Red Cloud

History

The region of present-day Red Cloud was intermittently occupied and used as hunting grounds by the Pawnees until 1833. In that year, a treaty was signed in which the Pawnees surrendered their lands south of the Platte River. According to George Hyde, it is likely that the Pawnees did not realize that they were thereby giving up their lands, and that they were led to believe that they were only granting the Delawares and other relocated tribes permission to hunt in the area. In 1870, the area that is now Webster County was opened to homesteaders. In that year, Silas Garber and other settlers filed claims along Crooked Creek, just east of the present-day city. In 1871, the town, named after the renowned Oglala Lakota leader Red Cloud, was voted county seat of the newly formed county. The city was platted in 1872. The author Willa Cather lived in Red Cloud with her family for seven years, starting in 1883 at age nine, and later visited often. She used the town as inspiration for several in her novels, including Black Hawk in My Ántonia. Early articles by Cather were published in the city's first newspaper, The Red Cloud Chief. Several 19th-century buildings described in her books are part of the Willa Cather Historic District, the largest district dedicated to an author listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Her childhood home is also part of the district.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• RED CLOUD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
  Elementary · RED CLOUD · 163 students · 11.6:1 ratio
• RED CLOUD HIGH SCHOOL
  High · RED CLOUD · 106 students · 10.6:1 ratio