As Gurley prepares to celebrate its centennial, longtime residents recall the pas

Home is where your memories are stored, where your children are born and grow up, where you make friends. For Marvel Freudenberg Moore, Betty Kurth and Elain Weyerts, Gurley is more than just a town.

The Burlington Railroad founded Gurley October 18, 1913, as a stop on their line. Trains still pass through Gurley, but the depot is gone. For longtime residents, the community's centennial celebration, scheduled for this weekend (June 22-23), will bring back memories of the town and its people, including those that moved away.

Marvel Freudenberg Moore was born in Gering, where she met her husband. He was working at a Civilian Conservation Camp during the height of the Great Depression. They moved to Gurley in 1932.

Moore has memories of dances on Saturday night and movies screened on the outside wall of the grocery store.

“The grocery store on main had a white screen painted the outside of it and this fella would come in and show movies on the side of it,” Moore recalls. “Sit on benches or the ground—whatever you could find to sit on to watch the movie.”

For her, the biggest and saddest change to the town is the loss of the high school. She feels that affect rippled throughout the town, eventually leading to other closings, most notably the filling station and grocery store. The celebration will bring back Moore’s children who have moved away.

“I always knew what they had done by the next day,” said Moore with a laugh, referring to Gurley's close-knit neighborhoods.

Betty Kurth moved to Gurley after World War II. Her husband, Melvin Kurth, was hired by Cheyenne County to maintain the roads. Later he worked in the town’s filling station.

They bought a home in town and decided to put a basement under it.

Now, Betty Kurth was a beauty operator and ran her business out of her home. She recalled that with the water shut off and the house on blocks a woman came in wanting a permanent.

She heated water on the stove, the woman crawled into the house.

“When some people want a perm they want a perm,” Kurth said.

Her children who have moved away will be here for the celebration, as well. And like Moore, she said neighbors kept tabs on her kids all day, reporting their good deeds—and misdeeds.

Elaine Weyert came to Gurley in 1952 after marrying Emil Weyert. In 1953 the Weyert’s bought a lot for $100 and built an auto repair business, which their son now owns.

She has watched the town change and the people change, as Gurley became a home for those who work in Sidney. She also experienced the loss of their church because of low attendance.

“The old die and the new don’t go to church,” Weyerts observed.

On June 22 the celebration of Gurley's past, present and future will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a 5k run. Later in the day a parade is scheduled through community streets. There will be food and events for the whole family.