McPherson County Nebraska 90

McPherson County, Nebraska

County Seat: Tryon
Founded: 1890
Named For: General James B. McPherson, Union Civil War general
License Plate Prefix: 90
Population: 399 (2020 census)
Area: 860 sq mi

History

McPherson County was established in 1890 and named after General James B. McPherson, a respected Union commander during the Civil War. Settlement in the region followed the spread of ranching across the Sandhills, where the environment favored grazing over farming. Tryon, founded as a frontier service point, became the county seat and remains one of the smallest county seats in the United States.

The county’s history is rooted in ranching culture, frontier homesteading, and the development of small, resilient communities adapted to the Sandhills landscape. Generations of ranching families have shaped the county’s identity for more than a century.

Geography

Location: Central Sandhills region of Nebraska
Landscape: Sandhills dunes, rolling prairie, grasslands, and extensive ranchland

Adjacent Counties:

• Hooker County (north)
• Logan County (west)
• Lincoln County (south)
• Arthur County (east)

Culture & Landmarks

• Tryon Community Sites – Local landmarks tied to early ranching and frontier settlement.
• Sandhills Prairie – One of the most intact grassland ecosystems in North America.
• Scenic Ranchlands – Wide‑open landscapes characteristic of the central Sandhills.

Notable Communities

• Tryon – County seat and primary community.
• Ringgold – Historic rural community and former post office.
• Rural ranchlands – Numerous family‑owned operations spread across the Sandhills.

Events & Attractions

• McPherson County Fair – Rodeo events, livestock shows, and community celebrations.
• Sandhills Ranching Heritage – Local events celebrating agriculture and rural traditions.
• Outdoor Recreation – Wildlife viewing, scenic drives, and prairie exploration.

Living in McPherson County

McPherson County offers a quiet rural lifestyle centered around ranching, open landscapes, and strong community ties. Tryon provides essential services, while the county’s vast ranchlands define its character. Residents value the area’s peaceful pace, natural beauty, and deep connection to Nebraska’s Sandhills heritage.

Outdoors — Camping, RV, Hunting & Fishing

This is the thinnest county in the Sandhills for developed facilities, and it is worth saying so plainly. McPherson County is the largest county in this group at 860 square miles and has just over one square mile of water, no state park, no state recreation area, no state wildlife management area, no campground and no dump station. What it has is grass, sky and some of the best walk-in bird hunting in Nebraska.

Camping. No public campground and no commercial RV park is confirmed in McPherson County. RV directories return a single unnamed listing near Tryon with no verifiable detail. No dump station and no potable-water fill point are confirmed. Plan lodging at North Platte, Stapleton or Mullen — and note that camping is prohibited on Open Fields and Waters tracts, so an OFW hunt here has to be run out of a town.

Fishing. No public fishing water is confirmed in McPherson County. Neither the Dismal, the Middle Loup nor the North Loup flows through it — the county sits on the divide between the Dismal drainage to the north and the North Platte to the south, with almost no surface drainage at all. The nearest options are the Dismal River forks north in Hooker County, which are private and need permission, or the North Platte reservoirs and Lake McConaughy to the south.

Hunting — this is the county’s real outdoor asset. There is no state wildlife management area, so access is Open Fields and Waters walk-in tracts. But McPherson County is excellent sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chicken habitat, with mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn throughout. An OFW-based, walk-in, self-supported hunt is the realistic model, and it can be a very good one. Two things to get right: enrolled tracts change every year, so the current-year Public Access Atlas is essential — last year’s is worthless — and OFW is walk-in only, hunting, fishing and trapping only, with target shooting, camping and alcohol all prohibited.

Permits. Small game, including prairie grouse, needs a hunt permit and habitat stamp for residents and nonresidents alike; youth under 16 need no permit. Deer and antelope need a species permit and habitat stamp. Hunter education is required for ages 12 through 29.

Driving and dark sky. There is no designated scenic byway here, but the Highway 97 run from North Platte through Tryon to Mullen is one of the emptiest and most beautiful paved roads in Nebraska. The sky over McPherson County is as dark as anywhere in the lower 48 — it simply carries no formal designation. Nebraska’s certified dark-sky park is Merritt Reservoir in Cherry County.

McPherson County at a Glance

McPherson County, Nebraska — created 31 March 1887 out of the last remaining unorganized territory in Nebraska and organized in 1890, named for the Civil War general James B. McPherson. County seat Tryon, founded in 1890 as “McPherson” and renamed in 1892; it is one of only two unincorporated county seats in Nebraska. The original courthouse of about 1890 was built of sod, the walls laid by an expert sodman named John Godfrey with a brick vault inside, and it doubled as the community’s social and religious hall until a brick courthouse replaced it in 1925–26. The Kinkaid Act of 1904 took the county from 517 residents to 2,470 in a decade; at its height it had 20 post offices, 5 towns and 63 school districts. Today it is the fifth-least populous county in the United States. 14 listings across 2 towns.

Getting there: Highway 92 and Highway 97 cross at the centre of Tryon — Stapleton and Arnold to the east, Arthur west, Mullen north, North Platte south. There is no railroad through Tryon. McPherson is the westernmost Nebraska county on Central Time; the zone line runs along its boundary with Arthur County.

For visitors: low rolling dunes sloping south-southeast, very few water features, and a great deal of nothing in the best sense. Arthur County was carved out of McPherson — it was attached here from about 1892 until it was partitioned off in 1913, partly over a dispute about courthouse spending. There is no campground, no public fishing water and no state land, so come prepared: this is walk-in bird country, and the Highway 97 drive from North Platte to Mullen is one of the emptiest and most beautiful paved roads in the state.

McPherson County · Sandhills · Highway 92 Corridor · Explore Nebraska