Lexington Nebraska

Lexington is a city in and the county seat of Dawson County, Nebraska, sitting along the Platte River and the Union Pacific main line. The site began in 1866 as a Union Pacific station called Plum Creek, named for the local creek near where the Freeman family had run a trading post before the 1864 Plum Creek Massacre. Dawson County organized in 1871 with Plum Creek as its county seat from the start, and the townsite was formally incorporated in 1874. In 1889, residents voted to rename the town Lexington, feeling “Plum Creek” lacked the dignity of a growing city and caused confusion with similarly named places elsewhere; the new name commemorated the Revolutionary War's Battle of Lexington, and local streets were subsequently renamed to match the theme. By 1888 the young town already supported three newspapers, a 600-seat opera house, and five churches, though a major fire in 1891 destroyed much of downtown. The current Dawson County Courthouse, built in 1913, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the city is home to the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles and the Dawson County Historical Society Museum. For decades the Tyson Foods beef processing plant was Lexington's largest employer, at its peak employing roughly 3,200 people and driving significant Hispanic/Latino population growth in the city and county — the plant officially closed its doors on January 20, 2026, with roughly 300 workers retained temporarily for shutdown operations, a major and still-unfolding economic transition for the community. With a 2020 population of 10,348 — the 16th most populous city in Nebraska — Lexington is reached via Interstate 80 (about three miles south of downtown) and US Route 30.

Lexington, the Dawson County seat, began in 1866 as the Union Pacific station Plum Creek before being renamed in 1889 for the Revolutionary War's Battle of Lexington. Its Tyson Foods beef plant, long the city's largest employer at roughly 3,200 jobs, officially closed on January 20, 2026. Population was 10,348 in 2020, Nebraska's 16th-largest city.