Dorchester Times: Another Area Cougar Sighting? Big Cat Seen Near Malcolm

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Another Area Cougar Sighting? Big Cat Seen Near Malcolm

Since our earliest days, the Times has tracked news of mountain lion sightings in eastern Nebraska.

Now the Lincoln Journal Star is reporting that wildlife investigators will examine hair found at the scene of a reported mountain lion sighting near Malcolm to determine if it belongs to a big cat. "A woman and her daughter reported seeing the animal Tuesday in a pasture about two miles west of Malcolm," says the LJS story.

The Lincoln paper reports that Nebraska has had 46 confirmed sightings of mountain lions since 1991. The closest to the Dorchester area was in 2005 along Interstate 80 in Sarpy County.

"Wildlife biologists believe most of the Nebraska cats have been pushed out of bordering states with higher mountain lion populations, namely South Dakota and Wyoming," the Journal Star reports.

6 comments:

AnonymousAugust 7, 2009 at 10:37 PM
Mountain lions sightings east of the Panhandle are the result of pranksters or someone doing what Bill Clinton didn't do (inhaling).
ReplyDelete
Replies
"been there , done that"August 13, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Sorry, but typically Mountain lion sightings east of the panhandle are the result of being outside in nature and not sitting in front of the TV or on your butt infront of the computer. Southwest of Dorchester they have not only been presant for years along turkey creek, they have also been shot when they have been a threat to humans and livestock. I've never done drugs and I don't drink I just spend a lot of time outside.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 13, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Hey Dorchester Times, youd better warn us of the Dorhcester bigfoot out there too. BOOOOO!
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 13, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Perhaps the reason sightings east of the panhandle haven't been confirmed is that some choose to shoot, shovel and shut up. St. Paul is barely into the Sandhills and they have a stuffed one in the school/community library. It was captured across the street from the school. They also say rattlesnakes don't exist in eastern Nebraska but there are two confirmed areas where they do...Tekamah area and Rogers, NE areas.
ReplyDelete
Replies
BOOOOO!August 16, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Hello, Mountains lions really do live in this country, this state,
this world, that has been confirmed.

Who brought up bigfoot!
Bigfoot has never been confirmed.
There have been two confirmed sightings of Mountain lions along the Missouri river,Eastern NE!
ReplyDelete
Replies
UnknownAugust 22, 2009 at 10:18 AM
We have big cougars in the west. One dragged a woman off of a bike path. Another one ended up in a backyard, treed by the neighborhood dogs. We even had one grab a kid, throw him on its shoulders and take off. Really!

http://www.conorandthecrossworlds.com/bookone.html
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."