This town is a division point on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, and the shops operated here furnish employment for quite a large number of men. Crawford is situated at the junction of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, about four miles from the western county line. This town is noted for its horse markets. It owes its growth partly to the establishment of a military reservation nearby and partly to the development of ' the surrounding farming community. Marsland, Whitney, Wayside, and Belmont are other towns in the county, named in order of importance. Fort Robinson lies near the western border of the county, on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad.

The Chicago & Northwestern railroad between Omaha, Nebraska, and Lander, Wyoming, crosses the county east and west. A branch runs northwest from Dakota Junction to Deadwood and the Black Hills. The main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad between Omaha and Denver on the south and Billings. Mont., on the north, crosses the western part of the county, passing through Marsland and Crawford.

Agriculture

The first settlers to make use of the agricultural resources of Dawes county were cattlemen. During the period from 1877 to 1884 agriculture was confined to the grazing of cattle on the free, open range, where a variety of nutritious grasses furnished good summer and fair winter grazing. Winter losses were very heavy at times, but usually the profits on the

HISTORY < )F WESTERN NEBRASKA

animals that survived were large. Grain farming began to replace open-range ranching about 1884, when settlers began to take up the alluvial lands along Bordeaux creek and White river. A little later homeseekers from the vicinity of Sidney, to the south, settled upon the table and park lands. At that time the nearest railroad points were Sidney to the south and Valentine to the east.