About Chappell
Chappell is the county seat of Deuel County, in the south-west panhandle of Nebraska. The 2020 census counted 844 residents, down from 929 in 2010 and 983 in 2000. The elevation is 3,691 feet, and the town keeps Mountain time. Interstate 80 runs past it, along with U.S. Highway 30, the old Lincoln Highway, and U.S. Highway 385. The Union Pacific main line goes through town, and so does Lodgepole Creek, which runs alongside a nine-hole municipal golf course. The town has a swimming pool, a medical clinic, a public library, a K-12 school and an airport with a paved runway.
History
Chappell began as a Union Pacific station. John O'Neil was the agent from about 1880 to 1885 and taught the county's first school lessons inside the depot. The townsite was surveyed by J. B. and M. A. Carmichael and filed at Sidney in 1884, with lot sales opening that September. The name honours Charles Henry Chappell, a railroad man. Tim McCluskey opened the first store and became the first postmaster. Chappell incorporated on 10 September 1907, the first incorporated village in Deuel County.
People from Chappell
Richard N. Cabela, co-founder of Cabela's, came from here. So did Virginia D. Smith, who served in the U.S. House from 1975 to 1991, and L. Steven Grasz, a judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Chappell is a city in and the county seat of Deuel County, Nebraska, platted in 1884 when the railroad was extended to the site. The city takes its name from Charles Henry Chappell, a railroad official. Chappell sits in Nebraska's panhandle and, unlike most of the state, observes Mountain Time. The city's most widely recognized native is Richard N. Cabela, who grew up in Chappell before co-founding Cabela's, the outdoor-retail company that became a Nebraska institution. Other notable natives include Frank W. Cyr, who organized the United States' first national standards conference for school bus transportation in 1939 — work credited with establishing the now-universal "school bus yellow" color standard; L. Steven Grasz, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and Virginia D. Smith, who represented Nebraska's 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1991. With a population of 844 (2020 census), down from 983 in 2000, Chappell remains Deuel County's largest city and seat of government.
Chappell, the Deuel County seat, was platted in 1884 and named for railroad official Charles Henry Chappell. It's the hometown of Richard N. Cabela, co-founder of Cabela's, and of Frank W. Cyr, who helped establish the national standard for yellow school buses. Population was 844 in 2020.