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    Chadron
    Chadron
    Chadron
    Ebook162 pages39 minutes

    Chadron

    By Deb Carpenter and Ken Korte

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    About this ebook

    Over 150 years ago, the area now known as Chadron was vast, open grassland. Nearby water sources, Chartran Creek and Bordeaux Creek, were named for the French fur traders whose main customers were nomadic tribes the French called the Sioux. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the area quickly changed. The military outposts Fort Robinson and Camp Sheridan were established to control Indian Agencies for Red Cloud's and Spotted Tail's bands. Cattle replaced buffalo on the rich grasslands. The railroad pushed its way west, and the rest, as they say, is history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 27, 2004
    ISBN9781439614952
    Chadron
    Author

    Deb Carpenter

    Through a collection of historic images, this book traces the history of Chadron and its people as they made a place for themselves and built their businesses, churches, schools, and families. Chadron State College Writing Instructor Deb Carpenter and Interim Director of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center Ken Korte worked with Chadron State College students to present these glimpses of the people of Chadron and the land they call home.

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      Book preview

      Chadron - Deb Carpenter

      2004

      INTRODUCTION

      We can only conjecture what this area looked like before the late 1800s. Oral tradition, petroglyphs, and early written records reveal that nomadic tribes followed great buffalo herds and camped at various locations in this region. More recently, photographic records have given us a glimpse of the landscape and the lives of the people who made their mark on this region. That pictorial history is the one we wish to present here.

      A photograph captures a small slice of the photographer’s surroundings, from one vantage point, at a particular time and place. It often leaves out more than it depicts. This compilation will undoubtedly do the same, even though the work of several photographers gives the viewer many perspectives.

      The Graves photos were taken by local professional photographers Ray and Faye Graves during the span of their careers. Ray died in 1916, but Faye continued the business until the 1940s, storing the photographic glass plates in the walls of her basement studio. These plates were later discovered and donated to Chadron State College by Don and Ruth Huls. Ray appreciated the historical era in which he lived, and he worked to capture some of that history on glass plates. He kept a variety of Native American regalia on hand, and often begged, cajoled, or bribed important figures to have their photographs taken. There is speculation that the picture of Red Cloud included in this book is the last photograph taken of the famous Indian Chief.

      Judge Wallace Slattery was also fascinated with his era and the world around him. His work includes pictures of Native Americans, landscapes, buildings, and family.

      The photos and postcards from the Dawes County Historical Society and photos from private family albums give the viewer an opportunity to look through many eyes, enabling one to envision the lives of farmers, ranchers, and merchants in the early days of Chadron. When the 100-year-old photographs, or past perceptions, are placed side by side with current photographs, the study is especially interesting.

      That being said, Chadron is more than the pictures printed on these pages. It is also more than the buildings within the city limits. Chadron is comprised of people who came before us as well as those who now inhabit the land in and around the city itself.

      What we now think of as Chadron was once unbroken prairie that was part of White River Country, the general name for everything in northwestern Nebraska west of the big sandhills region. It was so named because White River was an important waterway to the fur trade.

      Earliest fur trade efforts in what is now northwestern Nebraska began in 1841, when fur trade companies established trading posts on creeks near White River. The traders dealt mainly with the Oglala and Brule Sioux, trading goods primarily for tanned buffalo robes.

      Conflicts over control of the land made this region a boiling plate, however. This affected trade and changed the makeup of the inhabitants of the land. Indian Agencies were formed, and military posts had to be established to police the agencies. Camp Robinson was established in 1873 to monitor Red Cloud’s Oglala. Camp Sheridan followed close behind in 1874, when it was established to monitor Spotted Tail’s Brule Indians.

      One of the biggest single events which led to a change of inhabitants of this region, though, began in the summer of 1874, when George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills, which at the time belonged to the Sioux, and found gold. It’s estimated that between November of 1875 and March of 1876, 10,000 people were drawn to the Black Hills. In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant charged the military to keep settlers and miners out of Sioux territory, but the lure of gold was too great, and gold seekers disregarded the warnings.

      On September 20, 1875, a Grand Council of about 20,000 Indians convened on White River in northwestern Nebraska, about eight miles from the Red Cloud Agency, to meet with government representatives, who offered to buy or rent the Black Hills. The Sioux refused. The military then withdrew their cavalry force from the Black Hills and settlers flooded in.

      By 1876, the buffalo were gone, the

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