Western Trails Scenic and Historic Byway
Boot Hill, NE

Since cowboys generally were buried with their boots on, the first cemetery in the area was aptly named Boot Hill. It was Ogallala’s only official burying the "end of the trail" decade, from 1874 through 1884. A hundred or more people were rolled in canvas and dropped into a shallow grave during that time, a remarkable death rate for a settlement that never exceeded 130 permanent residents. Among the bodies buried there is Union Pacific tracklayers killed in an Indian raid, horse thieves, and gun fight victims. Also buried on Boot Hill were women and children who died of consumption, snakebite, and typhoid.