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Town Overview
Cheney is an unincorporated community in southeastern Lancaster County, about 6 miles east-southeast of downtown Lincoln — closer to the capital than any other community on this list, and now bordered by the city on two sides as Lincoln has grown out to meet it. The 2020 census recorded 164 residents in the surrounding census area; the old village itself never grew past about 49 people.
It began in 1871, when the Midland Pacific Railroad put a station on Mr. Cheney's land. The community was platted in 1874, a school went up the same year and a post office followed in 1876. Cheney keeps its distinctive triangular shape from the old railroad alignment.
Small as it was, Cheney once supported a lumberyard, a grocery, three churches, a bank, a hardware store, a grain elevator, a general store and a dance hall.
Adjacent Counties & Nearby Towns
Lancaster County is Nebraska's second most populous county, with 322,608 residents in 2020 across 846 square miles, and its seat is Lincoln, the state capital. It borders Saunders County to the north, Cass County to the northeast, Otoe County and Johnson County to the southeast, Gage County to the south, Saline County to the southwest, and Seward County and Butler County to the northwest.
Nearest towns. Roca is about 8 miles south-southwest, Bennet about 9 miles southeast and Waverly about 10 miles north-northeast. Downtown Lincoln is about 6 miles west-northwest, and the city limits are far closer than that. Distances given here are straight-line measurements.
Points of Interest & Events
Old Cheney Road. If you have driven in Lincoln you have used the road named for this place. Cheney was once the eastern terminus of Old Cheney Road, a major Lincoln thoroughfare; the road as it runs today passes about two miles north of the community.
A community being absorbed. Cheney is an unusual case — a railroad hamlet that never incorporated and is now being surrounded by a growing state capital. Parts of it already fall within Lincoln Public Schools rather than the rural district that covers the rest.
Events. No recurring public event held at Cheney could be independently verified, so none is claimed here.
No businesses at Cheney are currently listed in this directory.
Education & Health
Schools. Cheney is one of the nine communities named in Norris School District 160's service area, alongside Roca, Hickman, Firth, Cortland, Panama, Princeton, Holland and Rokeby. Norris runs four buildings — elementary, intermediate, middle and high school — on a 160-acre campus about 12 miles south of Lincoln, with just under 2,000 students. As Lincoln has expanded, however, parts of Cheney now fall within Lincoln Public Schools, so families here should confirm which district applies to their address.
Health care. Lincoln is about 6 miles west-northwest, putting Cheney within a few minutes of the full range of hospital care in the region — the shortest such distance of any community in this county listing.
Highway Access
Cheney sits just outside Lincoln on the southeast side, reached by city and county roads rather than a numbered highway of its own. Nebraska Highway 2 runs southeast out of Lincoln nearby on its way toward Bennet and Palmyra, and U.S. Route 77 runs south from the city a short distance west.
Interstate 80 passes on the north side of Lincoln, and Lincoln Airport is on the northwest side — both a short drive away. The Midland Pacific line that created the community in 1871 gave Cheney its triangular street pattern, which survives.
Cheney is an unincorporated community about 6 miles east-southeast of downtown Lincoln, now bordered by the city on two sides. It began in 1871 when the Midland Pacific Railroad put a station on Mr. Cheney's land, was platted in 1874 and never grew past about 49 people, though it once supported a bank, three churches, a grain elevator and a dance hall. Lincoln's Old Cheney Road is named for it.
Navigate & Explore Cheney
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Road Conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov
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