About Cozad
Cozad is a city in Dawson County, in central Nebraska. It lies on the Great Plains north of the Platte River, along U.S. Highway 30 and the Union Pacific Railroad. The 2020 census counted 3,988 residents. The city covers about 2.61 square miles at an elevation of 2,494 feet.
History
John Jackson Cozad founded the town in 1873, after buying 40,000 acres from the Union Pacific Railroad and laying out a townsite. Residents named the place for him. His son, born Robert Henry Cozad, later changed his name to Robert Henri and became a widely known painter.
The 100th meridian
The 100th meridian west, the rough dividing line between the humid east and the arid west, passes just west of town. Union Pacific crews reached the meridian on 5 October 1866, and a celebration was held on the ground that 26 October, when an excursion train carried 250 railroad officials, congressmen, financiers and newspaper men out from the east. A signboard reading 100th Meridian 247 Miles from Omaha stood near the track for years and eventually disappeared. In 1933 it was replaced on the original site with a monument of native stone, at U.S. 30 and North Meridian Avenue, next to the old Union Pacific depot.
Museums and historic buildings
Cozad has two museums, the 100th Meridian Museum and the Robert Henri Museum. The Henri museum occupies the house John Jackson Cozad built in 1873, later known as the Hendee Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Allen's Opera House and the Cozad Downtown Historic District are also on the National Register.
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Cozad is a city in Dawson County, Nebraska, founded in 1873 by John Jackson Cozad, a former professional gambler who moved west to develop a townsite along the new Union Pacific line after a violent past that included killing a man in an East Coast card game. The city sits directly on the 100th meridian — the traditional dividing line between the humid eastern United States and the arid West — marked with a roadside sign just west of downtown. Cozad's core commercial district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Cozad Downtown Historic District, includes the 1879 Hendee Hotel (now home to the Robert Henri Museum), the 1906 Allen's Opera House, and the 1890 Atkinson Building. The city was also on the original 1910s–20s alignment of the Lincoln Highway, which ran directly through downtown until a 1926 reroute. Cozad's most famous native is Robert Henri, the influential Ashcan School painter who grew up there as a boy after his family relocated under a changed surname. With a population of 3,988 (2020 census), Cozad remains one of Dawson County's three incorporated cities, reached via US Route 30, Nebraska Highway 21, and Interstate 80's Exit 222.
Cozad was founded in 1873 by John Jackson Cozad, a former professional gambler turned town developer, and sits directly on the 100th meridian. Its NRHP-listed downtown includes the Robert Henri Museum, honoring the Ashcan School painter who grew up there. Population was 3,988 in 2020.