ATWOOD, THE BIG CITY THAT ALMOST WAS
(7 miles southwest of Sterling on U. S. Highway 6)

The first permanent resident of Logan County, Billy Hadfield, settled on an island in the river a few miles northeast of Atwood in 1871.  There is a marker on U. S. Highway 6, 3.3 miles northeast of Atwood, indicating the location.  By the 1880s a community had grown up at the present site and a town was platted in 1885.  When Logan County was established in 1887 the town was hoping to become the county seat, and laid a foundation for a courthouse.  When Sterling was chosen instead, the foundation was used to build the Atwood school.  It now supports a large home on the north side of W. Victor Avenue.

Old buildings to see in Atwood are the home of Annie Williams, town nurse, at the corner of Henry Avenue and 7^th Street, the old Methodist Church at Henry Avenue and 4^th Street built in the 1920s, and now remodeled into a private home, and the Atwood Mercantile at the corner of 5^th Street and Highway 6.

At its height in 1928 Atwood had 2 doctors, a grain elevator, garage, beet dump where sugar beets were dumped out of wagons or trucks into a pile until they could be hauled to the sugar factory for processing, a pickle receiving station which held locally raised pickle cucumbers to be picked up for processing, 2 lumber yards, 2 mercantiles, 2 pool halls, post office, telephone exchange, depot, 2 churches and a hotel.  A Jewish cemetery was behind the old school.

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CROOK – SERVING THE PIONEER FARMER
17 miles northeast of Sterling on U. S. Highway 138

Named for Major General George Crook, Civil War veteran and Indian fighter who subdued the Apaches, Crook began in 1881 along the south side of the tracks with a  store and post office.  Later there were more buildings north of the tracks, where the park now is, but these burned in an early fire.  The present town site was platted in 1907, and burned again in 1924.  Rebuilt again, by 1928 it had a population of over 300, 5 filling stations, 8 churches, 4 general stores, 2 elevators, lumber yard, bank, drug store, hotel, auto dealer, meat market, café, blacksmith, creamery, shoe shop, barber, pool hall, telephone exchange, real estate office and post office.

In the 1890s a colony of Hollanders settled west of town on County Road 58, still known as “Dutch Row”.  The colony failed, but one large cement block house remains from the early days.

Much of the old downtown of Crook remains along the north side of Highway 138, beginning at 2^nd Street with the Butterbaugh House, the Repp House, the telephone exchange, and the former site of Butterbaugh’s grocery.  Both filling stations on the corners of 3^rd Street are original.  The building with the garage door was a meat market and freezer locker.  The cement block building was a hotel and next was a drug store with a soda fountain and then a brick garage.  The old café has a mural inside, created by a hobo in 1945 in return for food.  The Tumbleweed Café was formerly a pool hall and a bowling alley.  The present post office was built in 1909 as the first bank of Crook.  Across 4^th Street is the former implement dealership, and north of it, Lou’s pool hall.  On the other side of 4^th Street is the old library and the WWII vintage Quonset, set up in the 1940s as a movie theater.

At the corner of 4^th Street and 4^th Avenue is the Crook Museum, open by appointment by calling 970-886-2713.  It was formerly the Presbyterian Church. Behind the museum is a railroad coach which was built in 1874.  It was moved with wheels and a crane  to its present location from a deserted siding and was used as a Boy Scout and VFW meeting place.  It is now being restored by the Crook Historical Society. Other old churches are    

St. Peters Catholic at 612 North 3^rd Avenue and the typical old small churches of the Assembly of God and the German Congregational at the other end of 3^rd Avenue.

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DAILEY -
TO THE FAITHFUL, THE MEMORIES ARE STILL STRONG
25 miles east of Sterling on US 6

The “Highline” railroad from Sterling to Holdrege, NE was built in the early 1900’s.  The construction was being competed through eastern Logan County.  Legend has it as the new siding was made and the first box car was spotted, the Railroad man in charge said, “That’s the first car for Dailey.”   The only building in the new town was a General Store, built in 1914 by a few area farmers, so that needed supplies would be available.  Today, this same “Dailey Cash Store” can be seen and visited at the Overland Trail Museum at Sterling, CO.  In 1915, a 12-grade brick school-house was being built and completed for the start of school in 1916.  Dailey was the first “Consolidated” school in the state and the first to use school busses.   The next few years were favorable for farmers, and crops were good.  Unfortunately, they didn’t last.  Though new businesses (including a lumber yard, grain elevator, bank, Chevrolet dealership, blacksmith and several filling stations) were opened, the “Dirty Thirties” hit and the weather became dry.  Sand and tumbleweeds blew into the fence rows.  “Times turned rough.”  The grasshoppers ate everything that the rabbits didn’t.  Highway 6 was being built from Sterling east to Nebraska, which enabled people the ability to transport themselves and their goods to larger nearby towns – to the detriment of small towns, including Dailey.  Daily never regained strength after the 1930s.  Not much of Dailey remains today, but to the faithful, the memories remain strong.

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FLEMING – ABANDONMENT AND RESURRECTION
(19 miles east of Sterling on U. S. Highway 6)

The area was first settled in the 1880s by homesteaders living in sod houses or dugouts, but was abandoned in the depression of the 1890s.  It was resurrected in 1904 when the railroad arrived and J. N. Sanders opened a store and a bank, and was incorporated in 1917.  At the west edge of town is a pleasant park, museum and  gift shop in the old depot which was moved here along with the Philerado school whose name is a combination of Phillips County and Colorado.  At the corner of Logan Avenue and Highway 6 are the former Foster Lumber yard and the Sparks Ford dealership.  At the corner of Logan and Larimer Streets is the old Mercantile building.  Signs on the south wall read “Fleming Mercantile Co. – Fancy Groceries, Ladies and Misses Shoes – Bring us Your Fresh Produce”–  and under that “Oshkosh B’ Gosh Overalls – Union Made – Must Make Good Or We Will”  and over that “Latta Drugs (Keller Drugs) – Prescriptions – Drugs and Sundries – Fountain Service.”

Across Larimer Street is the First National Bank of Fleming, built in 1920 with a capital of $30,000.  Inside is a fine mural of Fleming by Colorado artist, Jessie Scott.  Across Logan was the Farmer’s National Bank, now the Town Hall, which also has historical material.  It was the only bank in the USA open on the bank holiday on March 4, 1933, because it did not receive the telegram notifying it to close.  The small false front to the north was a creamery.  The vacant lot on the east side of the street had been the site of the Rialto Theater, and the Assembly of God building had been the blacksmith shop.

At the corner of E. Arapahoe and N. Custer is the First Methodist Church, built in 1921.  The first services were held in the depot and later in the old school.   There are also two Sears houses in Fleming, at 402 Custer and 512 N. Lincoln.  These homes were ordered from a Sears catalog, and delivered in numbered pieces with directions to enable the purchaser to assemble his own home.

In 1928 Fleming had over 300 residents, 2 lumber yards, a telephone exchange, 3 elevators, blacksmith, hardware, drugs, 2 mercantiles, a cash store, meat market, hotel, restaurant, 2 garages, 2 theaters, newspaper, school, depot, a City Light and Water building and a post office.

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ILIFF – HEADQUARTERS OF THE CATTLE KING
(12 miles northeast of Sterling on U. S. Highway 138)

The town was platted in 1887 and named for John C. Iliff, a pioneer cattleman of the 1860s and 1870s, who owned 15,000 acres of waterholes and surrounding land in Northeast Colorado, and controlled 150,000 more acres, on which he ran 25,000 to 50,000 head of cattle.  The headquarters ranch was 2 l/2 miles northeast of Iliff at the intersection of roads 46 and 57.  It consisted of a two story house, bunk houses, sheds, corrals and chutes, of which nothing remains since they were mostly sod construction.

The town pump dating from 1890 remains in  the center of town, but the water is no longer drinkable.  St. Catherine’s Catholic Church, on the edge of town, was built in 1927 to replace the original, destroyed by fire in 1926.  The large building alongside is the old rectory.  Also remaining are the bank, dating from the early 1900s, the dance hall-opera house of 1909, and the Zink Garage.  The old depot was moved to the corner of 1^st and 5^th Streets.

In 1928, there were 2 garages, 2 pool halls, the post office, a grocery, a mercantile, the Iliff Independent newspaper, school, Baptist Church, hardware, café, dentist, doctor, drug store, barber, blacksmith, hotel, livery stable, theater and elevator.  As in early towns elsewhere,

The first school was held in the depot (sometimes in the section house) until it was moved to its own small frame building.  In the school consolidations these were replaced by large brick buildings served by school buses, so that most small rural schools were eliminated in the 1930s and the 1940s

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MERINO – FROM BUFFALO HUNTERS TO CARNIVAL RIDES
(13 miles southwest of Sterling on U. S. Highway 6)

Some of the earliest settlers were the Holon Godfrey family who ran a stage stop in the 1860s called Fort Wicked.  Its story is told on a commemorative marker 3.3 miles southwest of Merino on Highway 6.  Others were Jimmy Chambers and his brother, who settled across the river in 1872, and put up hay and hunted buffalo to supply pioneers using the South Platte Trail, and later the railroad workers.  When the railroad arrived in 1881, the original name of Buffalo was changed to Merino, and the town grew up northwest of the tracks.  Incorporated in 1917, its main street became Colorado Avenue and was paved, with hitching posts and concrete sidewalks.

Beginning at the corner of Colorado and Laramie Streets, going south, are the Ashcroft building (1908), home of the newspaper, the Merino Breeze.  The next brick building was the post office, with the cheese factory behind.  Then came Dr. Lutes’ office, the Davis grocery, and a pool hall.  The vacant lot held a theater, next to an IOOF hall.  The corner frame building was a lumber yard below  and the town library above.  Beginning again at Colorado and Laramie on the opposite side of the street were Shaw’s Hotel and grocery store, the telephone exchange,  the building now housing sculptor Brad Rhea’s studio and the Propst Bank.  The vault remains inside this building, formerly Mom’s Café.

The filling station on the corner hauled its gasoline by h   horse and wagon from Sterling to supply its customers.  No longer remaining are the depot, the pickle receiving station and the sugar beet dump.   The east side of the tracks is now home to Wisdom Manufacturing, a maker of carnival rides purchased by carnivals worldwide.

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PADRONI – BORN OF WATER
(At the intersection of County Roads 43 and 48)

Padroni was platted in 1910, with a post office, store, lumber yard and section house at the railroad siding serving the construction of the North Sterling Reservoir.  As reservoir water became available to irrigate area farms the town grew until in 1928 it had 2 stores, a garage, pool hall, 2 elevators, a beet dump, blacksmith, bar, creamery, telephone exchange, depot, school, post office, church and Padroni State Bank.   After the reservoir was completed and water was available out of the North Sterling irrigation ditch the residents of Padroni were given access to free water from the ditch for their yards and gardens.  It is the only town in Logan County whose residents have this privilege.

The old lumber yard can still be seen across the road from the tracks.   To the south was the pickle receiving station and to the north the Chatauqua grounds.  On the south side of Main Street the St. Clare Hotel still stands, and on the north side the present saloon was once the Harris Brothers general store, with the bank to the east.  The old school on the north side of town was built in 1919 and was famous for its community buffalo suppers in the 1950s.  Also on the northwest side of town is the old Baptist Church.  They held their first meetings in a chapel rail car on the siding.  The Parsonage just north of the Church was built in 1945 of dismantled ammunition boxes from the Sioux Army Ordinance Depot in Sidney, Nebraska.

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PEETZ – LAND AS FREE AS THE WIND
28 miles northeast of Sterling on Colorado Highway 113

Originally named Mercer as a water stop on the railroad, the town was incorporated in 1917, changing its name to Peetz in honor of pioneer homesteader Peter Peetz.  In its busiest years, it had over 50 businesses and 450 residents.

Beginning at the corner of Main and Railway Streets and going west are  the Enterprise building with finely detailed brick work  which was built on the north side as a lumber yard and furniture  store in 1916. Next is the Pilger Building of 1910 whose owners drowned in the North Sterling Reservoir, after which their mercantile became a doctor’s office and then a drug store.  Then, the first post office,  the Lions Park, which is the location of a former hotel, a grocery store, creamery and mechanic’s shop.    On the next corner is the present town hall,  formerly a bank which survived the great depression, only to fail in the 1940s.  (Interior restored, vault and tellers counters remain). The next large building was originally a garage housing autos over the winter so  they would start in the cold weather.  On the corner is the cement block filling station that was on the main “Black Hills Highway” through Peetz until the road was moved to its present location east of the tracks.

Beginning across the street and going east are  the Lions Building, built as a grocery store, but serving later as a dance hall, a lodge hall, and an outdoor movie screen for the free Saturday night movies held in many small towns in the 1930s.   Next, crossing Duncan Street, the Post Office was originally the First State Bank of Peetz.  Next is  a house that was built as the office of the Peetz Gazette.    The Hot Spot combines an early pool hall in the center, the old shoe shop on the west and an old real estate office on the east.   At the corner of Main and Railway is another old filling station, with the old pump foundations along the street still visible, and the old kerosene pump at the side.

South of this is a large cement block building that was built as a rooming house by the railroad, complete with an unusual block outhouse in the back.  Also of interest is the Catholic Church at 621 Logan.  Bradi Barth, a Belgian artist, painted the windows and later recreated them in stained glass.  One of the early churches was cut in two and was used to make two similar houses on Logan Street.

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WILLARD -
STILL HOME TO A FAITHFUL FEW Approximately 20 miles west of Sterling

Located approximately 20 miles west of Sterling, Willard is home to a faithful few who choose to live in a rural area off the beaten path.  There are a few occupied rural properties on the paved road leading to the community and it has an active rural fire department.  But, for the most part, the town itself is completely abandoned.  You can still see the old granary and a few old storefronts.  The town was originally planned and established in 1888 by the Lincoln Land and Town-site Company of Lincoln, Nebraska.  That particular attempt at settlement failed and the town was abandoned but was re-platted in 1910.  In 1914, the Willard Methodist Episcopal Church was built and was the first church between Sterling and Cheyenne, Wyoming.  In its prime time, Willard was home to three grain elevators, two garages, two general stores, a blacksmith, and a hardware store.  In the 50s an attempt to drill for oil was tried and after drilling over 5,000 feet, the project was abandoned.

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