Oakdale Nebraska

Village · Antelope County · Population 276 (2020 census) · ZIP 68761 · Founded 1872 · Peak population 707 (1920)

About Oakdale

Oakdale is a village of 276 people (2020) in Antelope County, at about 1,713 feet on the south bank of Cedar Creek about a mile above its mouth on the Elkhorn River. US 275 passes the village, with Neligh about 5 miles northwest and Tilden about 7 miles east-southeast, and the Cowboy Trail follows the old railroad grade through town. Oakdale has the Lois Johnson Memorial Library, two churches, a park and a community center. Its students attend Neligh-Oakdale Schools in Neligh, where the nearest hospital is. Oakdale is on Central Time.

History

Oakdale, named for the oak groves along Cedar Creek, was laid out in 1872 on land bought from the Omaha & Northwestern Railroad, the first town in Antelope County; the buyers pledged to build a flour mill, which was running by November 1873. Settlers chose Oakdale as county seat in 1872, and a $650 frame courthouse went up in 1873, but it burned on October 6, 1875, and Neligh, five miles up the valley, won the seat after a long fight in 1883. Oakdale incorporated in 1882. The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley came through about 1880, though it made its division point elsewhere, and a branch line later ran south from Oakdale toward Elgin and Scribner. Grasshoppers in 1873–77 and the drought and Depression of the 1930s, which closed the banks and the mill, were hard times. The population was 707 at the 1920 census. Oakdale High School joined Neligh's in 1966, and all grades moved to Neligh after 1994–95. The railroad was abandoned in 1992 and is now the Cowboy Trail; the March 2019 flood damaged the trail here, and it has been repaired.

Things to see

the Cowboy Trail through town · the Neligh Mill State Historic Site, about 5 miles northwest · Centennial Park and the community pavilion