Lone Willow

Scamahorn named the camp for an adventurer. The 1940 Who's Who in Nebraska says he called the town after John Gordon, whose expedition to the Black Hills ended disastrously in 1875. Gordon had led an unlawful party into the Hills in 1874, and when he tried to take a wagon train back the next year, soldiers intercepted it and burned the wagons. Where they caught it is disputed: a Brown County history of the old trails puts it near the present town, while a 1939 Holt County account names the Snake River. Gordon counted 1,504 people in 2020.

What the plaque says

Lone Willow A single willow tree on the banks of Antelope Creek served as a landmark along the Gordon Trail for settlers, fur traders, and Native Americans. In 1885, Reverend John Scamahorn and 104 settlers from Indiana set up camp at the Lone Willow. Later that year, the town moved a mile west to accommodate the railroad. The tree continued to serve as a meeting place for cowboys and cattlemen during early cattle round-ups. Today, Gordon annually celebrates the Willow Tree Festival. Lone Willow Chapter DAR Nebraska State Historical Society, 2019

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wounded Knee Massacre Site — 25 mi
  The hill where the Seventh Cavalry's guns stood on December 29, 1890, and where the Lakota they killed lie together in one grave.
• The Heritage Center at Red Cloud — 28 mi
  A free gallery of Lakota art on the campus of the old Holy Rosary Mission, where Red Cloud asked for a school and is buried on the hill above it.

More markers nearby

• Opening the Sandhills — 8.7 mi
• Rushville — 16 mi