on a railroad from
Kearney to the Black Hills. It got as far
as the Custer County town of Callaway
Illustration from The City of Kearney, Nebraska. HISTORY NEBRASKA
Kearney's early electrical grid used hydropower in addition to coal. Built mainly
for irrigation, the Kearney Canal was completed in 1886. HISTORY NEBRASKA, RG2101-1-2
