City of Kearney history

In 1825 he traveled from Fort Atkinson in Nebraska on an expedition to make treaties with Indian tribes on the upper Missouri River.

Kearny also led an important military expedition along the Oregon and Santa Fe trails in 1845.

The first was the 1846 Fort Kearny on Table Creek, the present site of Nebraska City.

The Museum of Nebraska Art is on the university campus, and the Trails and Rails Museum preserves Kearney’s transportation history. It was named Kearney Junction for nearby Fort Kearny (a postal error added an “e” to the city’s name), a United States Army post (1848–71) that had been established to protect travelers on the Oregon Trail and was named for Gen.

According to an official War Department report, more than 30,000 people bound for California, Oregon and Utah passed through Fort Kearny during an 18 month period during the gold Rush of 1849.

The name continued to be spelled correctly until about 1856, when the second "e" began to appear in popular usage.

A second Kearney City was platted in 1859 two miles west of new Fort Kearny at an old settlement known as Dobytown.

In 1866 the Union Pacific established Kearney Station on the north side of the river opposite the fort.

However, it was not until 1871 when the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad fixed the junction point of its line with the Union Pacific that a townsite was established here.

When the Burlington Railroad intersected the Union Pacific line in 1872, Kearney Station was moved to the junction and renamed Kearney Junction.

In the fall of 1873, a bridge was completed across the Platte, connecting Kearney with the rapidly developing areas to the south.

Kearney, city, seat (1874) of Buffalo county, south-central Nebraska, United States It lies on the north bank of the Platte River, about 130 miles (210 km) west of Lincoln.

The University of Nebraska at Kearney (1903) is located there.

By 1930 the population had increased to over 8,500 and the community was laying the foundations of its present diversified economy.

The next significant catalyst for development was the completion of Interstate 80 in 1964 linking Kearney to the busiest east-west superhighway in the country.