Carroll Christensen (left) moved with his family to Central City from Fremont, Nebraska in 1919 when he was nine years old. With their worldly possessions consisting of six cows, six to eight horses, a few chickens, some machinery, hay, and furniture--which all fit in three railroad box cars--they headed west.

The Christensens lived on a 240 acre farm which was purchased for $100 per acre. During the "Dirty 30's" Carroll helped build Highway 92 and hired out to other farmers while attending District 18 and Gardner School.

Dean Christensen (right) was born in 1940 in Central City. In his youth he worked by his Dad's side and learned the ropes of feeding cattle and farming. He stayed home and managed the farm on many occasions when his Dad was buying cattle. Through the sixties and early seventies, despite hard times, Dean seemed to make a lot of "right" decisions: buying land and expanding his feeding capacity; taking advantage of the close proximity of abundant feed, water, and marketing outlets; and expanding the Central City Feedyard to 12,500 head of cattle by adding a confinement facility that holds 2,200 head. In 1986, the old Underwood Feedlot south of Fullerton was purchased and expanded from 5,000 head capacity to 18,000 head capacity, which is now the Sandy Ridge Feedlot. To this day, Dean is still "Captain of the ship."