Cozad History

Long before homesteaders and immigrants began to pass through and settle in central Nebraska in the early and mid-nineteenth century, the region had long been populated by Native Americans, and in the last two millennium, the Pawnees. They had occupied a wide swath of territory that included parts of present-day Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota. Indigenous peoples had inhabited what is now the United States and Canada for at least ten thousand years and some have suggested as many as forty thousand years.

Central Nebraska has long been a transportation artery with its rivers, trails, railroads, and later roadways crossing it. The Great Platte River Road as it was called, was described as the grand corridor of America’s westward expansion and followed the route of the Platte River beginning at the Missouri River, at the eastern end of Nebraska, to the west end and then continuing into the state of Wyoming. This route was the basis for the later creation of the Overland Trails including the Mormon, Oregon and the California trails which were most heavily used between 1841 until 1869. These trails ran through on the north side, such as the Mormon, or to the south of Cozad including the Oregon and California trails. In addition, the route of the Pony Express mail system ran to the south of Cozad and a waystation, which was moved, has been preserved in City Park. 

Those trails were succeeded by the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad which arrived in the place that later became Cozad in 1866. It proceeded westward until in 1869 it met the Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah. For the first time a transcontinental railroad was in operation. Then, less than five decades later, the newly designated Lincoln Highway was dedicated in 1913, the first road built across America which ran through Cozad and was succeeded by U.S. Route 30.

Finally, there is Interstate Route 80 which begins just west of New York City, passes just south of Cozad, and ends in San Francisco, California. Cozad is located on a corridor of communities including San Francisco, Denver, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Chicago, and smaller cities in between.

The 100th Meridian, on which Cozad is located, holds significance beyond the 1862 transcontinental railroad legislation that President Abraham Lincoln signed to encourage the construction of a railroad across the country. It was a unique place that had been artificially created and, as railroad surveyors would proclaim, was the place where the humid East met the arid West. John Wesley Powell a surveyor with the United States Army and writing for the United States Geological Survey in 1879 had stated that:

“The 100th Meridian was the natural demarcation line extending northward from the western shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Evaporation from the gulf waters supplies most of the rainfall east of the Meridian, West of the Meridian precipitation comes largely from the Pacific which is generally insufficient for agricultural needs without irrigation. Here on the Meridian East meets the Arid West.”

It remains for the community a matter of pride and continues to play an important role in the city’s identity. For decades, the sign placed along the railroad track by Thomas Durant in 1866 greeted visitors going in either direction. Sometime in the late nineteenth century the sign disappeared. A new monument, made of stone native to the area, was erected by the Cozad chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at approximately the same location, next to the 1925 Union Pacific railroad passenger station. A sign has straddled U.S. Route 30 designating the community as the site of the meridian for decades. Even today promotional efforts continue to draw attention to that line although it has been located by more modern techniques and with greater accuracy, to the west of the town on U.S. Route 30 near the Cozad Municipal Airport.

The town of Cozad, located on the 100th Meridian, 247 miles west of Omaha, was the dream of John. J. Cozad from Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1872, when John J. Cozad was traveling through the Platte valley on the Union Pacific, he saw a sign on the right-of-way bearing the words 100th Meridian. This particular location impressed him as being a favorable site for a town. He purchased options on 40,000 acres of land from the Union Pacific Railroad and organized a campaign to encourage people to move to Cozad. A railroad boxcar was the first building, with the name COZAD painted on each end.

Soon the railroad company erected a depot at Cozad and Cozad built a hotel and several other buildings to establish the town. Circulars extolling the merits of the new settlement were sent far and wide, especially to the states of Ohio and Indiana. By 1890, the new town boasted a population of more than five hundred. A newspaper, The 100th Meridian, was published and its copies were sent far and wide throughout the nation, bringing people to settle in Cozad during the early years.

By the time the colonists were settled, along came the grasshoppers and everything green was destroyed. The colonists tell the story of the hoppers eating the pitchfork, hoe and shovel handles as well. The vast majority of colonists gave up and returned east, leaving only five families behind. Though the grasshoppers, drought and hot winds continued over the years, the little colony never lost heart and Cozad built additional business buildings and erected a school.

John Cozad spent thousands of dollars building a sod bridge across the Platte River to give the settlers work and to improve the chances for his town to succeed and connecting it to settlers to the south. Interestingly, when he needed funds, he would “seek out a Faro game” usually back East and was known once to make $50,000 gambling in Omaha between trains.

In October of 1882, John Cozad left the town he founded after having an altercation with another man, never returning. His wife Theresa sold his property and other assets, and she and their son, Robert Henry, left the town in 1884. Changing their names, the Cozad family moved to Atlantic City. Robert changed his name to Robert Henri and ultimately became a famous artist and teacher in New York City.

In the early days, the Cozad area was primarily an agricultural community. Alfalfa, the Platte Valley’s green gold, became a dominant force in Cozad’s economy, earning the community the title Alfalfa Capital of the World.  When World War II ended, alfalfa dehydrating plants came to the Platte River Valley and agriculture and livestock production continued to flourish. New businesses came to Cozad bringing with them diversity and innovation to our community.

Cozad owes much of its success to the hardworking farm and ranch businesses and families who are committed to feeding our nation and our world through agriculture and livestock production. Cozad is committed to continued progress and development while offering excellent quality of life to all within our local area.

In 2018, Cozad’s business district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More than forty buildings are listed within the historic district, which include a variety of architectural styles such as Italianate, Neo-Classical Revival, American and Mid-Century Modern.

In 2022, The Nebraska Arts Council endorsed Cozad’s Haymaker District as a certified Creative District. The Haymaker Creative District’s mission is to promote creativity and celebrate the arts through history, culture and diversity, thereby providing a significant economic impact to Cozad’s economy.

Cozad celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023, with year-long activities centered around four themes integral to the history of Cozad:

  • The Union Pacific Railroad:How John J. Cozad originally arrived at the 100th Meridian.

  • The Arts: Boyhood home of Robert Henri (Robert Henry Cozad), as well as Cozad’s commitment to all types of art.

  • Agriculture: Beef and corn production, and Cozad historically known as the Alfalfa Capital of the World.

  • The 100th Meridian: Longitudinal line running through Cozad, where the humid east meets the arid west.

Lincoln Highway

In June 2023, the Lincoln Highway Association celebrated the 110th Anniversary of the Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental road across America and connects the people and places in Nebraska.

In 1912, Carl G. Fisher, the man who created the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had the idea of a transcontinental highway of good roads that would facilitate easier travel. He pitched the idea to anyone and everyone who would listen. During these pitches, he proposed the new highway should be given a patriotic name, so he chose Lincoln, after his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. Fisher was able to convince a few folks in the auto industry of the need for a highway that stretched coast to coast, and President William H. Taft agreed it would help unite the nation.

Construction on the project began in 1914. In 1919, Dwight Eisenhower led a military caravan on the Lincoln Highway that came through Cozad.

As it was the first highway to connect East and West coasts, the towns and villages through which the Lincoln Highway passed experienced an economic boom and the Lincoln Highway became affectionately known as “The Main Street Across America.” Nebraska was no different. Smaller villages, those without hotels, set up free tourist camps to get travelers to remain there, where they would most likely spend money.

These days, a few telltale artifacts along Highway 30 are the only reminder of those early days of the Lincoln Highway. A few of those artifacts exist here in Dawson County. Outside Overton, for instance, there is a small cement bridge with the red, white and blue Lincoln Highway logo painted on the wing walls. No road extends east or west of the bridge, but the bridge gives testament that the original Lincoln Highway was located on a slightly different course than today’s Highway 30.

A raised berm located south of Gothenburg, now on private land, marks the original bed of the road, which was most likely rock and gravel, as concrete and asphalt was not yet in existence. Not all the Lincoln Highway was rock and gravel, however. Some sections, known as seedling miles, such as those near Grand Island and Elkhorn were brick. In fact, reconstruction of these sections of what is now Highway 30 was bypassed because of local citizens intent on preserving “their” section of history.


Visit the 100th Meridian Museum in Cozad and the Great Platte River Road Museum in Kearney, NE for more information on the history of this famous highway across our nation.


Click here for the Lincoln Highway Map.