Wood River, NE Click here to View a map

Road Ranches were established west of the present town site, to serve the ‘1858 tourists’… Gold seekers, emigrants on the Morman & Oregon trails.  

Wood River, established in 1866, was originally a railroad station named for the tree-lined river directly north.   Three years later this settlement boasted a log Catholic church & a school.  In 1874-75 the Union Pacific RR platted a new town 
of Wood River, three miles to the east.   The Railroad station,