Swan City

Andreas's 1882 History of the State of Nebraska said the need for a county seat here was at first imaginary: business was so thin that county officers made their pockets the offices and could be found wherever they happened to be. The first term of the district court sat here in May 1870. Dr. Levi Anthony and E. Mack began a flouring mill in 1867 that John Dunbar bought before it was finished, and with Thomas Cline's sawmill it was the county's first of either kind. By 1882 only the old grist mill and two or three houses remained.

What the plaque says

Swan City Near here was located the first town and county seat in Saline County. Situated on Swan Creek from which it took its name, Swan City held prominence for only a few years. The first settlement buildings, including a store and a sawmill, were constructed about 1865. In 1865, William Remington donated the land on which the town was located. The first meeting of the Saline County Commissioners took place there at Cline's Mill on February 17, 1866. Swan City was officially platted on October 8, 1866. Swan City grew to a community of some 200. Its thriving business section included a hotel. The O'Connor Circus spent a few winters in Swan City. In 1871, the county seat was moved from Swan City to Pleasant Hill. That same year, the railroad was being built through the Blue River Valley, two and a half miles from Swan City. Most of the town's business community wanted to be near the railroad and moved to either DeWitt or Wilber within two years. The last vestige of Swan City was the flour mill which continued to operate until it burned in 1891. Swan City thus joined the ranks of ghost towns. Saline County Historical Society Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Homestead National Historical Park — 11 mi
  Daniel Freeman's claim on Cub Creek near Beatrice, one of the first filed under the Homestead Act, with a one-room school, a homesteader's cabin, restored prairie and the land's earlier owners.
• Rock Creek Station State Historical Park — 21 mi
  A stage and Pony Express station on the trail southeast of Fairbury where James Hickok killed David McCanles in July 1861, with the court papers that cleared him, and deep wagon ruts.

More markers nearby

• Czech Capital — 5.2 mi
• Plymouth — 7.2 mi
• Homestead Movement — 13 mi
• Pleasant Hill — 14 mi