Nebraska County Countdown: Day 86

Blaine County, you’re up.

Welcome to Blaine County, NE, founded in 1885. In full disclosure, my amateur-historian roommate is helping me with this. He went on a roadtrip across the state of Nebraska over spring break, so he’ll be providing us with some pictures for this countdown. According to the most recent census, Blaine County has a population of 478. Blaine County is the second smallest county by population in Nebraska, and sixth smallest in the United States. It is named after former Presidential candidate in 1876 James G. Blaine.

It is located in the Sandhills, a very unique landscape providing high profits for cattle ranchers featuring a large amount of short to mid-grass prairies. It was lightly populated due to the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed farmers/ranchers to claim 160 acres of land for free if they promised to live on the land and improve it for five years. The county became more populated after the passage of Kin Kaid Act of 1904, which improved the Homestead Act of 1862 to give farmers/ranchers 640 acres of land in the semi-aird areas. This was done to attract more farmers/ranchers.

Communities started to pop up in the 1880s, including Brewster which is the county seat. At its height, Brewster had over 100 people, but now it only has 17. One famous former business in Brewster was a saloon owned by the legendary outlaw Doc Middleton. Middleton allegedly rustled 2,000 horses in his lifetime, was apart of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and competed in a 1,000 mile long horse race from Chadron to Chicago (he cheated and rode on the train for part of the race).