Sidney, NE

Outfitting for the Outdoors

Linda Anderson strolls through the women’s clothing aisle greeting customers at Cabela’s, a sporting goods store and the largest employer in Sidney, Neb. (pop. 6,282).

“Hello,” Anderson says with a friendly smile. “How are you today?”

Over in the fishing section, Linda’s husband, Ron, is restocking shelves while their 22-year-old daughter, Mary Bair, is ringing up sales at the front counter amid the camping gear.

Outfitting outdoorsmen and women is nothing new in Sidney, surrounded by the farm fields and rolling plains of western Nebraska. The town, laid out by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867, has been supplying people who live or work in the outdoors for more than 130 years—beginning with miners and railroad workers.

The railroad built the town’s first houses for its workers and named the depot after then-Union Pacific President Sidney Dillon. Shortly thereafter, U.S. troops were sent to Sidney to protect crews working on the transcontinental railroad. The Army post evolved into Fort Sidney a few years later.

When gold miners began pouring into the Black Hills in 1874, the nearest railroad was in Sidney, which supplied mining towns such as Custer and Deadwood in the Dakota Territory along the Sidney-Deadwood Trail. During the gold rush, tons of freight were carried north over the trail and millions of dollars worth of gold flowed south to Sidney and the railroad.

“The railroad made a world of difference,” says Betty Tremain, a member of the Cheyenne County Historical Association for 25 years. “When the homesteaders came in, they had a place to ship their grain and cattle.”

Tremain was instrumental in preserving Sidney’s past. During the 1970s and 1980s, she and other community volunteers oversaw restoration of the fort’s 1871 Post Commander’s Home and 1884 Officers’ Quarters. The latter now houses the Cheyenne County Museum, which showcases artifacts from the town’s frontier, military, and railroad past.

Union Pacific trains still roll through Sidney daily, but the biggest draw nowadays is Cabela’s, with its 75,000-square-foot showroom and collection of 400 animal mounts from around the world, including a full-size African elephant, Alaskan brown bear, and pair of jousting bull elk.

Cabela’s was born in 1961 when Dick and Mary Cabela, working out of their home in nearby Chappell, Neb., began selling 12 hand-tied fishing flies for $1 through a classified ad in a Wyoming newspaper. Now it’s one of the world’s largest sellers of fishing, hunting, and outdoor gear.

Over the last 40 years, the kitchen-table hobby has grown into an international mail-order company with seven retail stores in five Midwest states and more than 6,000 employees, including 1,500 in Sidney.

The strong work ethic of people in western Nebraska is among the reasons the company keeps its headquarters in Sidney, Dick Cabela says, adding that fiber optics now link the town with the rest of the world.

“Technology works anywhere,” Cabela adds. “You don’t have to be in the Silicon Valley to have computers.”

Burt Harris, a Cabela’s employee for 14 years, most recently as store manager in Sidney, says he couldn’t have a better job. “All my life I’ve hunted and fished, and to be able to work in an environment like this is a dream come true,” he adds.

The only drawback is the percentage of his paycheck spent at the store. “This is one of the few jobs I’ve ever had where when it comes payday, it says you owe us,” Harris quips.

Stuart Englert is Midwest editor of American Profile.

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