Boot Hill Cemetery, Lowell, NE
We could also check out or even investigate "Boot Hill" south of Gibbon a few miles. It has a spooky history and I've been there many times. D
Boot Hill-Lowell Nebraska
Lowell, Nebraska, was, for a short time in the 1870s, an important point for shipping cattle from the Plains to the Southwest; when the Burlington and Missouri Railroads were completed to that point in 1872. Many times the streets were full of the half-drunken cowboys, roughs and gamblers that frequented the town; Lowell was a bustling community. By 1874 the town was already in decline; in part to the removal of the U.S. Land Office (to Bloomington) and the building of a bridge across the Platte River at Kearney Junction, nearly twenty miles west. The final blow for Lowell was struck when the Kearney County seat was moved to Minden, in 1878. The town now (late 1970’s) has only a few buildings remaining to note that there was ever a community at that site. There is also a statue and a Nebraska Historical Marker.
Boot Hill is located southeast of Lowell, some eight miles south of Gibbon, and came into being in the 1860s or early 1870s. A large stone marker is located east of the hill itself. It is said that a number of men are buried there. The exact count is unknown despite what the marker states. Those buried at Lowell’s Boot Hill are said to have all been victims of violence; be it gunfire or hanging. According to an early settler in the area, encounters between what were called “Pony Herders” and cattlemen in the vicinity of Lowell caused a number of men to be shot and killed. It is also possible that some of the men buried on Boot Hill could have been the first occupants of the hill. A story by an old-timer says that the feud between cowboys and homesteaders is false. He said that, of the first seven buried on Boot Hill, two were killed in a robbery, another due to relations with two young women, and two were killed by neighbors - because their ponies had wandered into their sod-corn. Legend has it, that the final shoot-out in Lowell occurred in 1873 in a saloon where, when the smoke cleared, fourteen men were dead. They were said to be buried on Boot Hill. Another story recalled by a local boy, Art Yensen; in the early 1900s, he remembered seeing as many as twenty-five depressions in the soil in the Boot Hill area. In his curiosity, he dug up one of the graves. He and his friends unearthed a skull which revealed a bullet hole in one side and out the other. Yensen was the artist responsible for the stone monument put in place in 1976.
Boot Hill is on what appears to be private land and is surrounded by an ill-kept fence. It should be investigated with reverence and respect for the land owner and those who are purported to be at rest there.
All of the above information comes courtesy of the book, “Lowell-Boom town In The 1870s-The Untold Story of Boot Hill”, which was compiled in the late 1970s by Mrs. George H. Meyers
Update: 5/31/10 8:00pm
"I went with the digital camera, K2 meter, digital recorder and note pad and pen. I should've taken some OFF, as the bugs were pretty bad; I ended up with three ticks. I spent 30 minutes asking for responses about to the history I'd read about. The pheasants and Bobwhite were VERY vocal as were the bugs. I discovered that my breathing is really labored and noisy (sinuses) also and I'll have to keep a distance from the recorder in the future."
Possible EVP's recorded during visit (Dennis and Ben).
Dennis' Notes:
The grass is waist-high, and loaded with bugs. I ran the digital recorder for 30 minutes, asking questions related to the site's history.
Possible EVP at 20:36:
I asked, "Any of you old cowboys wanna talk?" What follows sounds like a faint, gruff voice responding, "Yeah".
There is a lot of wind, noise, bugs, birds; my breathing is labored and audible.
Possible EVP at 22:15:
I ask if anyone can come up and touch me, or talk. There are faint noises akin to talking, and an echoed, faint voice seems to respond with mumbling, then, "are you afraid?".
Boot Hill-Lowell Nebraska
Lowell, Nebraska, was, for a short time in the 1870s, an important point for shipping cattle from the Plains to the Southwest; when the Burlington and Missouri Railroads were completed to that point in 1872. Many times the streets were full of the half-drunken cowboys, roughs and gamblers that frequented the town; Lowell was a bustling community. By 1874 the town was already in decline; in part to the removal of the U.S. Land Office (to Bloomington) and the building of a bridge across the Platte River at Kearney Junction, nearly twenty miles west. The final blow for Lowell was struck when the Kearney County seat was moved to Minden, in 1878. The town now (late 1970’s) has only a few buildings remaining to note that there was ever a community at that site. There is also a statue and a Nebraska Historical Marker.
Boot Hill is located southeast of Lowell, some eight miles south of Gibbon, and came into being in the 1860s or early 1870s. A large stone marker is located east of the hill itself. It is said that a number of men are buried there. The exact count is unknown despite what the marker states. Those buried at Lowell’s Boot Hill are said to have all been victims of violence; be it gunfire or hanging. According to an early settler in the area, encounters between what were called “Pony Herders” and cattlemen in the vicinity of Lowell caused a number of men to be shot and killed. It is also possible that some of the men buried on Boot Hill could have been the first occupants of the hill. A story by an old-timer says that the feud between cowboys and homesteaders is false. He said that, of the first seven buried on Boot Hill, two were killed in a robbery, another due to relations with two young women, and two were killed by neighbors - because their ponies had wandered into their sod-corn. Legend has it, that the final shoot-out in Lowell occurred in 1873 in a saloon where, when the smoke cleared, fourteen men were dead. They were said to be buried on Boot Hill. Another story recalled by a local boy, Art Yensen; in the early 1900s, he remembered seeing as many as twenty-five depressions in the soil in the Boot Hill area. In his curiosity, he dug up one of the graves. He and his friends unearthed a skull which revealed a bullet hole in one side and out the other. Yensen was the artist responsible for the stone monument put in place in 1976.
Boot Hill is on what appears to be private land and is surrounded by an ill-kept fence. It should be investigated with reverence and respect for the land owner and those who are purported to be at rest there.
All of the above information comes courtesy of the book, “Lowell-Boom town In The 1870s-The Untold Story of Boot Hill”, which was compiled in the late 1970s by Mrs. George H. Meyers
Update: 5/31/10 8:00pm
"I went with the digital camera, K2 meter, digital recorder and note pad and pen. I should've taken some OFF, as the bugs were pretty bad; I ended up with three ticks. I spent 30 minutes asking for responses about to the history I'd read about. The pheasants and Bobwhite were VERY vocal as were the bugs. I discovered that my breathing is really labored and noisy (sinuses) also and I'll have to keep a distance from the recorder in the future."
Possible EVP's recorded during visit (Dennis and Ben).
Dennis' Notes:
The grass is waist-high, and loaded with bugs. I ran the digital recorder for 30 minutes, asking questions related to the site's history.
Possible EVP at 20:36:
I asked, "Any of you old cowboys wanna talk?" What follows sounds like a faint, gruff voice responding, "Yeah".
There is a lot of wind, noise, bugs, birds; my breathing is labored and audible.
Possible EVP at 22:15:
I ask if anyone can come up and touch me, or talk. There are faint noises akin to talking, and an echoed, faint voice seems to respond with mumbling, then, "are you afraid?".
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Second visit...
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