This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Cabela's Inc. (NYSE: CAB) has come a long way since the husband and wife team of Dick and Mary Cabela sold outdoor gear from their kitchen in 1961. Today, Cabela's has become the largest mail-order, retail, and internet outdoor outfitter in the world, with record revenues of $2.3 billion in 2007. The company sponsors dozens of outdoor events, from the Cornhusker State Games to the Iditarod, and was named one of the Top 100 Companies to Work For in the Forbes January 2000 issue.

The company's world headquarters is located just off Route 80 in a small town called Sidney, Nebraska. Sidney has also come a long way since being called the "wickedest town in the west" back in 1868. The frontier town now holds more than 6,000 residents and was named one of the Top 100 Rural Communities in America in Boom Town, USA by Jack Schultz. Cabela's is by far the largest employer in Sidney, with more than 2,000 employees. The town's Memorial Health Center is a distant second, employing 300 people.

According to Cabela's, the Sidney store sees millions of visitors each year. In addition to all the fishing, hunting, climbing, and camping gear your heart can desire, the store is outfitted with museum-quality animal displays, huge aquariums, and the largest of trophy animals scattered around the store. They have a delicatessen-style restaurant with selections that would make your mouth water, including elk, wild boar, ostrich, and bison sandwiches. Cabela's even has a large campground and RV park outside its store where visitors can put their newly purchased equipment to good use.

Outside of Cabela's, Sidney is home to several other (smaller) tourist attractions. For the military enthusiasts, the Fort Sidney Complex and Post Commanders' home is right in town. The fort was originally used to protect Union Pacific Railroad workers in the 1860s from hostile Native Americans and was closed down in 1894. After lunch you could take a walk through the Living Memorial Gardens to see one of Nebraska's largest flags on a 141-ft. flagpole. "Weird history" aficionados should read Lynchings, Legends, & Lawlessness by Loren Avey on their way to Sidney and visit the town's original Boot Hill Cemetery. The book is filled with amazing stories, photos, and documents on Sidney, which was considered one of the wildest "Old West" frontier towns that ever existed. Many of these characters, as well as their victims, wound up buried at Boot Hill.

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