National Register of Historic Places
Though the towns of Chadron, Crawford and Harrison may be small, Northwest Nebraska played a big part in the western expansion of the United States and is rich in history. As of 2021, there are 22 locations in Dawes and Sioux Counties featured on the National Register of Historic Places, though a handful are not open to the public.
Our National Register of Historic Places Bucket List takes you to the publicly-accessible locations, where you can explore the region’s history in greater detail. Completing the entire list in one day will have you traveling roughly 115 miles.
(6321 Highway 20, Chadron)
Where else should someone begin exploring Northwest Nebraska’s historic places but near its beginning?
The first white men to frequent Northwest Nebraska were fur traders. The White River and creeks throughout the region, which lay along the route of the Fort Pierre to Fort Laramie trade route, played an important role in the fur trade of the region. Joseph Bissonette, Henry Chatillion, Louis Chartran and Hubert Rouleau were well-known traders and mountain men who frequented the area, but perhaps none were as well-known as James Bordeaux for his prowess in the business. Some came to refer to the region as “Bordeaux’s District.”
Located at Chadron’s Museum of the Fur Trade, James Bordeaux’s trading post was established in 1837 for the American Fur Company. The selling of Fort Laramie and Fort Pierre to the military and the changing nature of the relationship between whites and Native Americans in the region took their toll on the trade business and in 1872 Bordeaux and his eldest son gave up the post. A decade later, homesteading in Northwest Nebraska would be well on its way thanks, in part, to rugged mountain men like Bordeaux who blazed the early trails of the region.
With homesteaders came commerce and eventually, with the introduction of the railroad, a bustling commercial district in Chadron. Head west to Chadron’s Main Street to explore the town’s historic commercial district and learn of its unique beginnings.
Once you’re done exploring the Bordeaux Trading Post, head into downtown Chadron to visit the historical business district, the Dawes County Courthouse and the Chadron Public Library.
(115 Main Street, Chadron)
Chadron, known as the Magic City, blossomed in the pioneer days after the railroad arrived. Homesteaders, who originally settled about five miles farther west, picked up and moved all their homes, businesses and possessions in one day in 1885 after the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad announced its intentions to build its depot and township to the east at the location of present-day Chadron.
Don’t worry, you read that correctly – existing buildings in what was then called O’Linn were raised and moved five miles in one day to establish the township of Chadron. Rumor has it the general store stayed open during its move, selling goods as the building rambled across the prairie.
Suddenly, in a day Chadron appeared – like magic.
In 2007, the city’s downtown district was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
With the railroad came the homesteaders, the professionals and the merchants, and Chadron’s population grew to 5,500 by 1893. Droughts, along with the Panic of 1893, reduced the population by 1902 to 1,700 people. It rebounded to 3,800 in 1917 after the town claimed a new state college in 1911, and survived the ups and downs of World War I, grasshoppers, the Great Depression and World War II. Its success and stability is due to a broad-based economy.
Our Historic Downtown Chadron Sole to Soul Walking Tour guides you through this historic district and introduces you to the story of the community. Follow this link https://discovernwnebraska.com/historic-downtown-chadron/ and walk along with the history of this amazing downtown area.
Among the buildings downtown is Hotel Chadron, which, along with being part of Chadron’s Historic Downtown District, is also listed independently on the National Register of Historic Places. For the first 10 years of its existence, the building was known as Hotel Chadron. In 1890, General Nelson A. Miles made the hotel his headquarters while investigating the Massacre at Wounded Knee. In 1903, the building was converted to housing for railroad workers and a YMCA with a tennis court, bowling alley, boxing ring, wrestling facilities and basketball court. By 1931 it once again served as a hotel and has recently been restored.
Once you’ve completed your tour of downtown Chadron, head south on Main Street about a block past its intersection with Highway 20 to the Dawes County Courthouse.
(451 Main Street, Chadron)
The boundaries of Dawes County as they exist today were established in 1887. The region was home to the Oglala and Brule before it was settled by Europeans. Trappers, fur traders and cattle ranchers were among the earliest settlers, and the arrival of the railroad encouraged additional settlement and development.
Chadron and Dawes City (now known as Whitney) competed for the county seat designation, with Chadron earning the title. A courthouse was constructed in 1887 on the same site of the current courthouse. However, in 1935, the county board began discussions on improving county facilities. The county signed a contract in October 1935 with the federal government to construct a new courthouse and jail, complete with a grant to cover 45% of the cost, not to exceed $45,000.
The plans for the building were approved in January 1936 and construction commenced shortly thereafter by C.E. Atwater Company, who won the contract with a bid of $71,890. The 1887 courthouse was razed.
The current Dawes County Courthouse is, according to its National Register application, “is a good example of the County Citadel courthouse exhibiting Art Deco stylistic elements. Some of those elements include stylized decoration – including zig-zags – a stepped facade, low relief and a linear, hard-edge composition with vertical emphases.
The courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. In addition to the building, a painted metal fountain was considered a contributing resource in the application. The fountain dates from when the original courthouse occupied the space. It includes a cherub caressing a large bird and a petal-like bowl with swans and cattails above the ground-level pool. Unfortunately, the fountain was removed around 2017 after it fell into disrepair.
The courthouse sits on Mary E. Smith-Hayward Square, named after a prominent businesswoman during Chadron’s earliest days. The Chadron Business and Professional Women’s Club dedicated the square in her honor and named her an honorary member in 1998. Two memorials – a rock memorial on a concrete slab and a concrete bench – recognize Smith-Hayward and the organization. Also located on the courthouse square is a bandstand, a veterans memorial, a pioneer memorial and . The veterans memorial recognizes Dawes County citizens who died fighting in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. The pioneer memorial is dedicated “to the valor of the pioneers. 1885-1935” and was constructed of local rocks.
No town is complete without its library, and the Chadron Public Library is also a part of history. Travel south on Main Street past the courthouse and turn east on 5th Street. The library is located on the southwest corner of the street’s intersection with Bordeaux Street, just a block from your turn.
(507 Bordeaux Street, Chadron)
The Chadron Public Library, built in 1912, is one of the 2,509 Carnegie Libraries worldwide built with funds donated by famed philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The library is immediately identifiable by design as a Carnegie-type library, being designed in the Classical Revival style for just $100 by Lincoln architect George A. Berlinghof.
The library represents an important era in which Chadron experienced significant growth in its public sector thanks in part to its mayor at the time, James W. Finnegan and other community members who pushed for progress. During the time between 1906 and 1912 the courthouse, the library, a city-financed school, a federal post office, a church-sponsored academy and Chadron Normal School were built.
Speaking of Chadron Normal School, our next five locations on the National Register of Historic Places are all located on the campus of what began as the normal school and grew to become Chadron State College.
From the public library, head south one block to 6th Street and turn west to return to Main Street. Head south on Main Street until you reach the campus. Parking can be found at multiple locations nearby.
(1000 Main Street, Chadron)
Though the name “Normal” seems peculiar today, the institution that later became Chadron State College began in 1911 as a normal school – the name given to colleges meant to train students to become teachers. The college began in the summer of 1911 with 111 enrolled students. It’s campus grew from one building to seven by 1938. In 1949, the college was officially renamed the Nebraska State Teachers College at Chadron and later, in 1963, gained its current name, Chadron State College. Five of the buildings on campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, it not only serves as an institution of learning, but also a great area to walk its many paths and enjoy its history and beauty.
“Old Admin” as it’s now known is the original building on campus, but it’s absent from the National Register of Historic Places because of the level of alteration over the years. The oldest campus building on the register is Sparks Hall, which was built in 1914 and served as the college’s women’s dormitory. In 1932, Edna Work Hall, another building on the register, was built as a new women’s dormitory and Sparks Hall then served as a men’s dorm. It was at that time the building was officially named Sparks Hall, in honor of Joseph Spark, the college’s first president. In 1938, the building was remodeled into housing for married students and faculty. Today, it houses administrative offices.
Edna Work Hall was designed with touches of both classical and art deco design as was popular on the plains during its construction. Today, it serves as a co-ed dorm. It’s namesake, Edna E. Work came to Chadron with the purpose of serving as principal of Chadron Prep, but was quickly given the position of Dean of Women at the college, where she served from 1916 to 1947.
Miller hall was built in 1920 as the third building on campus and was the first gymnasium on the CSC campus. In fact, it was the first gymnasium built in western Nebraska. The building served the ,hosting high school basketball tournaments, conventions, poultry shows, and even a circus. Miller was also home to an indoor swimming pool, a luxury on the plains. Today, the building houses classrooms.
Crites Hall has a design similar to that of Edna Work Hall and was built in 1938 as the college’s first building purpose-built to be a men’s dorm. Today it is CSC’s home for student services.
The building was named for Edwin D. Crites, a Chadron attorney and member of the State Normal Board (1931-1953). Crites and his family arrived in Northwest Nebraska in 1888 and he attended school in Chadron before attending the University of Nebraska. He served as Dawes County Attorney from 1908-1918.
(above) A statue of Mari Sandoz, one of Nebraska’s most celebrated authors stands among a field of native flowers and grasses at the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center.
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The college’s first library was built in 1929, but is better known today as the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center. The building served as a library until 1967 when a new library was built on the campus. For a time, the building then housed the campus print shop and its educational television studio.
In its current form, The Sandoz Center, as it’s casually called, is a museum dedicated to Mari Sandoz, one of Nebraska’s most famous authors who was raised in the Sandhills of Sheridan County, Nebraska – the setting for a number of her fiction and non-fiction works. Considered an authority on Native American culture, Sandoz published numerous essays in defense of the persecuted groups of Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux, proclaiming their high-qualities and championing just laws and government aid for them. Inspired by the wild frontier where she was born and raised, her short-stories also reflect an interest in homesteading, the harsh landscape, conflict and the importance of women in the West. Exhibits at the High Plains Heritage Center include writings and memorabilia from Mari’s lifetime, paleontology and fossil displays, botanical and wildflower collections and more.
With your visit to the Chadron State College campus, the Chadron portion of your bucket list is complete. Head back north on Main Street and turn west on Highway 20 toward Crawford.
In about 20 miles you’ll reach Crawford, which began its existence in 1886 as a tent city along the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad when it reached the U.S. Army’s nearby Fort Robinson that same year. The town was named for Lieutenant Emmet Crawford, an army officer who had been stationed at Fort Robinson, but was killed in Mexico early that year. The town quickly became a rugged frontier town that catered to the entertainment and leisure of the nearby soldiers at the fort.
Before exploring Crawford, however, you’ll be transported into the past far beyond the frontier days – back 10,000 years to when giant ancient bison roamed Northwest Nebraska. The Hudson-Meng Education and Research Center is a fossil site located in the Oglala National Grassland north of Crawford, Nebraska. Turn west and bear north at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 2. In about five miles you’ll reach Toadstool Road where you’ll turn west. Follow Toadstool Road as it heads west and then north until you reach Sandcreek Road. Turn west on Sandcreek Road and follow it for about two miles. Turn north on Meng Drive.
(20 miles north of Crawford)
In 1954, while attempting to dig a stock pond, Nebraska ranchers Bill Hudson and Albert Meng uncovered a large pile of bones. During the 1970s, Dr. Larry Agenbroad of Chadron State College began excavating the site believed to be the bonebed of nearly 600 ancient bison. The site is considered to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in North America.
Scientists and student excavators have been working with the Forest Service for decades to try to understand the exact nature of this mass kill site and the role that ancient Paleo-Indian people may have played. In 1997, a climate-controlled enclosure was completed to cover the central portion of the bonebed.
When you’re ready to move to your next destination, backtrack to Highway 20 and turn south. In about 500 feet, turn west onto Main Street. Travel about two miles and your destination is at the northwest corner of the intersection of Main and 2nd Streets.
(144 Main St., Crawford)
Crawford’s post office was built in 1939 and is known for the large mural it is home to. The mural, titled “The Crossing” was created by G. Glenn Newell and commissioned as part of the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts program from 1934-1943. The approximate six-foot by 12-foot mural depicts a wagon train in the process of fording a stream. Crow Butte, a prominent landmark in the region, is shown in the background.
Newell was an artist as well as a dairy farmer and lived in Dutchess County, New York, at the time he was commissioned to create the mural.
Not too far away is the next stop. From the post office head back south on second street to the intersection of Linn Street. The Cooperative Block Building is located on the southwest corner.
(435-445 Second St., Crawford)
The Cooperative Block Building was built in 1909 in Crawford, Nebraska. The Victorian building was the home of the Crawford Co-operative Company from 1909-1977. The cooperative played an important role in the region before it was dissolved in 1977. Its architecture represents the first of its kind in the region, given its use of reinforced concrete.
Cooperation was an important movement among farmers to combat such things as low prices for farm products, high prices for manufactured goods, unfair commissions and middlemen fees, according to the building’s statement of significance filed in its application to the National Register of Historic Places. The cooperation allowed farmers to fight for equitable treatment without looking to government intervention.
Since the cooperative was dissolved, the building has served as the home for several downtown-Crawford businesses. Its history includes being a grocery, funeral parlor and restaurant.
Once you’ve finished your stops in downtown Crawford, head west on Highway 20 for a closer look at the region’s Native American and Military history at Fort Robinson State Park.
(about 3 miles west of Crawford)
Perhaps no location among those listed here has impacted Northwest Nebraska more than Fort Robinson and Red Cloud Agency. Originally a temporary camp guarding the Red Cloud Agency from 1874-1877, the fort served the U.S. Military in multiple roles until it ceased to be a military post in 1947. Just some of the fort’s prominent history includes its role during the Indian Wars, its stationing of African American “Buffalo Soldiers” in the early 1900s and its serving as a German POW camp during World War II. Visitors can easily spend multiple days exploring the fort and learning of its extensive history.
The Red Cloud Agency is approximately 1.5 miles east of the fort and was the home of a handful of buildings which served as the Indian Agency for Oglala Lakota from 1873 to 1877 before it was moved to south-central South Dakota. Though no buildings remain, the agency housed agency offices, a home for the agent, a blacksmith shop, stables, a schoolhouse, and more. Nearby were trading stores and the site of Chief Red Cloud’s village. To the east of the agency, visitors can still see wagon ruts from the Sidney to Deadwood Trail which carried supplies and gold-seeking individuals to the Black Hills. The agency was created to provide government goods like food, clothing, tools and cattle to the Sioux and Cheyenne in exchange for ceded land.
The Agency and Fort Robinson were focal points of conflict between Native Americans in the sunset years of the so-called Indian Wars. It was the location of the surrender of multiple important Native American leaders like Dull Knife of the Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux War Chief Crazy Horse who was eventually killed at the fort on September 5, 1877.
(above: a stone memorial marks the location of the death of Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson.)
(left: a potrait of Red Cloud. Photo courtesy of South Dakota State Historical Society. Taken by Charles Milton Bell while Red Cloud was on a delegation in 1880.
The fort was the site of the infamous Cheyenne Breakout, during which Dull Knife and his Northern Cheyenne broke free from capture at the fort and fled west into nearby buttes and canyons now known as the Cheyenne Buttes. Most of the Northern Cheyenne were killed or recaptured.
In 1885, the 9th Cavalry, the all-black cavalry regiment that would become known as the “Buffalo Soldiers,” was stationed at the fort. In 1919, Fort Robinson became a remount station for the Army, a place where horses were trained for army use. It eventually became the world’s largest remount. During World War II the fort became the home of the War Dog Reception and Training Center where dogs were trained for many different jobs with the military. In 1943, the fort became the location of the first German Prisoner of War camp, housing prisoners, many from Irwin Rommel’s famed Afrika Korps.
The fort’s first post commander was General Arthur MacArthur, father to General Douglas MacArthur, and Dr. Walter Reed, namesake of Walter Reed Hospital, once practiced there.
Though the fort itself is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, one building on the grounds is also registered individually and is your next destination. The building is located just east of the fort’s offices.
The building which once housed Fort Robinson’s Army Theatre is now Nebraska’s Trailside Museum of Natural History, housing prehistoric artifacts from the region. Before housing mammoth bones, the building provided entertainment for the post during its history as a theatre from 1904 to 1917. The theatre saw acts like the John E. Frank Players and housed boxing and bowling contests. Famous boxer Jack Dempsey squared off with “Lightning” Murray of the 10th Cavalry in June 1905. In 1917, when it was easier for soldiers at the fort to get their entertainment by traveling to Chadron or Crawford, the theatre reverted to a gymnasium.
The Trailside Museum, which now occupies the building, features one of the most unique exhibits in the nation – The Clash of the Mammoths. In 1962, in the badlands north of Crawford, Nebraska, two men happened upon a portion of a femur jutting out from a bank of earth. The two men said they knew they’d found something big, but had no idea they’d just discovered something no one else ever had and likely no one else ever will.
The fossil remains the men found, and which are now on display at the Trailside Museum, are that of two massive mammoths, locked together by the tusks, trapped in a battle that ended with the two behemoths dying, still entangled where they lay.
When you’re ready to move on to your next location, get back on Highway 20 and drive west 24 miles to Harrison. Turn south on Main Street in Harrison and travel about 600 feet to your next destination – The Sioux County Courthouse, located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Main Street and 3rd Street.
(325 Main Street, Harrison)
The current Sioux County Courthouse was built in 1930 to replace the first courthouse in the county which was built in 1888. The building was designed in the Classical Revival style and is one of six stone-faced County Citadels built between 1917 and 1930 in Nebraska. The building also includes Art Deco elements. The property remains mostly unchanged from its original build.
Behind the courthouse is a small jail which has little in the way of documented historical background. Its appearance suggests it was built in the 1920s and either existed on the property prior to the building of the courthouse or was moved to the location after the courthouse was built.
The final destination of the bucket list will again transport you back in time – millions of years into the past. Travel south on Main Street (also Highway 29) for about 22 miles before turning east on River Road and follow the sign to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument visitors center.
(about 25 miles south and east of Harrison)
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is located south of Harrison and is home to many archeological finds from the area. Nineteen million years ago, strange creatures roamed the savanna that is now western Nebraska. The ancient mammals included tiny, two-horned rhinoceros, the Moropus – a horse/giraffe/tapir/rhinoceros/bear-like creature and the ferocious seven-foot-tall large-tusked pig.
Though well-known for decades by the Lakota, the first fossils here were discovered by Captain James H. Cook in 1878. Cook, and his son Harold, developed a headquarters at Agate Springs Ranch for fellow paleontologists. Skulls and complete skeletons were found in the early 1900s, many of which were housed at the Carnegie Museum and the American Museum of Natural History.
Over the years, Cook and his family fostered friendships with Chief Red Cloud and other members of the Oglala Lakota Sioux. During their visits, the parties would exchange gifts which Cook decided should remain with the ranch. The National Park Service Visitor Center at the location houses a room of artifacts, such as buckskin suits, gloves, one of Red Cloud’s shirts, pipebags and whetstones. Historic photographs accompany several of the artifacts.
(located within Agate Fossil Beds National Monument)
The Harold Cook Homestead Cabin, also referred to as the “Bone Cabin,” is located in the valley of the Niobrara River within Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. The one-room, wood-frame cabin was built in 1904 and underwent several alterations during its use. The cabin, and other structures on the site, were built by Harold J. Cook, a paleontologist and son of Captain James H. Cook. Harold was 17 when he assisted O.A. Peterson of the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh with the first scientific excavations at Agate Fossil Beds. The “Bone Cabin” served as a headquarters for the paleontologists’ studies. In 1910, Harold filed a homestead claim in order to own and protect the buildings and fossil quarries.
The cabin and surrounding structures were later used as a ranch house in the late 1930s and underwent alterations to its present appearance.