Coffee Siding, Nebraska

Coffee Siding is a historic rail-shipping site in Sioux County, Nebraska, along rural U.S. Highway 20 near Harrison. It's no longer an active community -- the sidings and cattle pens that once stood here were removed in 1958 -- but a Nebraska Historical Marker preserves the story of one of the region's most important early cattle-shipping points.

The siding was built by Charles F. Coffee, a prominent rancher whose operations spanned both Nebraska and Wyoming, from headquarters on Hat Creek in Nebraska and Rawhide Creek in Wyoming. Its location just inside the Nebraska line let ranchers avoid Wyoming's higher freight rates, making it an economical hub for shipping cattle to market.

History

By June 1886, the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (later the Chicago and North Western) reached the present site of Harrison. Charles F. Coffee wasted little time: he shipped his first load of livestock from the new siding on August 15, 1886. The facility he built featured a 1,023-foot-long siding with seven cattle pens, and livestock awaiting transport grazed along the nearby Niobrara River while they waited. At its busiest, the operation could dispatch three trains at once, each with at least fourteen cars -- a substantial shipping point for the ranching country of far northwestern Nebraska.

Coffee Siding remained in continuous use through the 1940s, but improved roads and the rise of cattle trucks gradually made rail shipping points like this one obsolete. The sidings and pens were removed in 1958, and today little remains to mark the site beyond the historical marker that tells its story.

Location & Access

County: Sioux County
Region: Nebraska Panhandle
Setting: Along rural U.S. Highway 20, near Harrison
Designation: Historic site (former rail-shipping siding)

Adjacent Counties

Sioux County borders Fall River County, South Dakota (north), Dawes County (northeast), Box Butte County (southeast), Scotts Bluff County (south), Goshen County, Wyoming (southwest), and Niobrara County, Wyoming (northwest).

Nearby Towns

Harrison (Sioux County's seat, a few miles away along U.S. Highway 20)

Points of Interest

• Coffee Siding Historical Marker: A Nebraska State Historical Society marker recounting Charles F. Coffee's cattle-shipping operation and its role in regional ranching history.
• Niobrara River: The river where cattle once grazed awaiting shipment still runs near the historic site.

Events

Community events for the Coffee Siding area are being added to the directory. Browse the Sioux County directory for current listings.

Education & Health

Schools: The Coffee Siding area is served by Sioux County schools in Harrison.
Health: Nearest hospital and clinic services are in Harrison.