The first ranch in this area was established on the Niobrara River about five miles south of here in 1877. E. S. Newman set up his ranch to sell cattle to the government for delivery to the Indians at the Pine Ridge Agency to the north. Newman and other early ranchers avoided the sandhills and instead established ranches along their edge because they believed the shifting sand dunes, with few streams or other known sources of water, would not support cattle and might even be dangerous for humans. In the spring of 1879, after severe winter storms drove stock south of the Niobrara River, Newman and his fellow ranchers entered the sandhills hoping to salvage some of the cattle. They discovered that the hills provided shelter as well as good grass and water. The sandhills, later the heart of Nebraska's cattle country, have since developed a thicker and more stable grass cover, and this rolling land with abundant vegetation and lakes between the hills has become one of the world's most productive cattle-raising regions.