There were a few simple buildings and tents in this area around 1882 when a surveyor for the Sioux City and Pacific railroad filed a claim for a small piece of land in the hope that a town would begin. The area at the time was part of Holt county. In two years later there was a significent increase in population of the town accompanied by violence which in time was stopped. The town was then known as Valentine. Cattlemen, outlaws and Indians made it their home. It was also the place where Sioux and Pawnee Indians came to hunt buffalo and nourish their horses on the Sandhills grass. The exhibits at the Cherry County Historical Society museum have displays of the life of early day cattlemen, Fort Niobrara, Native Americans, U.S. wars and daily life of the pioneer era. There is another museum in Centennial Hall which is Valentine High School, circa 1897, the oldest surviving high school building in Nebraska and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.