Burwell Nebraska

City · Garfield County · County seat · Population 1,087 (2020 census) · ZIP 68823 · Founded 1883 · Peak population 1,425 (1960)

About Burwell

Burwell is a city of 1,087 (2020) and the seat of Garfield County, its only incorporated place, at about 2,175 feet near where the Calamus River joins the North Loup. NE 11 and NE 91 run together along the east side of town; NE 11 continues north to Atkinson and south to Elyria and Ord, NE 91 runs west to Taylor and east to Ericson, and NE 96 leaves NE 91 west of town for the Calamus country. Burwell has the county courthouse, Burwell Public Schools, two clinics, the Community Memorial Health Center nursing home, a county library, a museum, the Cram Field airport and the weekly Burwell Tribune; the nearest hospital is Valley County Hospital in Ord, about 16 miles southeast. Each July Nebraska's Big Rodeo brings about 18,000 visitors. Burwell is on Central Time.

History

Charles H. Jones, Truman Freeland and Thomas McClimans brought the first settler families up the North Loup in November 1872. A post office called The Forks opened in 1875 and was renamed Burwell in 1884, after Frank Webster platted the town on his farm in 1883 and named it for Miss Burwell, his brother's fiancée, who died before they could marry. Willow Springs, a few miles away, was the first county seat; the Burlington's branch reached Burwell in 1887, and in 1890, with H. J. Coffin among its backers, Burwell won the seat and Willow Springs faded away. Coffin built the three-story Hub Building of local concrete block in 1906, and the Woman's Literary Club won a Carnegie grant for a library that opened in 1915. Burwell's FFA chapter, chartered in 1929, was one of the first in Nebraska. The population peaked at 1,425 in 1960.

Nebraska's Big Rodeo began in 1921 as a community celebration and moved in 1922 to the grounds south of town, now the Garfield County Frontier Fairgrounds, a National Register district with its original wooden grandstands, barns and track. The PRCA rodeo was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2022 and held its 105th edition on July 22–25, 2026. Windstorms in May 2022 and June 2025 wrecked the oldest grandstands, which have been rebuilt. The Calamus River was dammed 5 miles northwest of town in 1986, and in April 2023 the Lowry fire burned about 6,000 acres north of Burwell.

Things to see

Nebraska's Big Rodeo, last weekend of July, on the Garfield County Frontier Fairgrounds (National Register, 1922) · the 1906 Hub Building, 180 Grand Ave. (National Register), and the town square with the “First Settlers in Garfield” marker · the Burwell Carnegie Library of 1914, 110 S. 7th Ave. (National Register; now a private home, exterior only) · the Garfield County Historical Museum, 737 H St.: more than 30 rooms in a 1905 house, with a sod-house kitchen, surgery suite and country school (May–Oct., weekday afternoons) · History Nebraska marker 188, “Garfield County,” at the courthouse, 250 S. 8th Ave. · Calamus Reservoir State Recreation Area, about 5 miles northwest: Homestead Knolls camping, the dam and the Calamus State Fish Hatchery below it · Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park, about 7 miles southeast in Valley County: the 1874 army post's original buildings · the city park on the North Loup, with a pond and a small campground