Atlanta Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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Village · Phelps County · Population 106 (2020 census) · ZIP 68923 · Founded 1883

About Atlanta

Atlanta is a village of 106 people (2020) in southern Phelps County, on US 6/34 at 2,346 feet, about 7 miles southwest of Holdrege. The Atlanta Marsh Waterfowl Production Area, about 1,100 acres of Rainwater Basin wetland, lies half a mile north. Atlanta is on Central Time.

History

The Burlington reached the site in 1883, and the village was laid out that year; the post office opened on September 12, 1884. Just northeast of the village, the Army built Camp Atlanta in 1943 after Holdrege’s New Industries Committee asked for a work camp to ease the wartime farm-labor shortage. By November 1943 it had about 70 buildings and 7 miles of concrete road in three compounds, built for 3,000 prisoners. The first 250 German prisoners, captured in North Africa and Italy, arrived that December, and more than 30 area farmers hired prisoner labor. One prisoner escaped and came back on his own. The camp closed in 1945–46; its buildings were auctioned and much of its concrete went into rip-rap for the irrigation canals. A History Nebraska marker on US 6 tells the story, and the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege has a Camp Atlanta exhibit. Federal judge Warren K. Urbom (1925–2017) was born in Atlanta.

Highways and trails through Atlanta

Route	One way	Other way
US 6/34Through the village	Northeast to Holdrege	West to Arapahoe

Nearby towns

Holdrege	about 7 mi northeast	US 6/34
Loomis	about 8 mi north-northwest	County roads
Funk	about 13 mi east-northeast	US 6/34
Bertrand	about 14 mi northwest	County roads and NE 23
Wilcox	about 16 mi east	County roads
Orleans	about 16 mi south	County roads
Alma	about 19 mi south-southeast	County roads
Arapahoe	about 23 mi west	US 6/34
Elwood	about 26 mi northwest	County roads

Things to see

the Camp Atlanta marker on US 6, just northeast of the village · Atlanta Marsh WPA, half a mile north

Events in Atlanta

Atlanta Industry Days
Atlanta's Industry Day picnic, an annual community event in the early 1900s; no current date is known.

Know of another event here? Tell us about it.

Health care

Nearest hospital: Phelps Memorial Health Center, Holdrege, about 7 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Phelps County (phelpscounty.ne.gov); City of Holdrege; History Nebraska markers (Phelps County, Camp Atlanta, Funk, Holdrege silt loam); HMdb; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); NEGenWeb Phelps County (post offices); National Register (NPGallery); Nebraska Game and Parks; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Rainwater Basin Joint Venture; KRVN; Central Nebraska Today; Federal Judicial Center; SchoolDigger. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.