Marker Text
Cairo (pronounced ‘Care-Oh’) began as a railroad town along the Burlington line. Agents of the Lincoln Land Company, a Burlington subsidiary, purchased the Hall County farmsteads of George and Henry Bussell in January and April 1886. Located 14 miles northwest of Grand Island, the Bussell land lay along the proposed route of the Grand Island and Wyoming Central Railroad. The land company began planting the new town in the spring of 1886. Several houses and businesses were built by the time the tracks were laid in June.
When the Hall County Clerk received the town’s plat map in July, he noticed unusual names for both the town and its streets. Located on the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills, the town was named for the Egyptian city of Cairo. The streets had names from the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, including Egypt, Berber, Thebe, Alexandria, Medina, Mecca, and Nile. Although the name suggests a desert, Cairo was promoted to prospective residents as a “beautiful little town…in one of the most fertile farming districts in the state.”
Location
North Ball Fields at the corner of E Kansas St. and S High St., Cairo, NE 68824. View the location HERE.
