Ogallala, Nebraska: Queen of the Cow Towns

Ogallala earned its nickname, the Queen of the Cow Towns, the hard way. When increasing settlement pushed the cattle drives ever westward, Ogallala became the northern terminus of the Texas Trail in the early eighteen seventies. The Union Pacific built cattle pens and chutes just west of town, and in the peak years tens of thousands of longhorns arrived from Texas.

Cowboys who had ridden hundreds of miles reached the railhead at Ogallala and spent their wages with enthusiasm. Boot Hill is said to hold men who did not survive the celebration. The cattle era ended in the late eighteen eighties when a Texas fever epidemic and new fencing laws closed the open range.

Ogallala settled into a farming and ranching community, and today it is a city of about five thousand on the banks of the South Platte River, its wild reputation preserved mostly in local museums.