County Past
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Custer County, Nebraska

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
14historic places
—earliest paper
1877formed
10,545pop. 2020
43cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 14 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1979. Most listings are in or near Broken Bow, Merna, Comstock.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Nebraska is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Custer titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

8 of 14 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

14 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Arrow HotelBroken BowBuilding1985
Brenizer LibraryMernaBuilding2007
Broken Bow Carnegie LibraryBroken BowBuilding1998
Broken Bow Commercial Square Historic DistrictBroken BowDistrict2006
Custer County Courthouse and JailBroken BowBuilding1979
Dowse, William R., HouseComstockBuilding1986
Finch Memorial LibraryArnoldBuilding2015
First Custer County CourthouseCallawayDistrict1990
First National Bank-Steinmeier BuildingAnsleyBuilding2011
Groat, Stillman P., HouseBroken BowBuilding2015
Kellenbarger, Benjamin and Mary, HouseMernaBuilding2007
Mason City SchoolMason CityBuilding2006
Security State Bank BuildingBroken BowBuilding1987
St. Anselm's Catholic Church, Rectory and Parish HallAnselmoBuilding2008

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Custer was formed in 1877 (1877-02-17) from unknown / original county.

CUSTER created from Non-County Area 1.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Custer County population from 1880 to 2020 (Census historical series).

26k14k2,211188019201950196020002020
188019001920194019501960198020002020
2,21119,75826,40722,59119,17016,51713,87711,79310,545

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

43 cemeteries and 4 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 43 of 43 listed
NameLatLon
Ansley Cemetery41.30576-99.38671
Arnold Cemetery41.40874-100.1913
Box Elder Cemetery41.12406-99.49237
Broken Bow Cemetery41.39055-99.64107
Douglas Grove Cemetery41.54879-99.28889
Dry Valley Cemetery41.49665-99.3956
Fairview Cemetery41.33527-99.92205
French Tableland Cemetery41.48165-99.49079
Gates Cemetery41.64899-99.63643
Grandview Cemetery41.62603-99.89446
Hilldale Cemetery41.51487-99.65826
Janesville Cemetery41.32936-99.46101
Kingsbury Cemetery41.30957-99.96753
Lee Park Cemetery41.4022-99.23106
Liberty Cemetery41.36488-99.27133
Lodi Cemetery41.21963-99.85025
Lone Tree Cemetery41.45358-99.43287
Longwood Cemetery41.59635-99.23593
Merna Cemetery41.48842-99.7878
Mount Hope Cemetery41.67685-99.38622
New Hope Cemetery41.57699-99.7847
Ortello Cemetery41.51137-99.90448
Powell Canyon Cemetery41.45444-100.12853
Predmore Cemetery41.67558-99.56719
Riverside Cemetery41.24477-99.75856
Rose Hill Cemetery41.27827-99.9203
Round Valley Cemetery41.57572-99.51976
Sacred Heart Cemetery41.40913-99.23137
Saint Andrews Cemetery41.50968-99.82632
Saint Anselms Cemetery41.6159-99.84499
Saint Joseph Cemetery41.40472-99.66511
Saint Mary Cemetery41.14795-99.76471
Saint Marys Cemetery41.67695-99.40488
Sand Valley Cemetery41.27732-100.02486
Sells Valley Cemetery41.16258-100.09284
Somerford Cemetery41.57941-99.43373
Stop Table Cemetery41.23499-100.06453
Swanson Cemetery41.48056-99.34759
Swedish Grove Cemetery41.07566-100.15233
Victoria Springs Cemetery41.62509-99.75104
West Union Cemetery41.67629-99.46125
Westerville Cemetery41.40082-99.3875
Woldheim Cemetery41.38524-100.0251
Historical populated places — 4 of 4
NameLatLon
Cummings Park41.71223-99.5015
Dale41.52473-99.82623
Elton41.50334-99.47316
West Union41.65501-99.45872

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Custer County, Nebraska

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.