May 4, 2008

This was to be a trip to Reynolds, Nebraska (for all the usual good reasons), but it expanded to include Angus and Oak, Nebraska.

Kansas

From Kansas to what is now Kearney, Nebraska, the route of the Oregon Trail follows the north side of the Little Blue River. The old trails (Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Santa Fe Trail) are a good start for finding interesting old towns, as are the old railroads that came a few years later.

Nebraska

The is the Little Blue River near Hebron.

Hebron, Nebraska, early Sunday morning.

The Oregon Trail would have been right through where the town is now. A combination of the trail and the coming railroad probably decided the towns site (convincing the railroad to come through would make or break your new town).

Downtown Hebron, Nebraska.

I talked with this gentleman in Mary's cafe about the town of Angus (which I saw on the map while eating breakfast), and he suggested also looking at Oak. He didn't think there'd be much left of Angus, but Oak was still there. He also told me about the system of naming the local towns along the route of the railroad:

Alexandria
Belvidere
   Carleton
     Davenenport
       Edgar
         Fairfield
           Glenvil
             Hastings

Nebraska Highway 4.

That's Oak, Nebraska across that plowed field.

The Business district of Oak, Nebraska.

Angus, Nebraska isn't too far from Oak, but it wouldn't be nearly so easy to find. This is it. If there ever had been a business district, I didn't see any evidence of it. A few abandoned houses and the school seems to be about all that remains.

The school was divided into two rooms, with a divider down the middle.

Nuckolls County, Nebraska. That's the Little Blue River in the distance (looking north), so the Oregon trail would have been across the river, on the hill.