Following the establishment of Fort Kearny in 1848 two miles east of here and the later expansion of overland commerce and emigration, the small commercial center of Kearney City was established here in 1859. Its more common name, Dobytown, came from the resemblance of its twelve to fifteen earthen buildings to adobe structures. It developed in response to the thousands of soldiers, freighters, and travelers whose needs could not be met within the fort. Gambling, liquor, and disreputable men and women were its principal attractions. General William Tecumseh Sherman, one of its most famous visitors, described the horrible whiskey he was served here as "tanglefoot." In addition to its notorious functions, Dobytown also served as the major outfitting point west of the Missouri River, the center of frontier transportation from 1860 to 1866, a Pony Express station, and the first county seat of Kearney County. The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 reduced the flow of travel by the fort, and when the fort was abandoned in 1871, it sounded the death knell of Dobytown, a pioneer frontier town.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Kearney, Nebraska · USA