Webster County

Rich in history, Webster County and Red Cloud have responded appropriately to the responsibility and challenge of preserving, protecting and honoring the treasures of yesterday for the generations of tomorrow.

Here on the Divide between the Republican and Little Blue lived some of the most courageous people of the frontier, still traversed by Indians while on their tribal hunts. Within a very few years, however, those times were gone, and with the arrival of the railroad in 1879, Webster County was rapidly settled by thousands of homesteaders, ending the frontier era.

Dedicated today as Catherland, these settlers’ fortunes and their loves live again in the writings of Willa Cather, daughter of the plains and interpreter of man’s growth in these fields and in the valleys beyond.

On this beautiful, ever-changing land, man fought to establish a home. In her vision of the plow against the sun, symbol of the beauty and importance of work, Willa Cather caught the eternal blending of earth and sky.

Willa Cather wrote from her heart the wonderful tales she heard and the vital drama she saw in her growing years. In her books those she knew and admired live forever. My Antonia, earth mother of the plains, grew to maturity, loved, worked, and died within a few miles of this spot, yet she is known and cherished all over the world.

“The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.” The history of this land began in the heart of Willa Cather.