Rushville

In Lakota, Rushville is Owátȟokšu, the place where things are transported, and the name records what the railroad town became for Pine Ridge Agency across the South Dakota line: the place where its freight, and in 1890 its soldiers, came off the trains. A soldier later remembered being detrained at a junction point named Rushville and sent on to Pine Ridge. In November 1890 dispatches datelined Rushville carried agency news to Nebraska papers, and army telegrams that winter routed the Second Infantry through the town. The killings at Wounded Knee came on December 29.

What the plaque says

Rushville The city of Rushville began as a settlement called Rush Valley, two miles north of its present location, in 1884. Buffalo grass pastures west of the Sandhills provided good grazing, but were too short for hay. The natural meadows along Rush Creek induced settlement in the area. Two stores a mile apart were established in the valley, with the post office in the south store. When the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad churned westward across Sheridan County in 1885, the tracks missed the established community. Rush Valley merchants were among the first to purchase lots from the railroad-controlled Pioneer Townsite Company, build, and move their goods to the new town of Rushville located on the railroad. The village of Rushville was incorporated on October 9, 1885. The first trustees were Bruhn, Mosler, McEachron, Enderly, and Meservey. We are indebted to area individuals and groups for many benefits we enjoy. It is to these former citizens who had the vision to see beyond their now into the future that this park and its wall of history are dedicated. Rushville Centennial Committee City of Rushville Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Heritage Center at Red Cloud — 26 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

• Camp Sheridan and Spotted Tail Agency — 12 mi
• Lone Willow — 16 mi
• Opening the Sandhills — 24 mi
• Mari Sandoz, 1896-1966 — 27 mi