Camp Lookout is the oldest building in Sidney and perhaps the entire Panhandle. The structure was built in 1867 to house soldiers from Fort Sedgwick, Colorado, who set up an outpost along Lodgepole Creek to protect railroad workers pushing the Union Pacific across the plains. Later known as Sidney Barracks, it eventually became a lodging facility and then a private residence after the Army pulled out in 1894. Volunteers have been working effortlessly to have Camp Lookout opened by Sidney's Sesquicentennial in 2017.
Gold in California brought hordes of people moving across the prairie in wagons drawn by oxen, mules and horses. A better form of transportation was needed. The Union Pacific Railroad began building a transcontinental railroad. Clashes between the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians and the railroad workers brought the military to the area that would eventually be named Fort Sidney.
Gold was discovered in 1874, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As much as one million pounds of freight a day arrived in Sidney on the Union Pacific to be shipped north on the Sidney-Deadwood Trail. Prospectors and those. One red with the stampede, swelled the towns numbers from a mere 500 people up to 5,000. This total does not include the additional 1,00 soldiers stationed at the fort. With the growth, came hundreds of roving toughs. This was the frontier, lawless and wide open. Gambling saloons, dance halls, brothels and places to purchase liquor legally numbered 87. The play of six-guns was often heard and hangings were not uncommon.
Lawlessness ran so rampant, the Union Pacific Railroad locked the coach doors and ran trains through town without taking on or letting off passengers. Passengers were let out a mile out of town and road wagons into town.
Visiting Sidney? Camp Lookout is a place you will want to visit. 940 East Elm Street Sidney NE 69162
Gold in California brought hordes of people moving across the prairie in wagons drawn by oxen, mules and horses. A better form of transportation was needed. The Union Pacific Railroad began building a transcontinental railroad. Clashes between the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians and the railroad workers brought the military to the area that would eventually be named Fort Sidney.
Gold was discovered in 1874, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As much as one million pounds of freight a day arrived in Sidney on the Union Pacific to be shipped north on the Sidney-Deadwood Trail. Prospectors and those. One red with the stampede, swelled the towns numbers from a mere 500 people up to 5,000. This total does not include the additional 1,00 soldiers stationed at the fort. With the growth, came hundreds of roving toughs. This was the frontier, lawless and wide open. Gambling saloons, dance halls, brothels and places to purchase liquor legally numbered 87. The play of six-guns was often heard and hangings were not uncommon.
Lawlessness ran so rampant, the Union Pacific Railroad locked the coach doors and ran trains through town without taking on or letting off passengers. Passengers were let out a mile out of town and road wagons into town.
Visiting Sidney? Camp Lookout is a place you will want to visit. 940 East Elm Street Sidney NE 69162
