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Paxton

Paxton is located 22 miles east of Ogallala on Interstate 80 mile marker 145. Originally called “Alkali” for the alkaline content in the soil, the name was changed to “Paxton” in 1885 for a prominent rancher in the area, W.A. Paxton.

Paxton’s early years were incredible. History records that in 1872 a herd of buffalo, just over the hill to the north of the North Platte Valley, stretched from O’Fallons to Ogallala, a distance of 32 miles! Two-hundred emigrant wagons passed by on the Oregon Trail, which was just a mile south of town, during the week of June 5, 1875. Seven railroad carloads of emigrants per day passed through during the week of October 9, 1875. In August of 1876, trains were delayed several hours by grasshoppers that darkened the sky and covered the ground, tracks and all.

Today, Paxton is a town of 542 people and boasts a wide variety of services, including a bank, motel, grocery store, lumberyard, two restaurants, an athletic club, two convenience store/gas stations and two beauty shops. The Village Board consists of five board members elected to four-year terms. A Chairman of the Board of Trustees is appointed to a one-year term.

In 2004, Paxton completed a major water renovation project. The $1.3 million project included a new water storage facility, new water mains, a new well field and brought public utilities to Interstate 80. A $1.5 million sewer treatment plant project was completed in October of 2004.

Public services offered in Paxton include a fire hall, post office, library, a park with an outdoor pool and a tennis court. Church services are available from St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Methodist Church. Paxton also offers a public school for grades Kindergarten through 12.

Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse & Lounge:

In the 1930s, when the hunters and ducks met on their fall migrations, slabs of meat were served by a happy-go-lucky bartender named Ole in a tiny, dusty town that never seemed to sleep.

Paxton became well-known for a bar operated by an adventurous man named Rosser “Ole” Herstedt. The bar was named Ole’s and featured a walnut bar that had been crafted for the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming that Ole won in a baseball game. Shortly after Ole won the ball game and the bar, rumors began circulating that prohibition might come to an end. Ole’s parents owned a building on Paxton’s main street. With a building and a fancy walnut bar, he knew he had an advantage over the competition. Prohibition ended on August 8 of that year and Ole opened for business after midnight.The bar really came alive during hunting season. Ducks, geese, pheasants and quail were plentiful and fishing was catching on at Lake McConaughy. After a day out on the river or lake, many of the men returned to Ole’s for a night of card playing, bartending and storytelling. Ole worked long hours to feed and provide drink for the town’s guests. But he always left time for hunting. In 1938, he bagged a big whitetail buck and hung the mount in the bar. Nobody could have suspected where that would lead.

Over the next few years, Ole embarked on a hobby of big game hunting that took him to every continent. For 35 years, he brought his trophy mounts home and hung them above the bar tables and booths. A moose from Canada came to Paxton; a black bear from Alaska; a red fox from England; even a python from Honduras. Eventually, over 200 trophies were on display, and Ole’s Bar became one of the most unusual farm town taverns in America. Word spread about the little town with the unusual bar and motorists exited nearby Interstate 80 to take a look. In 1969, Ole shot a polar bear on Russia’s Chukchi Sea and a full mount of the huge white bear was brought back to the bar and put on display just inside the door. The polar bear became the trademark for Ole’s and still is today.

In 1988, when he was 87, Ole decided he’d had enough. He hoped to keep the bar and trophy collection in Paxton, but when no one expressed interest in buying the operation, he made arrangements to close the bar and sell the mounts to the Springs family of Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Springs were Ole’s longtime friends. But Tim Holzfaster, a 28-year-old Paxton native, born and raised on a farm south of town, learned about the plans to dissolve the business and called to ask if it were true. “He told me he couldn’t find anybody local to buy the business,” Tim said. Holzfaster told the old barkeeper he would buy the building and the collection and figure a way to keep it in Paxton. The Springs of South Carolina said the collection belonged in Paxton if it were possible, and agreed to wait for the youngster to come up with a business plan.

A few weeks later, Holzfaster became only the second owner of the business in 53 years. The walnut bar Ole won in the baseball game still spans the east wall. Several large photos of scantily clad Marilyn Monroe hang above it. Even Ole continued to hang around the place almost right up until he died at age 95 in 1996. Gracing one wall is a 1950s rotating Hamm’s beer sign that Ole gave to Holzfaster in the 1970s.

“We have a national and international following, but the success of Ole’s is because of the local patrons who live and work around here, and the Nebraskans from farther away who make it a habit to pull in,” Holzfaster said. Some customers have been stopping since the time when Ole was cleaning his shotgun at the bar. But others are starting new traditions, like St. Mary’s High School in Omaha, which stops by every year on a ski trip to Colorado. The principal always calls ahead, which gives Holzfaster time to take down the Marilyn Monroe pinups.

Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse is one of the most successful restaurants and tourist stops in the state of Nebraska. On a busy day, hundreds of meals are served beneath the glassy eyes of the animals. Ole’s is open 364 days a year, closing for Christmas Day.