About Haigler
Haigler is a village in the south-western corner of Dundy County, close to where the Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado lines meet. Locally it is called the Cornerstone of Nebraska. U.S. Route 34 runs through downtown at Porter Avenue. The 2020 census counted 145 residents, down from 158 in 2010. The village covers about a quarter of a square mile, in the country near the Republican River.
History
Jacob Haigler ran the Three Bar Ranch here. A post office called Arakan opened on 25 February 1880, with Haigler as postmaster; he resigned over a dispute about signing receipts. The Burlington railroad arrived in 1882 and named its depot for Haigler, then the largest cattle shipper in the area. The post office took the same name on 5 October 1882. The land rush of 1886 brought a burst of building. The Porter store grew to fifteen full-time clerks, and hotels, restaurants, lumber yards and a livery barn followed.
Museums
The Haigler Community Foundation, formed in January 2014, runs a museum complex covering half a city block. It includes the Cornerstone Museum, a jail museum, an art museum, a Conoco station museum and welcome centre, and an 1893 country schoolhouse moved into town in 2007. The foundation also owns the former elementary school and its 1936 gymnasium.
Visitor & Travel Categories
Business & Economic Categories
Haigler is a small village in the far southwestern corner of Dundy County, near where Nebraska meets Colorado. The community grew up around a general store opened by James Porter in 1882 and was formally platted in 1886, flourishing briefly during that year's homestead boom as a local commercial center. The village takes its name from Jacob "Jake" Haigler, an early pioneer rancher. Located at the junction of U.S. Route 34 and Porter Avenue, Haigler is home today to about 145 residents. U.S. District Court Judge Scott Olin Wright was born here. The village preserves its pioneer heritage through a one-room schoolhouse museum and a cornerstone museum at the intersection of Highway 34 and Porter Avenue.
Haigler remains a quiet agricultural service village supporting the surrounding ranches and farms of far western Dundy County. Its population has steadily declined over the past several decades, but the community keeps its homestead-era history alive through its small museums, and travelers passing along U.S. 34 can find lodging at The Lodge Haigler.