Eagle, NE

Eagle is a Cass County village that took shape when the Missouri Pacific Railroad reached the area in 1886. The tracks gave the new place a name on the map, and the village incorporated in 1891. An early proposed name was Sunlight, but the name Eagle stuck, likely because settlers saw wild eagles in the area. Today it is a small southwest Nebraska village in the Waverly school district, with the railroad still providing the cleanest way to understand its beginning. Eagle's story is a familiar prairie one—railroad first, town organization next—but the birds gave it a name that outlasted the original plan.