Saltillo, Nebraska

The settlement of Saltillo was formerly located along the Salt Creek where the corners of Grant, Centerville, Yankee Hill, and Saltillo townships meet.[2] Originally a community was planned at the site to be named Olathe.[2] In 1862, John Cadman built a road ranch called Saltillo Station in the area to provide lodgings for travelers along the Oregon Trail between Nebraska City and Fort Kearny.[2][3] A post office was established at Saltillo in 1862, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1906.[4] The community was likely named after the city of Saltillo, Mexico.[5][6] The name is derived from the Spanish word salto, meaning leap, the diminutive suffix renders the meaning of the name "little leap."[5]

Saltillo remained a small community for its entire existence, never exceeding a population of 50 people.[2] The village economy relied heavily on wagon train traffic from the Oregon Trail, which became obsolete in 1865 with the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.[2] Two railroads passed through Saltillo, the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad in 1872 and the a branch line of the Union Pacific called the Omaha and Republican Valley Railroad in 1883.[2][7] The Atchison and Nebraska Railroad was later sold to Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in 1908.[8]

Plat maps produced in 1903 show the village with three streets and the path of Salt Creek flowing through roughly half of the lots.[9] Frequent flooding, a lack of travelers and thus income, as well as the continuous growth of nearby Lincoln all sent the population of Saltillo into decline.[2] By the 1950s, the last visible remnant of Saltillo was the grain elevator which was torn down in 1953.[2]