Stories of Omaha's history by Stu Pospisil

Not all stories are about how the West was won. More often than not, it was lost -- with dreams of getting rich quick and settlements that popped up overnight both fading forgotten into history.

"Ghost town" is the term that came to embody this trend, one abundantly common across Nebraska and the Midwest. Today, Nebraska has 146 cities and 384 villages, according to the state's official website. But Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick's 1925 work, "Nebraska Place-Names," attempts to study the origins of how more than 1,100 communities -- many of which were long gone then -- got their names.

Antioch embodies the "here today, gone tomorrow" life that typified many young settlements in the West.

Famed for steamboat sinkings before and during the Civil War, the early Missouri River town of De Soto could have foreseen its own fate.

Though the vast majority of homesteaders lured to Nebraska by the promise of free land were white, not all were. Nowhere was that more evident than DeWitty.

A vibrant community of roughly 200 African-Americans, some of whom were slaves freed after the Civil War, settled along the North Loup River in the northern Sandhills on what's now U.S. 83. Though it wasn't the state's only largely black community, it was the most successful.

Though the official name for this small community three miles west of Fort Kearny was Kearney City, the name Dobytown -- a reference to the handful of earthen buildings that appeared to be constructed from adobe -- stuck.

Unlike many settlements set up for homesteaders, Dobytown sprung up to provide soldiers and pioneers services that weren't typical of military bases. To quote the History Nebraska marker at the town site: "Gambling, liquor and disreputable men and women were its principal attractions." Its famous customer was Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who despised its whiskey.

Named after an Icelandic volcano by the Grand Island and Wyoming Central Railroad, the siding for cattle transportation grew into a tiny town that persisted for several decades.

Unlike other ghost towns, a town named Lemoyne still exists in Nebraska. The small community, which boasted 82 residents in the 2010 Census, is nestled along the north shore of Lake McConaughy.

Though the West was hardly the land of outlaws it's often portrayed as being in movies and TV shows, they certainly existed on the Nebraska frontier. Those characters were far more complex than portrayed.

In the case of the short-lived town of Mariaville, one outlaw's generosity is credited with helping keep the town afloat.

Not all ghost towns stay dead and buried forever -- Meadville is proof of that.

The town on the north bank of the Niobrara River in Keya Paha County, named after Civil War veteran and early settler Merritt Mead, was never large, despite its early role as a stop for travelers heading west.

In Nebraska's northwestern corner, a single building remains where a town once existed.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, built in 1887, has stood alone for years, and the occasional Mass is celebrated there. Without the church and its adjacent cemetery, though, no tangible reminder would mark where Montrose -- which peaked at 24 residents in 1910 -- had been in the present-day Oglala National Grassland.

When voters in southern Dawes County, tired of traversing nearly 60 miles to the courthouse in Chadron, elected to break away and form their own county, Buchanan -- later renamed Nonpareil -- was the first community to pop up in the new Box Butte County, named for a local landmark.

As such, the town -- which took its second name from a small newspaper type, given that its founder, Eugene Heath, ran a newspaper -- became the first county seat in 1886. Wikipedia muses that it's because the town, like the type, was so small, peaking at 50 residents.

Czech heritage remains strong in northwestern Knox County, near where the Niobrara River flows into the Missouri River.

Descendants of many of the first Czech immigrants who moved to that area of northeast Nebraska in the 1870s still live in and farm their corner of what locals call the Bohemian Alps. Pischelville, named after early settler Anton Pischel, is one of several such defunct settlements in the area. Many of them also bear Czech names.

Rock Bluffs, situated between two hills alongside the Missouri River, was a major player in Nebraska's earliest days, when it once was a legitimate rival to Omaha for power. Yet, as the Journal Star wrote in 2016, the community "stumbled over about every obstacle possible to growth, dooming it (to) obscurity."

Occasionally referred to as just Rock Bluff, the town is marked by only a cemetery and a former one-room schoolhouse that was converted to a museum after it closed in 1969. They belie the fact that Rock Bluffs was once a vibrant center of commerce for riverboat traffic and other businesses.

It's hard to find a more accessible ghost town in Nebraska than St. Deroin. Founded in 1854 as one of the earliest settlements in Nebraska Territory, it's located entirely within Indian Cave State Park.

Sedan is no longer an incorporated town, but it remains a hub for commerce in south-central Nebraska as a satellite site for a local farmers co-op.

Founded as Coy, the town opened its post office in 1900. The name was changed to Sedan, after a French city, in 1906. Never a big community, its population reached a high-water mark of 35 in 1950 before fading into obscurity. The post office closed three years later.

Few ghost towns take that mantle as literally as Spring Ranch, which still commemorates a history that some consider haunted.

Founded in 1860 along the Little Blue River, within sight of the Oregon-California Trail, Spring Ranch -- often referred to as Spring Ranche in early texts, to differentiate itself from an actual ranch -- began as a trading post for settlers heading west. The town that sprung up, though, was devastated by a Cheyenne and Sioux war raid in 1864 that left several people dead.

Not all stories are about how the West was won. More often than not, it was lost -- with dreams of getting rich quick and settlements that popped up overnight both fading forgotten into history.

"Ghost town" is the term that came to embody this trend, one abundantly common across Nebraska and the Midwest. Today, Nebraska has 146 cities and 384 villages, according to the state's official website. But Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick's 1925 work, "Nebraska Place-Names," attempts to study the origins of how more than 1,100 communities -- many of which were long gone then -- got their names.

Antioch embodies the "here today, gone tomorrow" life that typified many young settlements in the West.

Famed for steamboat sinkings before and during the Civil War, the early Missouri River town of De Soto could have foreseen its own fate.

Though the vast majority of homesteaders lured to Nebraska by the promise of free land were white, not all were. Nowhere was that more evident than DeWitty.

A vibrant community of roughly 200 African-Americans, some of whom were slaves freed after the Civil War, settled along the North Loup River in the northern Sandhills on what's now U.S. 83. Though it wasn't the state's only largely black community, it was the most successful.

Though the official name for this small community three miles west of Fort Kearny was Kearney City, the name Dobytown -- a reference to the handful of earthen buildings that appeared to be constructed from adobe -- stuck.

Unlike many settlements set up for homesteaders, Dobytown sprung up to provide soldiers and pioneers services that weren't typical of military bases. To quote the History Nebraska marker at the town site: "Gambling, liquor and disreputable men and women were its principal attractions." Its famous customer was Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who despised its whiskey.

Named after an Icelandic volcano by the Grand Island and Wyoming Central Railroad, the siding for cattle transportation grew into a tiny town that persisted for several decades.

Unlike other ghost towns, a town named Lemoyne still exists in Nebraska. The small community, which boasted 82 residents in the 2010 Census, is nestled along the north shore of Lake McConaughy.

Though the West was hardly the land of outlaws it's often portrayed as being in movies and TV shows, they certainly existed on the Nebraska frontier. Those characters were far more complex than portrayed.

In the case of the short-lived town of Mariaville, one outlaw's generosity is credited with helping keep the town afloat.

Not all ghost towns stay dead and buried forever -- Meadville is proof of that.

The town on the north bank of the Niobrara River in Keya Paha County, named after Civil War veteran and early settler Merritt Mead, was never large, despite its early role as a stop for travelers heading west.

In Nebraska's northwestern corner, a single building remains where a town once existed.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, built in 1887, has stood alone for years, and the occasional Mass is celebrated there. Without the church and its adjacent cemetery, though, no tangible reminder would mark where Montrose -- which peaked at 24 residents in 1910 -- had been in the present-day Oglala National Grassland.

When voters in southern Dawes County, tired of traversing nearly 60 miles to the courthouse in Chadron, elected to break away and form their own county, Buchanan -- later renamed Nonpareil -- was the first community to pop up in the new Box Butte County, named for a local landmark.

As such, the town -- which took its second name from a small newspaper type, given that its founder, Eugene Heath, ran a newspaper -- became the first county seat in 1886. Wikipedia muses that it's because the town, like the type, was so small, peaking at 50 residents.

Czech heritage remains strong in northwestern Knox County, near where the Niobrara River flows into the Missouri River.

Descendants of many of the first Czech immigrants who moved to that area of northeast Nebraska in the 1870s still live in and farm their corner of what locals call the Bohemian Alps. Pischelville, named after early settler Anton Pischel, is one of several such defunct settlements in the area. Many of them also bear Czech names.

Rock Bluffs, situated between two hills alongside the Missouri River, was a major player in Nebraska's earliest days, when it once was a legitimate rival to Omaha for power. Yet, as the Journal Star wrote in 2016, the community "stumbled over about every obstacle possible to growth, dooming it (to) obscurity."

Occasionally referred to as just Rock Bluff, the town is marked by only a cemetery and a former one-room schoolhouse that was converted to a museum after it closed in 1969. They belie the fact that Rock Bluffs was once a vibrant center of commerce for riverboat traffic and other businesses.

It's hard to find a more accessible ghost town in Nebraska than St. Deroin. Founded in 1854 as one of the earliest settlements in Nebraska Territory, it's located entirely within Indian Cave State Park.

Sedan is no longer an incorporated town, but it remains a hub for commerce in south-central Nebraska as a satellite site for a local farmers co-op.

Founded as Coy, the town opened its post office in 1900. The name was changed to Sedan, after a French city, in 1906. Never a big community, its population reached a high-water mark of 35 in 1950 before fading into obscurity. The post office closed three years later.

Few ghost towns take that mantle as literally as Spring Ranch, which still commemorates a history that some consider haunted.

Founded in 1860 along the Little Blue River, within sight of the Oregon-California Trail, Spring Ranch -- often referred to as Spring Ranche in early texts, to differentiate itself from an actual ranch -- began as a trading post for settlers heading west. The town that sprung up, though, was devastated by a Cheyenne and Sioux war raid in 1864 that left several people dead.