Dwaine Fosler was named the September Seward County USA-250 History Hero by the GFWC Seward Woman’s Club at their monthly meeting Sept. 12.
The GFWC Seward Woman’s Club is honoring a “History Hero” in Seward County monthly during the year 2026, honoring the USA-250. The honoree and their family are invited to attend the monthly meeting and be recognized and presented a framed, signed certificate of appreciation for the preservation and promotion history, both on the local and state level.
Fosler attended, along with many of his family members, and received the recognition from Ellen Chaffin and Bonnie Kruse, both GFWC Seward Woman’s Club officers.
Fosler, along with his son Tom, has been a lifetime promoter of the historic Blue River Cattle Trail and especially the drive through Nebraska and Seward County. This father and son are working to bring official recognition to a little-known piece of Nebraska history: the Blue River Cattle Trail.
From 1868 to 1871, the trail ran along the Big Blue River, moving Texas Longhorns north to the stockyards in Schuyler, where cattle were loaded onto trains and shipped to Chicago. Dwaine Fosler, who has researched the trail for decades, said the route was well-traveled long before the cattle drives began.
“This trail came into existence back in about... well, it was a very early trail for wild game, and then the Indians used it,” Fosler said. “And the cowboys used it and the settlers used it.”
The Blue River Cattle Trail is considered an important part of Nebraska history for two reasons: it was the first trail to bring the Texas beef industry into central Nebraska, and it played a role in post-Civil War reunification.
“It became a kind of a focal point after the Civil War for getting beef to the northern part of the United States where people had a shortage of beef,” Fosler said. “And then the cattle — some of them went to ranches and farms — and they became a kind of a connecting link for people that were from the South and from the North, because they both worked together to get this accomplished.”
Fosler said his lifelong connection to cowboy culture drew him to the subject. He grew up on a dirt farm near Milford and said the history “just became something that I did, something I love that I developed.”
Fosler first read about the trail in a 1968 issue of NEBRASKALand Magazine, which referenced a cattle route running from Abilene, Kansas, to Schuyler. He spent years gathering information from articles, books, diaries and old maps. That research was published in the winter 2020 issue of Nebraska History Magazine.
His son, Tom, said the publication was a turning point—but not the finish line.
“In winter 2020, Dwaine had published an article in Nebraska History Magazine that had kind of validated the Blue River Cattle Trail,” Tom said. “I felt that it was not quite there. I wanted to try to make it officially recognized as much as possible in the state of Nebraska.”
Tom, who serves as project manager, outlined three goals for the effort.
The first has already been achieved: working with Sen. Jana Hughes, the Foslers secured passage of a legislative resolution recognizing the Blue River Cattle Trail.
The second goal is to have the trail added to the state map of Nebraska and the Nebraska Visitor’s Travel Guide through ongoing work with the Nebraska Department of Transportation and the Nebraska Tourism Commission.
Their third goal is to place two historical markers along the trail in Seward County—one at the Blue River Rest Area near the Milford exit and one at the Blue River Historical District just south of Seward. The Foslers are seeking to raise $20,000 in public and private funding to cover the purchase and installation of the markers.
More information about the Blue River Cattle Trail is available at bluerivercattletrail.com, where visitors can also make a tax-deductible donation through the site’s donate page. People can also reach the Foslers by emailing bluerivercattletrail@gmail.com.
In addition, the organizers maintain a Facebook page and YouTube channel. Informational cards can be picked up at the Seward County Museum in Goehner, the Seward Civic Center, Liberty House Bed and Breakfast and the Blue River Rest Area near the Milford exit.
