Belmont Nebraska

Former railroad town · Dawes County · post office 1889–1956

About Belmont

Belmont is a former railroad town on the BNSF (old Burlington) line in southern Dawes County, about 10 miles south-southeast of Crawford and 8 miles north-northwest of Marsland, at about 4,500 feet. A few buildings stand on a gravel road. The Belmont Tunnel is about half a mile north.

History

While the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy dug the 698-foot Belmont Tunnel in 1888–89, its workers' camp was called Evergreen City. That name was taken, so the railroad renamed the place Belmont for one of its officials; the post office opened on November 9, 1889, and the tunnel on August 25, 1889. The town was platted in 1890 but grew slowly, reaching about 80 people in the late 1920s with two stores, two churches, a lumberyard and a 1927 brick school that taught high school until 1948. The last store burned in 1949, the post office closed in 1956 and passenger service ended in 1969. In 1982 the railroad bypassed the tunnel with a new cut just west. The school district merged with Crawford's in 2008, and the school was sold in 2010.

Things to see

the Belmont Tunnel portals, viewed from public roads (railroad property) · the Belmont Cemetery