by Larry Miller
The rugged buttes overlooking the meandering White River in western Dawes County saw more than just a few hostilities between white settlers and the indigenous Sioux tribes in the 1870s.
The rugged buttes overlooking the meandering White River in western Dawes County saw more than just a few hostilities between white settlers and the indigenous Sioux tribes in the 1870s.
In 1873, the old Red Cloud Agency was relocated from along the North Platte River to a site near the pine-speckled buttes above White River. The U.S. government authorized creation of a military post at the new agency site the following year.
Originally known as Camp Robinson, it was renamed Fort Robinson in January of 1878 in honor of Lt. Levi Robinson, who'd been killed earlier by hostile Indians. Fort Robinson played a key role in the so-called "Sioux Wars." It was there that Chief Crazy Horse surrendered in May of 1877, and it would continue to play an important role in efforts to maintain some tranquility in the region for several years.
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| Early Crawford photograph courtesy of M.M. Mizner |
That fact was not lost upon local and regional businessmen who also observed that the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad was extending into western Dawes County in the Spring of 1886. A new maintenance roundhouse had been built by FE&MV the previous year in Chadron. Establishing this rail route to serve the fort offered great opportunities for those quick enough to take advantage of it.
According to the Nebraska State Historical Society, Omaha Bee correspondent William Edwards Annin and his brother-in-law Benjamin Paddock had partnered some years earlier to conduct business at the agency. And the two apparently had acquired land in the vicinity of Fort Robinson -- land that was then purchased by the railroad.
In June of 1886, Annin would write in the Bee that the newly platted town of Crawford, "has already put on the airs of an old settlement. Four thousand dollars worth of lots were sold the first day and the purchasers are now busily at work erecting buildings. Thirty business houses are already on the ground and nearly as many more are said to be on the road coming to locate."
"A bank, two lumber yards, four general stores, a furniture store, meat market, blacksmith shop, a wheelwright, livery stable, two restaurants, three drug stores, a hardware establishment and flour and feed emporium, with several saloons...."
"Fort Robinson lies only three and one-half miles distant, and a large trade with its garrison is reasonably expected by the merchants. The purchasers of the lots promptly saw that the nearer they could locate to the military post the better for their business...five weeks from now will see a well built up street, and a bustling town, where three days ago not a house was visible," wrote Annin.
These entrepreneurs, and the railroad that bought their wares to the county, are memorialized by streets named for them: Annin, Paddock. and Fremont. In nearby Whitney, adjacent parallel streets still carry the names, Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri. The street nestled along the north side of the seldom-used rail tracks is names -- appropriately -- Railroad Street.
