School History
Four Great Communities, One Excellent School System
November 20, 2007
Acres of wild roses grew in the vicinity in 1875 and were the inspiration for its Post Office to be called Roseland. Parts of Roseland were built on a buffalo wallow. This was evident in1901 when boardwalks were built over the mud holes. The land around Roseland is very flat making it suitable for gravity irrigation. Today Roseland has about 250 inhabitants and is surrounded by some of the finest agricultural land in Nebraska.
Bladen was established in 1872 when the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was building though the county and the town of Wells asked to be one of its stops. When the train couldn't make the grade at the bottom of the hill the townspeople relocated to the top of the hill creating Bladen, NE. The Webster County Fair has been at Bladen since 1905. Bladen remains a prime-shipping center for grain. Many of the landowners are the grandsons and granddaughters of the people who stuck out the 30's hardships.
The little Blue River attracted settlers to this area in the early 1870's. The Lincoln Land Company purchased the west half of Section 24 and platted the town of Campbell in May of 1886 named Alex Campbell, a supervisor of the railroad. Except for the depression years, Campbell maintained an active business district into the 1960's.
Stories from early days suggest the village was in the making in the early 1870's. The coming of the railroad gave a boost to community development and Holstein was officially incorporated in 1889.
The Bladen Bulldogs and the Roseland Cardinals consolidated in the 1986-1987 School year, in 1998 the Campbell Cardinals merged into the Silver Lake School District, and in 2006, the Holstein Wildcats joined. The four communities create an outstanding learning environment for kindergarten through twelfth grade students. Silver Lake Public adopted the MUSTANGS as the official mascot and MAROON and SILVER as the schools colors. In 2007-2008, the school became a one-to-one learning center, with each jr. - sr. high student being afforded the opportunity of having their own laptop throughout their education at Silver Lake Jr. - Sr. High School.
