Merna Nebraska 68856

Merna is a village in Custer County, Nebraska, founded in the 1880s around the time the railroad was extended to the site. It takes its name from Merna Dunning, daughter of the community's first postmaster, Samuel Dunning. The village sits along Nebraska Highway 2, near its western overlap with Nebraska Highway 92. Nearby, the Bartak Depression — locally nicknamed the “Merna Crater” — was initially suspected to be a meteor impact site before geologists determined it to be an erosional feature, a small but genuine local curiosity that still draws curious visitors. With a population of 343 (2020 census), Merna remains one of the mid-sized communities of rural Custer County.

Merna, founded in the 1880s with the arrival of the railroad, is named for Merna Dunning, daughter of the town's first postmaster. Nearby, the “Merna Crater” was once suspected to be a meteor impact site before being identified as an erosional feature. Population was 343 in 2020.

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. Merna stands where Nebraska Highway 92 joins Highway 2, and the two run east together from here. Broken Bow is about 8 miles south-east — roughly nine miles by road — and Anselmo about 11 miles north-north-west up the byway. Callaway lies some 16 miles south-south-west, Berwyn about 16 miles south-east, Weissert roughly 16 miles east, and Westerville about 21 miles east-south-east. Arnold is around 23 miles west along the N-92 corridor.

Merna and Anselmo share a school district, and between them they are the last two towns of any size before Highway 2 leaves the farm country and enters the Sandhills proper at Dunning.

Points of Interest & Events

The Merna Crater — the most unusual thing in the neighbourhood. A few miles west of town, in the Loess Hills, lies a large landscape depression known locally as the Bartak Depression. Whether it is a meteorite impact crater or an ordinary feature of loess erosion has been genuinely argued over: it was the subject of a 2001 Geological Society of America paper, Bartak Depression or Merna Crater — The Origin of a Landscape Feature in Custer County, Nebraska. The question has never been settled.

Brenizer Library, 430 West Center Avenue — listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 3 July 2007.

The Benjamin and Mary Kellenbarger House, 451 West Center Avenue — listed on the National Register the same day, 3 July 2007. Two Register listings across the street from one another is unusual in a village of this size.

The Downey Windmill Display at Downey Well Company, 399 West Old Highway 2, (308) 643-2463 — a collection of windmills at a working well-drilling business, and a natural stop on a Sandhills drive.

Annual events. Merna Heritage Days runs in early July together with the Anselmo-Merna Alumni Weekend — the alumni supper on 3 July and the parade on the Fourth.

Education & Health

Schools. Anselmo-Merna Public Schools serve both villages, and both school buildings are in Merna at 750 North Conway Street — Anselmo-Merna Elementary for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and Anselmo-Merna High School for seventh through twelfth. The district can be reached on (308) 643-2224. Teams are the Coyotes.

Health care. There is no clinic in Merna. The nearest hospital is Jennie M. Melham Memorial Medical Center, 145 Memorial Drive, Broken Bow, (308) 872-4100, about 8 miles south-east — a 23-bed critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency room, and the closest such facility to Merna of any town in the county.

Highway Access

Merna is a junction village: Nebraska Highway 92 meets Nebraska Highway 2 here, and the two share a single roadway east from Merna through Broken Bow as far as Ansley.

Highway 2 is the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway. North-west from Merna it runs to Anselmo and then into the Sandhills at Dunning, Halsey, Thedford and Mullen, finishing at Alliance — 272 miles of byway. South-east it goes to Broken Bow in about nine miles, then Berwyn, Ansley, Mason City, Ravenna, Cairo and Grand Island.

Highway 92 leaves the shared alignment west of Merna and heads for Arnold and Stapleton, crossing the state to the Wyoming line. N-92 is the only Nebraska highway running the full width of the state from west to east.

Reaching the Interstate. East to Broken Bow, then south on N-21 through Oconto to Lexington — about 62 miles to I-80.