Future economic prospects of the Big Bend region are largely shaped by past and current economic activity. A historical overview provides a basis for understanding the people and culture of the area and how the local economy has evolved over the decades into the more diversified economic system of today. In examining the region's economic evolution, questions of how and why the region developed as it did naturally arise. Primary determinants in economic development included abundant water supplies, rich soil, and terrain that was favorable to the establishment of trade and transportation routes. Since pioneer times the Big Bend region has benefited from its role as a national transportation corridor.
Early economic development focused on the provision of goods and services to the travelers and settlers. Special services were provided by road ranches, trading stores, and blacksmiths. Road ranches raised horses, mules, and oxen for sale to pioneers. In addition to payment in currency, travelers traded their worn out livestock and non-essential goods, thus preparing for the long ascent west. Trade stores stocked food staples, hardware, and other items specifically for the wagon trains. These market niches provided steady growth for the Big Bend's fledgling economy. However, specific market niches solely dependent on one industry often change rapidly. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the wagon trains were not long lived and neither were the supporting industries.
Toward the latter portion of the 1880s, railroad development in the region brought additional economic and trading opportunities to the area. Small towns would spring up along railroad spurs as they became the shipping points for cattle and agricultural products. Cattle were driven to these shipping points from the local area as well as from surrounding states. Some cattle were shipped from Nebraska after being driven from Montana or Texas. Lowell, Nebraska, was one such shipping point. For a short period, Lowell had a thriving population because it was the terminating location of a railroad spur. At its peak, as many as three trainloads of cattle per day were shipped to urban markets from this frontier community. However, opportunity is a two-edged sword. The unique market advantage Lowell enjoyed as a rail termination point was removed as the spur line expanded across the river to the north and proceeded west. Today, Lowell is the home of a handful of houses and a lone historical marker describing its past glory.
Concurrent with the railroad development, settlement of the region began in earnest toward the latter part of the 1800s. It was at this time that homesteaders, realizing that agricultural products could now be shipped efficiently to markets outside the region via the railroads, began to settle the area in large numbers. It was not long until local economic activity was entirely focused on agricultural production and trade. These farmers had different needs than the earlier settlers passing through the region. Trade stores were forced to change to general stores in order to stay in business. Hardware, furniture, and household goods were added to meet the new farm and community needs. Machine shops eventually replaced the traditional blacksmith. As the conditions changed, so did the services. During this period of early settlement by homesteaders, small towns arose to provide services and trade needed by the local farm population. In fact, the sole reason for the founding and continued existence of most of the small towns in the region was to support the surrounding agricultural community.
Continued economic diversification was primarily focused on agriculture, agricultural services, transportation services, and the initial establishment of limited manufacturing. Some early attempts at manufacturing were made in an attempt to capitalize on the geographical centrality of the Big Bend area, transcontinental rail service, and availability of water for power and processing. An example is the construction of the Kearney Cotton Mill in the late 1800s. Predominately, industries in the early development period were directly related to agriculture, the processing of agricultural products, and the production of agricultural machinery. Until quite recently, there was little economic diversification into non-agriculturally related markets and industries.
Railroad development that enabled the transport of agricultural goods to urban markets also provided the infrastructure required for the establishment of manufacturing enterprises and other economic diversification. As the railroad expanded, other types of manufacturing arose to take advantage of the unique juncture of rail lines that linked the region to the coasts and to major midwestern cities. Railroad activity also provided numerous jobs involving loading and unloading cargo, passenger service, maintenance of railroad equipment and road bed, and ancillary services. Though the agriculture and railroad activity provided fairly stable employment, the non-agriculturally oriented manufacturing provided much needed economic diversification. However, this diversification of industry tended to concentrate in market opportunities that were transient in nature, as with the Kearney Cotton Mill.