Finally the last forty acre tract, it being where South Alliance is now located, was dropped to Mr. Sigafoos at a price of thirty-eight dollars per acre.

The high price which this land brought was convincing proof to the people of western Nebraska that upon the arrival of the Burlington railroad then building westward, this would be made an important division point with shops and other things calculated to make a large and thriving city, all of which expectations have been realized.

The purchase of this school section at the land sale deeded it to the Lincoln Land Company. In the hope of counting on the building of the city, people came from different parts of Nebraska and surrounding states to the embryo town, but the Lincoln Land Company refused to plat a town site and offer the lots for sale until after the arrival of the railroad.

These people congregated into a mushroom town or community on the deeded land of Samuel A. Smith, just east of the present town, where the dump ground and pest house are now located. This was named Grand Lake, and during the late summer of 1887 it became a typical western village of probably a thousand people. It had four banks, two newspapers, several general merchandise stores, livery stable, hotels, a blacksmith shop, and residences, all housed in rude structures built of rough Pine Ridge lumber, supplemented by canvas.

The railroad grade of the Burlington which had been rapidly pushed westward during the spring and summer of this year from Anselmo, closely followed by the laying of rails, reached Alliance about January 1st, 1888. A station was opened and named Alliance, the company refusing to recognize the name Grand Lake because of its similarity to that of Grand Island, which it was claimed would result in a