City Of Red Cloud

Red Cloud, NE > Red Cloud Groups & Organizations > City Of Red Cloud

address:540 North Webster Red Cloud, NE 68970 phone:402-746-2303 website:City Of Red Cloud

The town of Red Cloud was founded in 1871 and named in honor of the chief of the Oglala division of the Teton-Lakota Sioux, who became nationally known in 1870 during the first of his many trips to Washington, D.C. as a stubborn negotiator in behalf of the Sioux.

Red Cloud is located in what is known traditionally as Pawnee/Otoe territory.

Trains began running into Red Cloud in 1879 bringing supplies and a large number of settlers who hoped to homestead in the county.

The author Willa Cather came with her family in 1883 when she was nine years old. The Red Cloud of her youth is the setting of many of her works and is described in meticulous detail in many of her writings. Red Cloud appears as Hanover, Moonstone, Black Hawk, Frankfort, Sweetwater and Haverford.

There are four Willa Cather Thematic Group Historic Districts in Red Cloud listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Cather has immortalized this small community and Webster County in her writings.

For many years Red Cloud had a horse drawn street car railway system, with tracks running from East Fourth Avenue one mile down to the Depot Station until 1914. The streets of downtown were paved with red brick in 1917.

Today Red Cloud offers a variety of attractions for visitors, the NSHS Cather Sites, Webster County Historical Museum, Starke Round Barn, and special events year round.