Explore these slides to learn about some important developments that impacted the town of Keota.

The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad started in 1849 and by 1900 had lines in eleven states. The Burlington -- as the company was also known -- began building a railroad from Nebraska to Denver in 1881. 

The first train arrived in Denver on this line in spring 1882. In 1887 CB&Q added the “Prairie Dog Special,” which ran from Holdrege, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming, right through Keota. In small towns across the plains, homesteaders depended on the railroad for travel and for shipping farm goods to market.

Detail of map showing the stops on the Burlington Railroad line in Colorado.

The telegraph expanded across the United States alongside railroads -- telegraph lines were strung right next to the tracks. This system made it possible to coordinate train schedules and communicate across long distances using Morse Code. 

In 1910, The Burlington was the first railroad company to use the printing telegraph, which allowed operators to type messages that would be directly printed onto paper. Printing telegraphs were slower to send messages than a Morse Code system, but the messages did not have to be converted from dots and dashes in order to be read.

Left side displays the "International Code" A-Z, 1-0. Right side is a place for battery, a light bulb, next is the contact point used for night signalling on ships, then a buzzer as used in wireless. Parts are held together with small tabs at different parts of machine.

Telegraph, Western Union Standard Radio Telegraph Signal Set

History Colorado

Anything you might have needed--and many things you probably didn't--could be ordered from one of Chicago's huge mail-order companies. Both Montgomery Ward (1872) and Sears (1888) catered especially to rural families. When Rural Free Delivery began in 1896, people living in towns like Keota had access to everything in the catalogs. The average family in Keota made three catalog orders a year, spending about $5 an order.

In the 1920s, you could have purchased a house through the catalog for $1198.00!

Standards for Technology Developments

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework