The Cowboy Trail's
Railroad History
T
oday's Cowboy Trail follows an old railroad
that was organized in January 1869, less
than two years after Nebraska statehood. Its
founders called it the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri
Valley Railroad. Starting in Fremont, track-laying
crews followed the Elkhorn River to Wisner before
an economic depression halted construction in the
early 1870s.
According to David Seidel's book, Fremont, Elkhorn
& Missouri Valley R.R. Co., the original plan was to
continue northwest to the junction of the Niobrara
and Missouri rivers. The idea was to connect with
steamboat traffic on the upper Missouri. Plans
changed after gold was discovered in the Black
Hills. The army fought the Great Sioux War to
force the Lakotas to sell the Black Hills. Afterward,
the railroad began building again, but with a
new destination in mind. Following the Elkhorn
upstream, the tracks reached Norfolk, Neligh and
then O'Neill by 1880.
As the railroad approached the headwaters of
the Elkhorn, Chief Engineer J. E. Ainsworth planned
a route west across the Sandhills. The rails reached
Long Pine in 1881 and Valentine two years later.
The route originally looped south at Long Pine to
avoid a deep canyon, but there was no avoiding
the Niobrara River, which had to be spanned with
a high bridge. The original wooden structure was
28 Nebraskaland • April 2025
Crossing the bridge over the Niobrara River east of Valentine, 1957. This 1910 bridge is a favorite spot along the
Cowboy Trail.
NSHS, RG3314-10-144
By David L. Bristow, Nebraska State Historical Society
