Sidney Nebraska Boot Hill Cemetery & Camp Lookout

06/08/2026

This coming weekend is Sidney Gold Rush Days. On Saturday June 13th, be sure to take the historic bus tour that they have, and visit 2 of ‘Sinful Sidney’s” most notorious haunts…Camp Lookout and The Boothill Cemetery…hear the history of where Sidney began…the tours are free!!

06/08/2026

Great old photo of Sidney…about 1920? Judging by the cars. Taken on 10th street..just south of the corner of 10th and Jackson streets. The old courthouse would have been on the left side of the photo… most of the buildings in the photo are still standing. The last photo is about 1914 …county officials standing at the court house.

06/03/2026

This building was located at the corner of 8th and Illinois streets in Sidney. It was originally the 8 bed barracks hospital, built sometime in the early 1870s. Probably used before the fort was completed. These pictures are circa 1998. It was also said that this was the first bay window in Sidney. At the time these pics were taken, it was reported that the building was 125 to 130 years old. The last owner was Ivan Liljegren…he had an agricultural service and nursery there. It was torn down about 2001-2002.

05/29/2026

Rumely Transfer House…Sidney Nebraska 1920

Rumely Transfer house..1920….J.W. Reinmuth proprietor…John Walter..born 1862…Died 1933…buried in Dalton Nebraska.

The Union Pacific Rail Road was the life blood of Sidney, having established the town in 1867. As the region grew, these transfer facilities required a constant crew of freight handlers. These operations kept commerce moving efficiently.

Transfer houses were local rail freight companies that would temporarily store, sort and re-load carloads of freight. They were also a tractor company. It allowed smaller shipments to be moved between rail cars, local wagons or trucks. Because Sidney was an important early point of supplies for the Union PacificRailroad, this structure served as an important hub for moving goods, agricultural produce, heavy equipment, even mining equipment without needing entire individual rail cars for every small load. Freight arrived in cars…the transfer house workers would unload, organize and reload the boxes into smaller outbound cars for regional branch lines or local deliveries.

05/25/2026

05/20/2026

Sidney Texaco Station…about 1936…located on the corner of 10th and Hickory streets…now the west parking lot…you can see the Sidney Power Plant to the right of the station. The Commercial Hotel is across 10th street to the east…The 3 men (un-identified) were the attendants at the Texaco Station.

05/13/2026

Saloons were prominent in Sidney’s early economy, the Owl Saloon was one of the most well known. It was a landmark in early Sidney. Saloons were a thriving business in Sidney. It was said that Sidney had more saloons than any other town on the frontier. Saloons, gaming houses, sporting houses and other “houses of ill repute” sprung up all over early Sidney. It is said that Front Street alone had over 80 saloons, gaming houses and brothels. These places sprung up during the hectic days of the railroad construction and then the Goldrush activity. The trek west of immigrants looking for land also brought many characters to Sidney. The number of saloons decreased and eventually ceased when prohibition hit in the 1930s.
The Owl Saloon was located between, what is now, Illinois Street and Hickory Street on the west side…
Standing in front of the Owl Saloon are all well known men in Sidney’s early history. Gus Wellner, Bill Gates, Al Benish and E. Kruse. The photo of the saloon is from about 1903. The souvenir plate was a give away from the Owl Saloon in 1909.

05/09/2026

Black Hills Freight Depot and the Pratt and Ferris Freight Depot were probably the most well known depots, but there were more. The Sidney Freight Depot was locate at what is now, the corner of 10th Ave. and Forrest Street. Pratt and Ferris sat a little north of that. Thousands of dollars of freight and supplies left these locations everyday for the hills. They followed the famous Sidney Deadwood trail..crossing the North Platte River west of present day Bridgeport. Each freight company hauled about 250,000 pounds of freight with each shipment…charging about 3 to 5 cents per pound. A lot of money in the 1870s. One of the most widely known and famous freight photos is the Pantenburg Freight Wagon on Front Street in Sidney..currently Hickory Street and 9th Ave…taken on June 10, 1877. Freighting outfits like these and many more, loaded up their freight and supplies daily from the Union Pacific Railroad and headed to the hills.

05/05/2026

This photo is circa late 1880s to 1890. The McLernon Store…a grocery and general store. Mr and Mrs McLernon are standing in the door. The horse and wagon were used for deliveries. Store occupied the area that is now part of where The Insurance Store is located (now 10th and Illinois). This corner was commonly known as “The Sidney Business Corner”. McLernon became Sidney postmaster and sold the store to Greenlee and Benson.

02/07/2026

Sidney’s rock quarry that helped build the town. Located east of the big water tower on Sandpipe hill. Stone was cut and rolled down the hill. There it was loaded and taken into the town. There was a narrow gage railroad track, behind the buildings (currently behind the buildings in the alley on Illinois Steeet). The stone was hauled on railroad carts to the location it was needed…and the buildings were built! The tracks were covered up when no longer need. But if you look around downtown, you can still find the old original stone on many buildings. There are still dynamite holes at the old quarry. The photo of the child sitting and looking over the town, is from the location of the quarry.

Additional info….the stone from this hill also built Camp Lookout and the Union Pacific RR depot. In the restoration of Camp Lookout, our stone mason, who was repairing and replacing the stone, went to the quarry and cut the stone for Lookout…. We used every avenue of historic preservation on Camp Lookout. Also if you look really close at the 2nd picture you can see the railroad tracks that the stone was carried on…look just in front of the buildings. It wrapped around the east side of the roundhouse and went into town.