DeerParkHotel

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DEER PARK HOTEL
Story and Picture courtesy of Laura Vroman. Permission given to use article by Joyce Muirhead, President of the Cherry County Historical.

(Article from The Midland News, Valentine, Nebraska Friday, August 2017)
We apologize for any errors in reading or transcribing of information. For corrections, please contact the Cherry County Coordinator. Information donated by Cherry County Historical Society and Nebraska State Historical Society. Story and Picture courtesy of Laura Vroman and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

It’s amazing that no one seems to know what became of it. Was it moved? Was it torn down? Did it burn down? Lots of unanswered questions about the Deer Park Hotel.
Approximately a dozen people were in attendance at the dedication of the Historical Marker representing Deer Park Hotel on Highway 12, Thursday, July 27, 2017. The marker is across the street from the former Deer Park golf course, and not too far from the entrance to Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge.

The one consistent about Deer Park Hotel is that there is not much consistency. Members of the Cherry County Historical Society did research through old newspapers and microfilm to discover what history they could glean. So far, no photos of the hotel have been uncovered.

What the Deer Park Hotel is particularly noted for is the site of the first election that was held in November 1882 where E.K. Valentine was in a race for reelection. That fall, a new town was named in his honor: Valentine.

The entirety of the Historical Marker reads: Deer Park Hotel was located near this site. Established in 1880, the roadhouse was a large building made of native logs. It was built just opposite the Niobrara River from the Fort Niobrara cantonment. The fort, also established in 1880, served the Sioux Indian reservation north of here in Dakota Territory. In November 1882 the hotel was the site of the first election in what is now Cherry County. Congressman E.K. Valentine was in a race for reelection. Arrangements were made to solicit votes from railroad workers who were building Sioux City and Pacific rail line in the area. Men at the camp were sent to the polls by being offered transportation and time from work.

Valentine won the election. That fall, about four miles west on Minnechaduza Creek, a new town was named in his honor. Deer Park Hotel soon faded from memory. When Cherry County was organized in 1883, Valentine became the county seat. That year, the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad arrived and the town boomed.

Cherry County Historical Society Nebraska State Historical Society, 2017 The booklet Murder on the Plains, a narrative by C.S. Reece, Jr., mentions the Deer Park Hotel in this manner:

Some time between May 1 and May 8 of 1881, the Post Blacksmith from Fort Niobrara found occasion to spend the night at the Deer Park Hotel. This was a small inn or tavern, located at the present site of Valentine’s Deer Park Golf Course near the west bank of the Niobrara just across the river from the new fort which was in the process of construction.

During that night another party occupied an a joining room. Since the walls were thin the blacksmith was able to lie quietly in bed and over-hear the conversation of his next-door neighbors. This proved to be exciting and of vital interest since it turned out to be a carefully laid plot to apprehend and rob the stagecoach due to arrive at Fort Niobrara May 9, 1881.

This stage coach was to bring pay-master Col. T.H. Stanton from the headquarters at Fort Omaha with the payroll for the troops stationed at Fort Niobrara. Since there were no banks in the vicinity the payroll was customarily distributed in cash.

The overheard plot indicated that the robbers intended to wait in hiding near the spot where the stagecoach would cross Plum Creek between the present towns of Wood Lake and Johnstown. At the proper moment the robbers would ride out from hiding and pull their “hold-up.”

From there, Major J.J. Upham ultimately dispatched Lieutenant Cherry to escort the stagecoach to the fort. After the soldiers were paid, they celebrated at H. Casterlines Ranche, where three renegades were brandishing government Winchesters. Mr.Casterline dropped to the floor and fired point blank at the renegades, Mr. Burr was shot first and was severely wounded, Private Johnson moderately.

The three renegades escaped after pandemonium broke out - where Johnny Bordeaux was struck by a flying in the head and died instantly; thus making someone a murderer.

A search party of 18 was soon assembled and Lieutenant Cherry was placed in command. Their orders were to pursue the renegades, arrest and bring them back to the fort to face charges. The sad ending to this story is that Lieutenant Cherry was shot and killed. It is for him that Cherry County was named.

Another mention of the Deer Park Hotel was in the Valentine newspaper, in an article written by Olive VanMetre. Anna Stetter married George Tobien, and their son, Jake Tobien, was a resident of Cherry County from 1899 until the time of his death in 1970. He was asked by VanMetre if he remembered anything about the old Deer Park Hotel, and replied, “It was gone when I came here (1899). We had a slaughter house and feed yard there.

A final mention was recounted in a letter dated August 24, 1973, where Jacob W. Stetter arrived in Valentine in 1883, when he arrived in Valentine, which at that time was the end of the railroad which was the Sioux City and Pacific, and later became the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley, and finally the Chicago and Northwestern.

After spending a short time in Valentine, Jacob went back to Virginia where he married the daughter of George Schwalm. The newlyweds returned to Valentine where their first night was spent at the Deer Park Hotel which was somewhat different than the fine home she left in Virginia.

To remember the beginnings of Valentine and Cherry County, the Historical Marker was placed in the vicinity of where the Deer Park Hotel existed. If only we could understand the stories carried on in the winds that breeze over the Sandhills, we might know where and what happened to the Deer Park Hotel.

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