![[Floodgap Roadgap presents the Summer of 6]](../extras/so6.gif)
Floodgap Roadgap's Summer of 6 -- U.S. Highway 6, Part 18: US 6 in Nebraska (McCook to Holdrege; Red Willow, Furnas, Harlan
and Phelps Counties)
In this Part we continue on from McCook, the county seat of Red Willow
county. McCook was named for Union Brigadier General Alexander
McDowell Cook despite no direct connection (and a relatively undistinguished
career). Originally established as Fairview, a tiny riverside settlement,
the later name was applied by the Lincoln Land Company when it was platted
for the local railroad in 1882. Growing rapidly, it wrested county seat
status from nearby Indianola in 1892 after a protracted court battle. Always
a railroad town at its heart despite the brief existence of the McCook
Army Air Base from 1942 to 1945, the old steam locomotives were phased out
for longer range diesel engines that didn't need to stop, starving the
town until a minor oil boom in 1956. Today agribusiness and light industry
are the present-day foundations of the city's economy. Its present population
is 7,698 [2010].
Almost all of this Part parallels the Republican River, running south
of the highway from the
High Plains of Colorado to the Smoky Hill River at Junction City, KS
for a length of 453 miles with a maximum discharge of 33,300 cubic feet/second.
Their confluence becomes the Kansas River; the Kansas is the southwestern
portion of the Missouri River drainage, which is itself the northwestern
portion of the great Mississippi. The low-lying river communities US 6/34
cross through were, and despite modern flood control measures still somewhat
are, at risk for severe flooding and several great historical floods altered
some of these towns irrevocably. Nebraska's deadliest flood of 1935, triggered
by a torrential nine inches of rain in two days, deluged everything from the
Frenchman Creek to the Republican. Water measured up to 20 feet in depth and
the 10-foot crest washed away structures en masse in McCook. 113 people died
in the deep waters; the tens of thousands of cattle corpses rendered roads
impassible and almost 75,000 acres of farmland were inundated. Some of the
communities in this Part never recovered.
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Immediately upon entering McCook we intersect US 83 for a brief co-routing.
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US 83 is one of the longest north-south highways in the country -- only four
are longer -- at 1,885 miles, and still goes border to border with its Mexican
continuations as MX 101/180 (from Brownsville, TX) and Canadian as MB 83
(from Westhope, ND). Its survival is largely due to not being substantially
part of any current or future Interstate corridor. As it has few
concurrencies with Interstate highways and none of are significant length,
it has not been decommissioned or greatly re-routed in any of its states.
US 6 also intercepts both of its surviving spurs (US 183 and US 283), and
historically former US 383 as well. More about that as we reach them.
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Entering town.
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If we wind back a bit before the junction, however, we see a turn-off signed as
"Old Hwy 6." Let's have a quick look.
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Old Highway 6 in McCook
This appears to be the original alignment on the west side of town, and was
probably part of the OLD/DLD and US 38 as well.
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It isn't clear to me when this minor old alignment was bypassed, but it
appears to still travel on older concrete slab instead of asphalt.
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At least one sign seems to indicate US 34 was also carried on this alignment
as well.
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Traveling along in the early morning sun.
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Coming to a stop just shy of the west US 83 junction.
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Continuing through downtown McCook.
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US 83 leaves town to the south after our brief co-routing.
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EB US 6/EB US 34.
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Distance signage leaving town at Mile 88.
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Over the rolling hills.
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Entering Indianola.
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The original county seat of Red Willow County was established on the
homestead of one E. S. Hill by D. N. Smith, a surveyor for the Burlington
and Missouri River Railroad. Ostensibly he relied on his friend Hill's
holdings after local bickering made the original location unattractive, and
named the new town after his original hometown in Iowa. Even with the railroad
it never gained sufficient population to eclipse McCook, however, which
replaced it as county seat, and
the current population today still numbers only 552 [2017].
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A number of picturesque old buildings still remain along the main drag.
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A town park.
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Mile 98.
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Distance signage leaving town.
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More fields.
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Entering Bartley.
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Bartley was platted on the holdings of Rev. Allen Bartley, the original
owner, when the railroad came through in 1886. Its low lying regions were
similarly
subject to devastating floods from the Republican River
until it was serviced by
the first total watershed control system in the United States
as a demonstration project. Although agriculture and oil dominate the regional
economy, booze does not, as Bartley remains
one of the historic "dry towns" in the region. Its current population is
269 [2017].
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Through Bartley.
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Distance signage leaving town.
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Furnas county line.
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Established in 1872 and
named for Nebraska's second state governor, Robert W. Furnas, the county has
4,780 [2017] residents with its county seat at Beaver City.
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Shortly after the county line, we enter Cambridge.
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Cambridge is a town of many historic names. Homesteader Hiram Doing took
holdings in 1871 and called it Northwood, which didn't stick; the Post Office
tried again, naming it Medicine Creek in 1874 after the tributary of the
Republican River that runs through it, and also failed. Doing sold out to
J. W. Pickle in 1876 who renamed the town "Pickeltown," with a similar and
in this case fortunate lack of success.
Eventually the railroad came through in 1880 and the station
agent gave it the modern name, presumably from either of the localities in
Massachusetts or England. Similarly prone to flooding as poor Bartley to
the west,
its continued higher population is due in large part not only to the fertile
soil but its local medical services. In the present day
the city's population numbers 1,040 [2017].
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Through town.
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Junction NE 47.
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N-47 exists in two parts; this is the roughly 12 mile southern section
starting at NE 89 to the south. The NHRPLB then has a curious notation
("N-47 STOPS. RESUMES APPROXIMATELY 34 MILES NORTH") linking to the
northern segment in Dawson county at
ref post 47+08/mile 46.45. From there it proceeds for another 40 miles
to terminate at NE 40 in Custer county. No single traversable routing
connects the two halves, nor does it appear NDOT has any plans to make one.
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Leaving town at Mile 117.
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Entering Holbrook.
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In the frontier days
Isaac Burton had a settlement along a bend in the Republican River which
was a well-known local trading post. Established in 1870 and known to
locals as Burton's Bend, neither Burton nor his partner H. Dice had interest
in being the county seat when the county was organized. The railroad came
through in 1880 and named its stop Holbrook after a station official, which
gradually eclipsed Burton's business after they abandoned it in 1883.
Badly afflicted by the Great Depression and the 1935 flood, the town never
grew further. Its population today is 198 [2017].
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"Downtown," at that time torn up for a resurfacing project.
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Distance signage leaving Holbrook.
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EB US 6/34.
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Entering Arapahoe.
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The Arapaho tribe were early inhabitants in antiquity; though forcibly
relocated to reservations in Wyoming and Oklahoma by 1878, the town was
named in their honour. It was originally platted by the Arapahoe Town
Company for the purposes of establishing a river settlement and
officially surveyed in 1871. When Furnas county was organized, Arapahoe
briefly
became the county seat until Beaver City challenged, filed suit and ultimately
prevailed in 1876. Similarly besieged by floods, the town survives on the
strength of the local agriculture. Its present-day population is 992
[2017].
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Junction US 283 in town.
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The first of the US 83 spurs we will encounter,
US 283 runs from US 87 in Brady, TX to US 30 in Lexington, NE for a total
length of 731 miles. Much of its routing is highly rural.
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Leaving town.
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Advance signage for US 136.
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Junction US 136, its western terminus.
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END US 136 at the junction, an odd situation for an east-west route to
terminate at another east-west route. It runs for 804 miles to Speedway, IN
where it terminates just shy of US 36 at I-74/I-465; a proposal to extend it
to US 36 via the Interstate was never implemented. Its routing is also
similarly notable for the less than four miles it spends in Iowa, just
crossing the state's southern tip, while in Missouri it hits every county
seat in the nine counties it passes through.
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Distance signage leaving the junction.
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Advance signage for NE 46.
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Harlan county line.
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After the Battle of Summit Springs drove out the Sioux and other tribes from
this portion of the Republican River valley in 1869, various settlements
sprung up in the region including one near Alma, the present-day county seat,
led by settler Thomas Harlan in 1871. The county was either named after him
or James Harlan, U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Andrew
Johnson, but we'll see almost none of it here.
The present population is 3,443 [2017].
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Junction NE 46.
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N-46 is a minor 12-mile arterial between NE 89 at the south and this location,
running nearly directly on the county line to its northern terminus here.
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Advance signage for NE 4.
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Junction NE 4.
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From this point, its western terminus, N-4 is a major farmland highway
serving much of southeastern Nebraska to US 75 near Dawson, 205 miles distant.
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We divert northeast.
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Mile 147.
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Phelps county line.
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Formed in 1873, the county was named for William Phelps, an early settler
in the region. We'll travel through the southeastern triangle of it including
to its county seat of Holdrege. The county's current population is 9,060
[2017].
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Entering Atlanta.
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Likely named for Atlanta, Illinois, the town was platted in 1883 and
incorporated in 1908. Another "temperance town," it has never had a saloon.
The modern village population is 131 [2017].
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Cornhusker country, indeed.
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Distance signage leaving town.
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Historical marker signage for nearby POW Camp Atlanta, which during World
War II had more Nazi prisoners than the town ever had people. Between
its three compounds the camp complex held nearly 3,000 people until it
was phased out by 1946.
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EB US 6/EB US 34.
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Holdrege city limits.
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