Built by the
Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (a predecessor company of the Chicago & North Western Railway) in the late 1870s and early 1880s, the "Cowboy Line" was abandoned by the C&NW west of Norfolk in 1992; the section east of Norfolk was abandoned in 1982. Despite extending toward the
Powder River Basin coalfield, the C&NW decided that it would be more economical to obtain traffic rights on the
Union Pacific Railroad west from
Omaha than to upgrade the lightly built line for heavy coal traffic. Only a small section from the 1982 abandonment was saved from
Fremont to
Hooper. The following year (1993), the
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy purchased the railroad's right-of-way for $6.2 million and donated it to the state of Nebraska. The
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is responsible for the development and maintenance of the trail. Development of the trail has occurred at a rate of about 10 to 20 miles (15 to 30 km) each year. In the summer of 2009, the final segment between
Valentine and
Norfolk was completed, producing a continuous segment of 195 miles (314 km). A
short-line railroad (the
Nebkota Railway) did operate on the westernmost of the Cowboy Trail (from Chadron to
Merriman) until 2007. The Cowboy Trail in that section was to be built on an
easement parallel to the railroad. In view of the abandonment of the final section, details of where the last section of the Cowboy Trail will be built are still being worked out. The
Nebraska Northwestern Railroad still operates trackage between
Chadron, including the former CN&W roundhouse and yard, and the junction with the
Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad line at Dakota Junction, just northeast of
Crawford. ==Trail guide==