Small Towns in Western Nebraska (#9)

…continuing with our road trip and exploration of western Nebraska.

It was time for a late breakfast and I’d identified the Antelope Creek Café in Gordon Nebraska as our opportunity to have some coffee and a bite to eat before further exploration of the area.  We’d been on the road for over 3 hours before we stopped… 

Gordon has a population of about 1,520.  Like many towns along our route, when the railroad ceased operation, the population declined significantly.  In 1960, there were 2,223 residents in the town.

Inside, the décor was just as one might expect for a small town diner…simple yet welcoming.  Our waitress was pleasant and helpful.  We were entertained by a dog outside that kept welcoming patrons and running from door to door.  In this era of Covid-19, we were happy that the tables were well spaced apart.

Laurie kept it simple.  For her brunch she ordered a Breakfast Sandwich, opting for her choices of bacon, egg and cheese on an English muffin.

I upped the ante, going for the Biscuits and Gravy…prompted by the verbiage that advertised this offering as having “meaty sausage gravy”.  I had the biscuits and gravy topped with a couple of easy over eggs.  As you can see, the sausage gravy was indeed meaty!  It turned out to be the second best sausage gravy I’ve had in years.  I kicked it up a notch with Tabasco. 

FYI, the best sausage gravy can be found about 2 miles from our home in Loudon in East Tennessee at a Restaurant named Little Italy that operates as Mama’s Grits in the morning.  They are on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Italian-Restaurant/Classico-Italian-Mamas-Grits-729321230466813/. 

The Antelope Creek Café is located at 107 East US Hwy 20 in Gordon Nebraska.  They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week.  Phone: 308-282-2754.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Antelope-Creek-Cafe-101324161532827/.

This is the Lee and Gottliebe Fritz House.  It’s located at 132 North Oak Street in Gordon.  It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Built in 1909, the home was deemed significant as a “distinctive example of a Dutch Colonial Revival residence”, a very rare style in this area of Nebraska. 

Gordon is another ‘railroad town’, truly founded when the railroad came to the area.  The town is named after an early settler named John Gordon who came to the area in 1875.  The town has been home to Val Fitch, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics, Dwight Griswold, Governor of Nebraska for 6 years, Doc Middleton, a late 1800’s outlaw, saloon operator and deputy sheriff as well as an Oglala Lakota cowhand named Raymond Yellow Thunder.

Yellow Thunder was beaten to death in Gordon back in 1972 with very light sentences being given to the perpetrators of the crime.  That led to focus on the killing by the American Indian Movement, which was a precursor to the early 1973 occupation of the town of Wounded Knee South Dakota.   

To learn more about Raymond Yellow Thunder, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Raymond_Yellow_Thunder. For more information about the occupation of Wounded Knee, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Occupation.

Note: In the Lakota language, Gordon is known as “thanca wakpa othunwahe” meaning “Deer River City”.

Less than 20 miles west along US Hwy 20, we came to the town of Rushville, the County Seat of Sheridan County Nebraska.  Sheraton County has a population of about 5,230 and it covers 2,470 square miles.  The county was named after General Philip H. Sheridan, a Union General who later participated in the Indian Wars and who was instrumental in the development and protection of Yellowstone National Park.

Pictured above, the Sheridan County Courthouse is located at the corner of 2^nd and Sprague Streets.  Built in 1904, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an example of the “County Capitol” architecture type with Romanesque features.

Back in 1885, local citizens were confident that the railroad was coming to the area from the east.  Four local settlements vied to be selected as the county seat, with four elections as well as court cases…including at the Nebraska Supreme Court…being required before Rushville triumphed.   

The Rushville Armstrong House Museum is operated by the Sheridan County Historical Society.  It is open and manned by volunteers from Memorial Day through Labor Day and open by appointment during other times of the year.  Admission is free.  This museum complex is located just off US Hwy 20 on Main Street. 

The museum was established almost 60 years ago.  It features the story of the former Spotted Tail Agency and Camp Sheridan as well as the history of local ranches and a multitude of home and life artifacts that have survived over the years.  The windmill is an Eclipse Windmill from the 1880s while that log cabin served as the town’s early post office as well as the telephone office.  The museum can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Rushville-Armstrong-House-Museum-848497072176217/about/.

I found this early photo of Rushville on-line.  As you can see, the photo was taken in 1887.  To view an amazing collection of photos of Rushville over the years, just go to https://sites.google.com/site/hindmanhistory/rushville-main-street.

Downtown Rushville features a wide street with minimal traffic.  The population of Rushville peaked at 1,266 in 1950.  Today, residents number about 880. 

The Plains Theatre began life as Gourley’s Opera House.  Back in the early days, an opera house held community events ranging from plays and operas to local community gatherings.  This ‘opera house’ was built in 1914 and it is listed on the National Register.    It was built by Dave Gourley…the person who first brought electricity to Rushville and this building was one of the first to actually have electricity.

In August of 1914, The Rushville Recorder described the theatre as “a handsome, comfortable and modern structure, fitted up with electric lights, fans, ventilators and opera chairs.  The scenery is well painted and the Italian garden scene is beautiful and worthy of any metropolitan theatre.  The scenery was painted by the Kansas City Scenic Co., and includes two handsome drop curtains, one containing advertisements of the business houses and one an ordinary curtain drop, with effective landscape.  The seats are comfortable and sloped at such an angle that any one from any part of the house can see the stage.”

The Nebraska Cowboy Rail Trail is about all that remains of the former Cowboy Rail Line through northern Nebraska… Both the grain elevator and the old freight depot look lonely without the tracks and trains rumbling back and forth.  This trail is part of a movement to create a National Trail that reaches across the USA from coast to coast. 

This is a photo of a train wreck that took place near Rushville Nebraska back in 1908.  At least 13 persons were killed in the wreck, most of them being tramps or hobos who were riding the rails between and in open boxcars.  The tracks had washed out during a severe storm and the train crashed into the washout.  The story of the crash, which is told via the following link, gives us a glimpse into railroads and how life was back in the early part of the 20^th century.  http://sheridancountyhistoricalsociety.com/11-the-wreck-of-freight-no-116.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave