The court that left (5 photos)

But it was not the courthouse that moved to another location, but the courthouse on the courthouse, which is a rare and interesting case in history.





Perhaps the strangest object ever transported by rail was a house, or rather, a courthouse, in Hemingford, which at the time was the county seat of Box Butte County, Nebraska. The courthouse was moved to Alliance, which took over Hemingford's status as the county seat.



Moving the courthouse by train from Hemingford to Alliance, Nebraska, 1899

Until 1899, the people of Box Butte County were unable to decide on the location of their county seat. When they separated from southern Dawes County (they were tired of driving 60 miles to the courthouse in Chadron) in 1886 to form their own small Box Butte County, the seceders voted Nonpareil as the county seat.

Nonpareil became the first settlement in the new Box Butte County, a small town of 50 people. But when the Burlington Railroad passed through Box Butte County, skipping Nonpareil, the county had no choice but to choose a new location.





In 1890, another election was held to determine a new site for Box Butte County. The two contenders were Alliance and Hemingford. In a questionable vote and with the support of the Lincoln Land Company, which wanted to encourage the community to grow, Hemingford was able to take the vacant site and a new courthouse was built there.

Nine years later, the issue was still unresolved, and the people of Alliance did everything they could to force another election. This time, Alliance won, and the county commissioners were faced with the question of what to do with the courthouse.



Since the Hemingford courthouse was less than 10 years old and still had structural integrity, it was decided to move the current courthouse 20 miles southeast to Alliance. The first attempt was made with two teams of horses pulling the structure on a set of large rollers.

The horses dragged it half a meter, and then the rollers were moved forward. After ten days, the house had moved only 5 meters, and this method was abandoned, as it was too slow and impractical.



The building that replaced the house that had been on the road

J. R. Phelan, superintendent of the Wyoming Division of the Burlington Railroad, proposed to transport the building on rails. Accordingly, the structure, 14 by 17 meters, 12 meters high, weighing 95 tons, was erected and secured on nine pairs of railroad cars.

Accompanied by a 75-man railway crew, which helped the train move forward by widening the passages where necessary, the train moved at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. The entire move took only 6 hours.

The move attracted public attention, and this event was preserved in history by releasing commemorative plaques and silver spoons with an image and the date of the move - July 3, 1899 - in honor of the unusual journey.