About Big Springs
Big Springs is a village in Deuel County, in western Nebraska. The 2020 census counted 394 residents, against 400 in 2010 and 418 in 2000. The village covers about 0.44 square miles, all land, and stands around 3,370 feet above sea level. Ogallala lies to the east, and Julesburg, Colorado, to the southwest.
History
The place takes its name from the stream that runs through it. The railroad named this stop Big Springs in 1867, and spring water drawn from near the track was used by steam locomotives until 1950. An earlier name for the settlement was Lone Tree, after a large cottonwood standing alone on the prairie, a landmark that could be seen by riders on the Pony Express and travellers on the Oregon Trail. The town was platted in 1884 and incorporated in 1917.
The train robbery
On 18 September 1877 Sam Bass and his gang held up a Union Pacific train near Big Springs. A reported sixty thousand dollars in new twenty-dollar gold pieces and currency was taken from the express car, along with about a thousand dollars and a number of watches taken from passengers. A state historical marker at Big Springs records the holdup.
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Big Springs is a village in Deuel County, Nebraska, whose site was originally known as "Lone Tree," named for a prominent solitary cottonwood that served as a landmark for Pony Express riders and Oregon Trail travelers alike. The Union Pacific Railroad renamed the stop "Big Springs" in 1867, after the nearby stream, and the townsite was formally platted in 1884, though incorporation as a village didn't come until 1917. Big Springs has a notably colorful frontier history: following an 1877 Union Pacific train robbery, outlaw Sam Bass's gang allegedly divided roughly $60,000 in stolen loot beneath the old Lone Tree. Decades later, in 1965, the village was the site of a violent robbery at the Farmers State Bank in which Duane Earl Pope killed three people. The Deuel County fair was held in Big Springs from 1889 to 1932. Today the village sits near where Interstate 76 meets Interstate 80, and US Route 30 (the old Lincoln Highway) crosses US Route 138 about three miles north of town. With a population of 394 (2020 census), Big Springs remains one of Deuel County's two incorporated communities.
Big Springs began as "Lone Tree," a Pony Express and Oregon Trail landmark, before the railroad renamed it in 1867 and it was platted in 1884. Sam Bass's gang reportedly split stolen loot there in 1877, and a 1965 bank robbery turned deadly. It sits near the Interstate 76/80 interchange. Population was 394 in 2020.