Get A Taste Of The American Frontier And Feel The Cowboy Spirit In A Rich Historic Midwest Town

Sometimes we fantasize about going on a road trip into the Wild West with our cowboy hats while blaring Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter” at top volume. Besides stopping at the five best cowboy-core vacation destinations in the American West, you should add western Nebraska to your list. The region is renowned for its magnificent scenery, where cowboys once roamed alongside elk, deer, and bighorn sheep. Specifically, the small community of Chadron in northwest Nebraska is rich with High Plains heritage, where ranchers, fur traders, Native Americans, and railroaders lived and played in the rugged terrain of buttes, ridges, and canyons.

Chadron is a small town with just over 5,200 residents and is home to Chadron State College, founded in 1911. Learn about its history as a former fur-trading hub by strolling the Chadron Downtown Historic District and visiting the Dawes County Historical Museum. Chadron is also home to Nebraska's first state park and the epic Pine Ridge National Recreation Area.

To reach Chadron, you can drive from Cheyenne, Wyoming, home to the world's largest outdoor rodeo. It's a 200-mile stretch through vast prairie landscapes, followed by the rugged terrain of the Pine Ridge region. The journey is about 200 miles and will take about three hours by car. The best time to visit Chadron is during the spring and fall seasons, when the temperatures are mild and perfect for outdoor exploration. However, summers are fantastic for camping, and in the winter, you can try sledding, ice fishing, and cross-country skiing.

Established in the 1880s and named after Louis B. Chartran, a fur trader from a nearby town. French settlers pronounced it as "Shattron," and the town's name eventually evolved to Chadron. With the advent of the railroad, the city prospered, bringing homesteaders, merchants, and professionals to the fur trading post. Today, the Chadron Downtown Historic District remains largely intact, with structures in Victorian, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Romanesque Revival, and Modern styles, which reflect Chadron's boom during the late 19th to early 20th centuries.

The Blaine Hotel, a 1889 Victorian beauty, was the site of the Chadron-Chicago Cowboy Race that took place in 1893. The 1,000-mile race was America's longest horse race, in which some contestants traveled 90 miles a day. This race established Chadron's place in cowboy history. The hotel has since been turned into apartments that you can stay in during your visit. You can also check out Crites Hall, which is an Art Deco building that served as a men's dormitory at Chadron State College.

Dawes County Historic Museum is located 3.6 miles south of downtown Chadron, and it's worth stopping by to see artifacts dating back to the town's beginning. The 9,000-square-foot museum has two exhibition buildings, which feature some of the museum's prized artifacts, like toys, dolls, farm equipment, and genealogy documents. You can also explore the grounds to see the log house, barn, a 1890s schoolhouse, and a church, all located on the museum's premises, while imagining life as a homesteader or rancher at the turn of the 20th century.

Nebraska's first state park, Chadron State Park, founded in 1921, is located 10 miles south of downtown. You can immerse yourself in the cowboy vibes by traversing the state park's beautiful nature on horseback with a trail guide from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. The state park also features trails for hiking and biking. If you don't want to stay at the Best Western or Holiday Inn Express in Chadron, you can camp or book one of the furnished cabins in the state park. There are also other attractive features, such as an archery range, a pickleball court, and a swimming pool, making it an ideal destination for an action-packed family vacation.

Pine Ridge National Recreation Area is 20 miles southwest of Chadron. It's a 6,600-acre semi-wilderness where no motorized vehicles are allowed to enter. It's the perfect spot for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, while surrounded by sandstone cliffs, ponderosa pine forest, mixed-grass parklands, trickling streams, and impressive canyons. It's also fantastic for wildlife viewing, as the recreation area serves as the natural habitat for a variety of animals, including coyotes, elk, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, rabbits, bobcats, and many more. If you look up, you are likely to see eagles or hawks soaring by during your hiking or biking expedition. Entry to the recreation area is free, but if you decide to camp, a $5 fee per vehicle applies from May through November.

If you're after some quirky fun in the area, drive 55 miles south to Alliance, home to the bizarre roadside attraction that replicates Stonehenge.