Built by the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (a predecessor company of the Chicago & North Western Railway) in the late 1870s and early 1880s, the "Cowboy Line" was abandoned by the C&NW west of Norfolk in 1992; the section east of Norfolk was abandoned in 1982. Despite extending toward the Powder River Basin coalfield, the C&NW decided that it would be more economical to obtain traffic rights on the Union Pacific Railroad west from Omaha, Nebraska than to upgrade the lightly-built line for heavy coal traffic. Only a small section from the 1982 abandonment was saved from Fremont to Hooper. The following year (1993), the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy purchased the railroad's right-of-way for $6.2 million and donated it to the state of Nebraska. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is responsible for the development and maintenance of the trail.