Site of Hecla, Nebraska

The volcano the railroad borrowed is Hekla, about 4,890 feet high on a ridge in southern Iceland. Its name means a short hooded cloak, perhaps for the cloud that often covers its summit. Its eruption of 1104 spread ash over more than half of Iceland and made it famous across Europe, and for centuries it was spoken of as the gateway to hell; in the 1500s Caspar Peucer placed the gates in its bottomless abyss. It erupted for thirteen months in 1947 and 1948, and last in 2000, thirty-three years after the depot and stockyards here were taken away.

What the plaque says

Site of Hecla, Nebraska When the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad (now the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe) reached this point in 1887, it built a siding named Hecla after a volcano in Iceland. A post office was established the same year, and construction of stockyards and a depot made Hecla an important shipping point for Sandhills cattle. About 1911 Bill Gottlob and L. E. Fay acquired land from the UBI Cattle Company and built a general store and lumberyard. Hecla also had a school, livery barn, and pool hall. Migrant workers, railroad crews, surveyors, and ranchers shipping cattle frequently increased the small, permanent population. When travelers overflowed the sleeping quarters in the store, they slept in the schoolhouse or livery barn. Although the Gottlob store burned in 1927 and the depot closed in the 1930s, cattle continued to be shipped from Hecla. The post office and school closed in 1952 and the schoolhouse was moved to Mullen. The depot became a private residence. The railroad kept a repair crew in Hecla until 1956. The depot and stock- yards were removed in 1967 and Hecla was no more. Hooker County Historical Society Nebraska State Historical Society, 2009

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Mullen, Hooker County — 10.0 mi