Text Banner: A Dream Fades. Although Nicodemus prospered in the mid-1880s, economic disaster loomed...

Ample rainfall and abundant harvests brought prosperity to the burgeoning community. The local press commended the town for overcoming early hardships and recognized its accomplishments.

Map shows the route of the Union Pacific Railroad heading northwest, then turning due west just south of Nicodemus.A rail line through the town would ensure continued economic success just as failure to attract a railroad would guarantee its decline. When the hoped for railroad by-passed the town in 1888, the fate of Nicodemus was sealed.

A Quotation from the Newspaper, Nicodemus Cyclone, September 7, 1888 "We are sorry to see several of our business men making preparations to move to the proposed new town. We consider this a very unwise move and one they will regret. With a thickly settled surrounding, already established in business and as reliably informed in the extension of the Stockton road in the near future, Nicodemus and her business men have nothing to cause them alarm. For every one that goes now we will get ten wide awake men next spring. Don't get frightened hold on to your property and be ready to enjoy the real boom that will surely come."

  

A Quotation from the Newspaper, Nicodemus Cyclone, June 15, 1886 "Nicodemus...was originally settled by the colored race, and by their patience and untiring energy have succeeded in gaining a grand, glorious victory over nature and the elements, and what used to be the Great American Desert now blooms with waving grain."
 
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A sepia-colored painting of a pioneer cabin