Opinion

When McCook was railroad city

Monday, January 10, 2005

Walt Sehnert

In his 1982 book, "McCook's First 100 Years," Gene O. Morris writes that two events, early in its existence, emerged to make McCook the hub town in Southwest Nebraska.

Both events were initiated by the railroad. First, in 1882, the railroad declared that the new town of McCook would be the new division point on the Burlington Missouri Line. The second was the decision in 1888 to establish shops in the new town for the repair and maintenance of steam engines.

To thrive, a community must have a consistent flow of payroll dollars. That is what the railroad supplied in the 1880s, and what it continues to provide today. At one time it was said that almost 75 percent of the community's citizens were directly dependent upon the railroad for their livelihood.

In 1878, the Burlington & Missouri Line incorporated the Republican Valley Railroad Co. for the purpose of building its line from Hastings through the Republican River Valley, via Red Cloud, to the Nebraska state line.

By 1880 the line had reached Indianola, and surveys of the territory beyond were completed for a line on to Denver. The line would be completed at some, unspecified future date.

In 1880, population was spread thinly over a wide area of Nebraska and there was as yet not much in the region of Southwest Nebraska to justify the cost of building a railroad, though the livestock industry was established and growing, agriculture activity was expanding, and Denver was rapidly developing as a center of mining and smelting.

Just because the population in Southwest Nebraska was sparse did not mean that there was any shortage of towns in the area. In Red Willow County alone, in 1880, there were 12 Post Offices -- at Danbury, Indianola, Lebanon, Red Willow, Valley Grange, Whitney, Willow Grove, Fairview, Box Elder, Narcissus, Hamburg, and Stoughton. (McCook would not come into existence for two more years.)

Extremely dry weather in 1881-1882 added to the difficulty of life in our region, and added to the risk of any investment into new railroad track.

Discouraged settlers, mostly Scandanavian and Russian (and Germans from Russia) farmers living west of Arapahoe, had been encouraged by the railroad to take up government homestead lands, but ruinous drought and grasshoppers had left most of them with just two (unpleasant) choices -- to leave their farms, or starve in Nebraska.

Burlington officials recognized the settlers' plight and developed a plan for building the railroad through Red Willow County, by contracting work with the colonists and their teams, work which would enable them to remain on their claims. Wages were low -- $2.50/day for a man and team, but nearly every settler who decided to stay went to work for the railroad.

On Aug. 1, 1881, the contract was let to build the railroad 150 miles west of Culbertson. Three weeks later 40 carloads of wagons, scrapers, horses and men arrived at the job. By November, the total track force numbered 1,000 teams and 2,500 men.

All the sections of the railroad west to Denver were completed on May 29, 1882, and by the of July a regular rail service between Chicago and Denver (through McCook) had been established, and a boom time of McCook growth was well underway.

McCook's first depot, on the site of McCook's present depot, was a two story wooden structure, painted red. The lower floor served as a waiting room, express and baggage room, warehouse, and ticket office. The upper floor was for the division offices and the telegraph office. A hotel and restaurant were located nearby for passengers and railway crew-members. Almost immediately businessmen from other towns began to arrive, and a number of buildings from Indianola were moved to McCook.

According to H.E. (Harry) Culbertson in his paper, entitled "Father Burlington," in the glory days of the railroad in McCook, 500 to 600 men congregated daily at the depot and the nearby roundhouse to repair and maintain the steam-powered engines, which pulled a multitude of Burlington freight and passenger trains each day.

(This was in addition to Engineers, Brakemen, Firemen, and section crewmen who were employed by the railroad). The footbridge over the tracks (just west of the depot) was crowded mornings and evenings with workers heading to and from work to their homes in South McCook.

The steam engines were powerful, but the efficient operation of those mammoth pulling units permitted continuous operation for only a few consecutive hours. On the Burlington & Missouri Line, changes in steam engines were necessary at Hastings, McCook, and Akron, Colo.

Locomotive changes were quickly made, with new engines and new crews at each of these stations. Large maintenance teams worked over the exhausted steam engines, which had spent their energy in short, speedy railroad runs, and quickly got them ready for another tour of duty.

In 1883 The Burlington & Missouri built its roundhouse. It was described in an early report, "The B&M roundhouse is built of brick and contains 15 stalls for engines and a massive structure it is. The company has just recently put in two lathes, one planer, bolt cutter, drill, and other necessary repairing machines.

They also have a large coal shoot 25 feet X 130 feet, which is filled with coal. Several houses used by different mechanics are scatter ed around the roundhouse and the place is one of business."

Originally the roundhouse had 11 car stalls, with plans for 25 stalls eventually. By 1888, 15 more stalls were added. In 1902 and 1922 10-foot and 25-foot extensions were added to the building. There was a turning track in the center of the roundhouse, which allowed efficient entry of trains to any of the repair stalls.

One old-time railroader remembered, "We had as good a roundhouse as there was on any railroad system. We did what we call a Number Four. That was a complete overhaul. We had everything to build them (engines) from the ground up. At one time grass was planted around the building. We had a regular town down there" -- Railroad City, McCook, at the time much larger than McCook itself.