Long Pine Nebraska

City · Brown County · Population 305 (2020 census) · ZIP 69217 · Founded 1881 · Peak population 1,206 (1920)

About Long Pine

Long Pine is a city of 305 (2020) in eastern Brown County, at about 2,402 feet, set in the canyon of Long Pine Creek just south of US 20; a short state spur (S-9A) leads into town. The creek, named for the tall pines along its banks, is spring-fed, stays about 55°F all year and holds naturally reproducing rainbow and brown trout. The Cowboy Trail crosses the canyon west of town on the old Chicago & North Western bridge, 595 feet long and about 145 feet high. Long Pine has a city office, post office, grocery and a few businesses; students attend Ainsworth Community Schools, 8 miles west. Long Pine is on Central Time.

History

Settlers came to the canyon about 1876 for shelter and water. The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad arrived in 1881, and the village was incorporated on January 9, 1884. By 1890 Long Pine had a Chautauqua assembly ground, an opera house, two banks, three roller mills and four hotels. The Chicago & North Western built the steel bridge over the creek and, from about 1905–06, made Long Pine a division point between Norfolk and Chadron, with a roundhouse where crews stayed over and engines were serviced; the railroad piped water from the Seven Springs south of town. Five passenger trains a day brought visitors to the Chautauqua and to Hidden Paradise, an amusement park from 1910 where Carleton Pettijohn Sr. built cottages, a heated plunge and a dance pavilion from 1912. The population peaked at 1,206 in 1920. Passenger service ended in 1958 and the last train ran in 1992. Cliff Clevenger, a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1939 to 1959, was born on a ranch near Long Pine.

Things to see

the Heritage House Museum in the 1895 Miller Hotel, 197 W. Third St., Brown County's only National Register property (summer weekends; call ahead) · History Nebraska marker 557, “Long Pine – A Railroad Town” on N. Main St. at the Cowboy Trail, and the roundhouse site with its turntable footprint · the Cowboy Trail bridge over Long Pine Creek, about 0.6 mile west of the marker · Long Pine State Recreation Area, 87770 Willow Ridge Ave., just northwest of town: 153 acres on the creek, trout fishing and 29 non-electric campsites, with the Long Pine WMA next to it · Hidden Paradise, rental cabins in the creek canyon from mid-April to mid-October, with tubing on the creek · Pine Glen WMA, with hiking down to Bone and Long Pine creeks, north of town · Keller Park State Recreation Area, about 11 miles north on NE 7