Anselmo

The Cathedral of the Sandhills the plaque mentions is not the 1905 church. That frame building was outgrown, and in 1928 the parish laid the cornerstone of a brick Late Gothic Revival church by the Omaha architects M. S. Lahr and Carl Stangel, 112 feet long with a 95-foot bell tower. Kansas stonecutters carved its limestone pinnacles and tracery, and Anselmo men dug the site and hauled materials from the depot. Bishop James Duffy dedicated it in 1929. Father Francis Keller gave up his salary and cashed in his life insurance to buy the pews.

What the plaque says

Anselmo Anselmo began as a railroad town along the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. The Burlington needed a stop for water, coal, and switching facilities. It built a depot, and the town itself was platted in November 1886. A Lincoln Land Company engineer named Anselmo B. Smith located and platted the town. He platted numerous other towns in Nebraska, but it was said that he liked the beauty of this valley so well that he asked to give this town his own name. Many early residents were railroad employees. Anselmo soon added new businesses and became the trading center for a wide area. With a double-decked porch, the City Hotel provided "modern" accommodations for travelers. The first local school opened in 1887, and the local Methodist Church was established that year. St. Anselm's Catholic Church, often referred to as the "Cathedral of the Sandhills," was organized in 1905. By the 1920s Anselmo had nearly 500 residents, with thriving businesses that included elevators, a roller mill, livery stables, seven doctors and dentists, general mercantile stores, restaurants, barbers, five banks, and two newspapers. Donated in memory of F. C. "Jim" and Ruth Fagan History Nebraska, 2021

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Nebraska National Forest, Bessey Ranger District — 30 mi
  A pine forest planted by hand on the Sandhills from 1902 to prove a botanist's theory, still raising seedlings at its nursery and still recovering from the Bovee Fire of 2022.

More markers nearby

• The Nebraska State Grange — 15 mi
• Broken Bow — 19 mi
• Broken Bow Town Square — 19 mi
• Custer County's First Courthouse — 23 mi