Antioch, Nebraska

Antioch, Nebraska
Ghost town

Ruins of potash plant near Antioch
Antioch, Nebraska

Location within the state of Nebraska

Coordinates: 42°04′06″N 102°34′56″W / 42.06833°N 102.58222°W / 42.06833; -102.58222Coordinates: 42°04′06″N 102°34′56″W / 42.06833°N 102.58222°W / 42.06833; -102.58222[1]
Country United States
State Nebraska
County Sheridan
Elevation[1] 3,881 ft (1,183 m)
Time zone [MST] (UTC-6)
 • Summer (DST) MST (UTC)
Area code(s) 308
GNIS feature ID 834979

Antioch is a ghost town in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. Located approximately 15 miles east of Alliance on Nebraska Highway 2, the town was once nicknamed "the potash capital of Nebraska."[2] The town took its name from Antioch, Ohio.[3]

The location of the town near several major alkali lakes among the Sandhills of western Nebraska made Antioch the logical home of five potash reduction factories: the American, Nebraska, Alliance, National, and Western potash companies.[4] All these companies were major suppliers of potash during World War I.

As a late boomtown, Antioch sprang out of the war-driven needs. According to one historian, the year before the United States became involved in World War I, the town only had one schoolhouse, a church, and a store. With the advent of a method to distill potash from western Nebraska's alkali lakes by University of Nebraska scientists, by 1917 Antioch was "a small city."[5] Antioch quickly had five large-scale potash plants, and within months the town had more than 5,000 residents. Following the war the population left again.[6]

When Germany resumed trade with the United States in 1921, the potash trade was decimated. The factories immediately closed.[2] The machinery was sold for scrap; the factories were demolished for the salvage value of the building materials; and the company housing was torn down or moved. Only the foundations of the factories and of some of the larger houses remained.[7] Today, Antioch has fewer than 25 residents.

In 1979, the remains of Antioch's potash plants were added to the National Register of Historic Places.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Geographic Names Information System Feature Detail Report. Geographic Names Information System. 2000-01-01. Retrieved 2010-10-03.
  2. 1 2 Hickey, Donald R.; Wunder, Susan A.; Wunder, John R. (2007). Nebraska Moments. U of Nebraska Press. p. 165. ISBN 0-8032-1572-X.
  3. ↑ Federal Writers' Project (1938). Origin of Nebraska place names. Lincoln, NE: Works Progress Administration. p. 5.
  4. ↑ "The Great WWI Potash Industry of Southern Sheridan County, Nebraska" Sheridan County Historical Society. p. 2. Retrieved Sept. 25, 2010.
  5. ↑ (1919) The American Missionary. Volume 73. Congregational Home Missionary Society, American Missionary Association.
  6. ↑ "Antioch: Potash boom town". Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved Sept. 25, 2010.
  7. ↑ Jensen, Richard E. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory--Nomination Form: Antioch Potash Plants". Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  8. ↑ "Nebraska National Register Sites in Sheridan County". Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved 2013-10-18.


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