The Royal Hotel – Part 2

SET YOUR CALENDARS BACK IN TIME AND CONSIDER THESE REAL & SUPPOSED FACTS: The year: 1851 The location: present-day Arizona The characters: father, mother & their seven children The destination: southern California The quest: reach Zion, the “intended land” for “Brewsterites” of the LDS (Mormon) Church Extenuating circumstances: limited food supply, possible physical & mental […]

S. E. Bailey & Sons Tie Barn

Arriving in 1910 and purchasing seven lots on the northwest corner of East Third Avenue and Elm Streets, S. E. Bailey and his sons intended to erect a tie barn to better serve the needs of Red Cloud. It appeared that they thought of everything, from its construction of concrete block which was durable and […]

The 200 Block of the West Side of Webster Street

1885 Sketch Showing the West Side of Upper Portion of the 200 Block and the Lower Portion of the 300 Block of North Webster Street Businesses in the 200 block of Webster included Oscar Patmore’s Feed Store, two of James Peterson’s earlier Agricultural Implement businesses and storage facilities, the Dickinson blacksmith shop, a variety store, […]

The Red Cloud Swimming Pool

Red Cloud Swimming Pool as chronicled by Walter’s Studio in 1954   Initially a petition for a swimming pool was filed in 1938 and a special election followed for the issuance of bonds in the amount of $5,000. Despite carrying by a vote of 354 to 201, the pool did not materialize. This was possibly […]

Silas Garber’s Dugout and Later Home

The early settlers continued to meet in this general location, but now at Garber’s newly constructed dugout just to the west of the stockade. It was here that the first elections were held, “Red Cloud” was the name chosen for the new town, and the area was organized into Webster County.   While not an […]

Red Cloud’s Telephone Service – Part 1

  The first known building on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and North Webster was an 1873 native stone structure belonging to Martin Pupka and John Berenzen. At some point the stone was later covered with wood siding. This structure remained at this site until it was razed in 1914 and replaced by the […]

Red Cloud’s Downtown Intersections – Part 1

Over the past approximately 150 years various structures have adorned Red Cloud’s downtown intersections. The first such object chosen was that of a flag pole. It was to help commemorate the new settlement’s first official Fourth of July in 1871. The duties of finding such were assigned to Peter Head, one of the town’s first […]

Red Cloud’s Brick Streets

    With the laying of the first brick on Red Cloud’s main street in 1916, the nostalgia associated with downtown Red Cloud may have been changed forever. Directing the labors associated with the operation was John Foster, who had also supervised and helped to lay the sandstone and bricks on the first Lincoln Elementary […]

Red Cloud’s Stockade

The birth of Red Cloud began on a small knoll overlooking Crooked Creek. This site was chosen by a party of nine men and was approximately 1,000 yards east and south of your current location. It was situated on land that had been homesteaded by Silas Garber, who later became an early governor of Nebraska […]

Red Cloud Breweria

By 1875, earlier settlers, Martin Pupka and John Berenzen, decided to embark on a new adventure for the town – that of a brewery. Their first venture together appears to have been that of a two story stone building they erected on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Webster Street. Constructed in 1873, it […]