Comstock Nebraska 68828

Comstock is a village in Custer County, Nebraska, established in the fall of 1899 as a water stop along the railroad and formally incorporated in 1906. It takes its name from W. H. Comstock, a storekeeper who relocated his store building to the new site from the nearby community of Wescott. Reached via US Route 183 and Spur Nebraska Highway 21C across the Middle Loup River, Comstock has embraced the motto “Little Town. Big Heart.” The village's population has fallen sharply from its 1920 peak of 450 to just 68 residents as of the 2020 census. Comstock is home to the NRHP-listed Dowse Sod House, built in 1900 and restored in 1981, and from 2000 to 2008 hosted the Comstock Music Festivals at nearby Second Wind Ranch, which at their peak drew more than 50,000 attendees over four days. The town also sits near a Middle Loup River diversion dam popular for hunting, fishing, and camping.

Comstock, established in 1899 as a railroad water stop and incorporated in 1906, is named for storekeeper W. H. Comstock. Its 2020 population of 68 is far below its 1920 peak of 450. The village is home to the NRHP-listed Dowse Sod House and hosted the Comstock Music Festivals from 2000 to 2008.

Adjacent Counties & Nearby Towns

Custer County is the largest county in Nebraska by area, covering 2,576 square miles of the central part of the state, with Broken Bow as its county seat. It borders Valley County and Loup County to the northeast, Sherman County and Buffalo County to the southeast, Dawson County to the south, Lincoln County to the southwest, Logan County to the west, and Blaine County to the northwest.

Nearby towns. Comstock lies on the Middle Loup River in the north-east corner of Custer County, reached by a spur off US-183. Sargent is about 9 miles north-west up the valley, and Arcadia, over the line in Valley County, about 11 miles south-south-east. Weissert lies roughly 12 miles west-south-west and Westerville about 13 miles south-south-west. Taylor, in Loup County, is some 16 miles north-north-west, and Ord — the nearest hospital town — about 17 miles east-north-east.

Broken Bow, the county seat, is about 23 miles west-south-west in a straight line but a good deal farther by road, since no highway runs directly between them. Comstock’s practical connections are north to Sargent and east to Ord.

Points of Interest & Events

The Dowse Sod House, 80560 Oak Grove Road — the reason most visitors come. William R. Dowse built it in 1900 with the help of a professional sod-house builder named John Murphy, and a family lived in it until 1959. Restoration began in 1981 and it opened to the public in May 1982; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 1 December 1986. Very few original sod houses survive anywhere on the Plains — most melted back into the ground within a generation. Guided tours by arrangement on (308) 628-4370 or (308) 628-4231.

Centennial Community Garden, 637 Main Street — established in 1997 and occupying more than half a city block, with walking paths, a gazebo, a pergola, arches and a Sandhills Labyrinth. An ambitious thing for a village of sixty-eight people.

Gallery: Art & Creativity Center, 80800 Oak Grove Road, (308) 215-0076 — a century-old church now showing work by Nebraska artists, with two major exhibitions a year and no admission charge.

The Diversion Dam on the Middle Loup, 3.5 miles south — fishing, hunting on the public ground, and primitive camping. Oak Grove, along the river, offers the same.

The music festivals. Between 2000 and 2008 Comstock hosted large outdoor music festivals at Second Wind Ranch north of town, which at their peak drew more than 50,000 people — to a village whose census population was under a hundred. They have ended, but they are still what the name Comstock means to a lot of Nebraskans.

Annual events. The Comstock Windmill Festival, a three-day country-music event held in a prairie canyon near the village, has run in June. Reports around 2019 suggested it was winding up, and we have not been able to confirm whether it is still held — check locally before travelling. The village also keeps a Fourth of July celebration and the Comstock Christmas Village light display from Thanksgiving to New Year.

Education & Health

Schools. There is no school in Comstock. Custer County has six public districts — Broken Bow, Anselmo-Merna, Arnold, Ansley, Callaway and Sargent — and the nearest schools to Comstock are at Sargent, about 9 miles north-west, and Arcadia in Valley County, about 11 miles south-south-east. Which district a Comstock address falls within is not something we have been able to confirm from a published source, and we would rather say so than guess.

Health care. There is no clinic in Comstock. The nearest hospital is Valley County Health System at Ord, 2707 L Street, (308) 728-4200, roughly 17 miles east-north-east — the same system that runs the Wednesday clinic at Sargent. Jennie M. Melham Memorial Medical Center, 145 Memorial Drive, Broken Bow, (308) 872-4100 is the Custer County hospital, about 23 miles west-south-west.

Highway Access

Comstock is not on a numbered through route. It is reached by Nebraska Spur 21C, which leaves US Highway 183 and crosses the Middle Loup River into the village — roughly 27 miles north-east of Nebraska Highway 2.

US-183 is the through road. North it runs past the Comstock spur to Sargent, then Taylor and Rose, reaching US-20 at Bassett. South it goes to Westerville at the N-70 crossing and on to Ansley, where it meets Highway 2 and N-92.

Nebraska Highway 70, a few miles south, runs east from Broken Bow through Arcadia to Ord, Ericson and Bartlett, ending at Elgin. For anyone in Comstock heading east, N-70 by way of Arcadia is the usual road.

Reaching the Interstate. There is no short way. South on US-183 to Ansley, west on Highway 2 to Broken Bow, then south on N-21 to Lexington runs about 80 miles to I-80. Grand Island, south-east through Ansley and Ravenna, is around 90 miles.