Ogallala Nebraska

City · Keith County · County seat · Population 4,878 (2020 census) · ZIP 69153 · Founded 1868 · Peak population 5,638 (1980)

About Ogallala

Ogallala is a city of 4,878 (2020) and the seat of Keith County, on the north side of the South Platte where I-80 (exit 126), US 30, US 26 and NE 61 meet. It has the county hospital, Ogallala Public Schools and most of the county's motels, and Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy are about 7 miles north on NE 61. Like all of Keith County it is on Mountain Time. The Ogallala Formation, and the aquifer in it, take their name from the town.

History

The Union Pacific reached the site on May 24, 1867, and named its siding for the Oglala band of the Lakota. The Lonergan brothers and Louis Aufdengarten settled in the spring of 1868, and when Keith County was organized on May 3, 1873, Ogallala became its seat. In 1874 the railroad built cattle pens and a loading chute, and from about 1875 to 1884 Ogallala was the northern end of the Texas (Western) Trail: 60,000 to 75,000 head arrived in 1875, and as many as 125,000 a season at the peak, the herds reaching town about June 10. Trail driver Andy Adams called it "the Gomorrah of the cattle trail," and it has long been known as the "Cowboy Capital." Texas fever and a quarantine ended the drives in 1884.

B. I. Hinman, M. C. Keith and Guy Barton filed the town plat on November 23, 1875, offering free lots to anyone who would build a business. An August 1884 fire burned much of the town south of the tracks, and Ogallala incorporated on November 25, 1884. Banker Leonidas A. Brandhoefer built his brick mansion on the hill in 1887 but sold it the next year. The Lincoln Highway came through in 1913, Robert Goodall began manufacturing here in 1932, and Kingsley Dam was built north of town in 1936–41. Interstate 80 opened south of town in the late 1960s, and Ogallala reached its largest census count, 5,638, in 1980.

Radio host John Lanigan, a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame, was born here in 1943, and state senator Ken Schilz in 1969. Thomas M. Shanahan practiced law in Ogallala from 1959 to 1983 before serving on the Nebraska Supreme Court and as a U.S. district judge.

Things to see

Front Street, 519 E. 1st St., a re-created cowtown street opened in 1964 (National Register 2015), with a steakhouse, the Crystal Palace Saloon, a free cowboy museum and the Crystal Palace Revue, Nebraska's longest-running summer stock show (Wednesday–Saturday evenings in summer) · Boot Hill, W. 10th St. and Parkhill Dr., the cowtown cemetery of the 1870s and 1880s · the Mansion on the Hill, 1004 N. Spruce St., Brandhoefer's 1887 house, now the Keith County Historical Society museum (National Register; Memorial Day–Labor Day, Tuesday–Saturday 9–4, Sunday 11–4) · the Petrified Wood & Art Gallery, 418 E. 1st St., with the Kenfield twins' petrified-wood art · the post office at 301 N. Spruce St., with Frank Mechau's 1938 mural Long Horns (National Register) · the restored Standard Oil Red Crown Service Station, 220 N. Spruce St., now a visitor information stop · Tri-Trails Park, S. Hwy 61 and Road West 80, with markers for the Sand Hill Pony Express station and the Oregon Trail · the outdoor pool, 307 W. 7th St. · Crandall Creek Golf Club, 18 holes · Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy, about 7 mi north · the Keith County Fair, July 29–August 1, 2026, the Ogallala Round-Up Rodeo in late July and the Indian Summer Rendezvous in September