Opening the Sandhills

The 1879 rescue made a mayor. After a March blizzard drove at least 6,000 head of Zeke Newman's N Bar cattle into the hills, foreman Billy Irwin talked Newman into sending twelve riders after them. One was James Dahlman, a Texan who had come north in 1878 as Jim Murray after killing his brother-in-law in a fight later ruled self-defense. In about five weeks the crew brought back some 7,000 N Bar cattle and 1,000 mavericks. Dahlman rose to range boss, sheriff of Dawes County and eight-term mayor of Omaha, dying in office in 1930.

What the plaque says

Opening the Sandhills The first ranch in this area was set up on the Niobrara River about five miles south of here in 1877. E. S. Newman established his ranch to sell cattle to the government for delivery to the Indians at the Pine Ridge Agency to the north. The sandhills, later to become the heart of Nebraska's cattle country, were shunned by Newman and his contemporaries who set up ranches on their edge. The cattlemen believed the region of shifting sand dunes, with few streams or other known sources of water, would not support cattle and was even dangerous for humans. In the spring of 1879, Newman and his fellow ranchers were forced to enter the sandhills hoping to salvage a small portion of the stock that had drifted south of the Niobrara River in the severe winter storms. They found the cattle had both shelter and good grass and water in the hills. Since then Nebraska's sandhills have acquired a thicker and more stable covering of grass. This rolling country with its plentiful vegetation and its diamond-like lakes nestled between the hills has become one of the most productive cattle-raising regions in the world. Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wounded Knee Massacre Site — 29 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.

More markers nearby

• Lone Willow — 8.7 mi
• Rushville — 24 mi