Getting crops to market required good roads, rails

In 1872, Cedar County commissioners purchased a pile driver and began improving roads and bridges.

Commodities such as corn could not easily be moved by horse and wagon, especially during rainy weather when even the best roads became rutted mud holes. The farmers’ need for rail service was acute, but the nearest railhead was in Sioux City.

In 1874, a party of men led by General George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills. The Indians had not yet discovered the rewards of casino gambling and did not encourage tourism. A trip to the Black Hills in 1874 was far more hazardous than a trip to Sturgis bike week. To preserve the health of the miners (and to attract their business), a Sioux City group proposed building a railroad from Covington (South Sioux City) to the Black Hills gold fields. The tracks would pass through Cedar County.

On New Year’s Day 1876, the editor of the Wayne County Review, a newspaper published at the now extinct town of LaPorte, urged, “If you want to make money, vote for railroad bonds.” Voters in Dakota and Dixon counties voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bonds. Cedar County voters followed suit in 1876. The editor rejoiced, “The croakers against railroads have retired into their holes.”

The first leg of the Covington, Columbus and Black Hills Railroad was completed as far as Ponca in September 1876. It was a narrow gauge affair with strap iron rails spiked to cottonwood ties. The narrow gauge cars could not run on standard gauge track so freight had to be reloaded at Sioux City.

Dixon County residents were outraged; they had paid for a real train but got a toy. The engine was described as a four-wheeled wash pot with small carts attached. It was jokingly said a farmer plowing his field could walk beside the train carrying on a conversation with passengers until the plow outdistanced the train. Another joke was that the railroad was so inefficient that government officials from South America were sent to study it.

As a result of the railroad bonds, Cedar County was in debt in excess of the legal limit. One day a mob assembled at the courthouse in St. Helena, seized $150,000 worth of railroad bonds, and made a bonfire. Except for the grade, which had already been completed as far as Bow Valley, the Covington, Columbus and Black Hills Railroad never entered Cedar County.

The 1880s brought prosperity and railroad rumors were again circulated. The Covington, Columbus and Black Hills was sold to the Sioux City and Pacific. The track was widened to standard gauge and new ties and rails were installed. There was talk of extending the line west from Ponca, but the Sioux City and Pacific decided to build into Cedar County from another direction.

The railroad entered Cedar County from the southeast. Track was laid from Sioux City to Norfolk in 1881, at which time the towns of Wakefield and Wayne established.

In 1883, a branch line was completed from Wakefield to the center of Cedar County. After it was finished, the line was sold to the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad. Even before the rails were spiked down, the Peavey Townsite Company of Sioux City began laying out new towns. One was named Concord. The town at the end of the 34-mile line was called Hartington.

A small settlement already was in existence 10 miles southeast of Hartington. The place had its beginnings in 1870 when A. Hart Norris, a land speculator from New York, purchased 3,350 acres and planted thousands of elm trees. He called his little town Elm City. By 1882 most of the trees had died; Elm City was renamed Norris.