County Seat: Grant
Founded: 1887
Named For: Charles E. Perkins, president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad
License Plate Prefix: 74
Population: 2,858 (2020 census)
Area: 883 sq mi

History

Perkins County was established in 1887 during a period of rapid settlement across the High Plains. It was named after Charles E. Perkins, president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, whose influence helped shape transportation and development across western Nebraska. Early settlers were primarily homesteaders and ranchers who established farms across the rolling prairie.

Grant was selected as the county seat and grew into the county’s primary commercial and administrative center. Agriculture—especially dryland farming, cattle operations, and later irrigated crop production—has remained the foundation of the county’s economy. The region’s rural character and strong agricultural traditions continue to define Perkins County today.

Geography

Location: Southwestern Nebraska, part of the High Plains region
Landscape: Rolling prairie, agricultural land, canyons, and the South Platte River basin influence

Adjacent Counties:

• Keith County (north)
• Lincoln County (northeast)
• Hayes County (east)
• Chase County (south)
• Phillips County, Colorado (west)

Culture & Landmarks

• Grant City Square – Historic downtown district with shops, services, and community landmarks.
• Perkins County Museum – Exhibits highlighting pioneer settlement, agriculture, and local heritage.
• Prairie Landscapes – Wide‑open High Plains scenery ideal for photography and scenic drives.

Notable Communities

• Grant – County seat and largest community.
• Venango – Small village near the Colorado border.
• Elsie – Rural community with strong agricultural roots.
• Madrid – Village located along Highway 23.
• Brandon – Historic unincorporated community.

Events & Attractions

• Perkins County Fair – Livestock shows, rodeo events, and community celebrations.
• High Plains Recreation – Hunting, birdwatching, and outdoor activities across the prairie.
• Local Heritage Events – Celebrations honoring the county’s pioneer and agricultural history.

Living in Perkins County

Perkins County offers a quiet rural lifestyle centered around agriculture, small‑town community life, and open High Plains landscapes. Grant provides essential services, schools, and local businesses, while surrounding communities maintain strong farming and ranching traditions. Residents value the area’s peaceful pace, wide‑open spaces, and deep agricultural heritage.

Perkins County at a Glance

Perkins County, Nebraska — organized in 1887 out of Keith County, the youngest county in this corner of the state. Named for Charles Elliott Perkins, president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad — the only county here named for a railroad man rather than a politician or a judge, and the naming was not abstract, because the CB&Q built every town in it. County seat Grant, platted in 1886 when the rails reached the spot and named for President Ulysses S. Grant; no county-seat fight is on record. Population peaked at 5,834 in 1930 and stands near 2,820. 140 listings across 5 towns.

Four towns, one railroad, two years. Grant was platted in 1886, Elsie came in about 1887, and Madrid and Venango were both platted in 1887 as the line was extended to each point. And the county is named for the father while one of its villages is named for his daughter — Elsie was named for Elsie Perkins, and her village’s streets were then named Burlington, Chicago, Perkins and Quincy. Madrid takes its name from the Spanish capital, though locally it is MAD-rid; Venango most likely from Venango County, Pennsylvania.

Getting there: NE-23 runs east and west and NE-61 north and south — no U.S. route crosses Perkins County at all. Seven counties border it, two of them in Colorado. Grant sits at 3,416 feet, the highest county seat in this tier and 742 feet above Trenton. Mountain Time. And in a town of 1,197 people sits the head office of the Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railway, an OmniTRAX short line running roughly 509 miles of track across three states on five subdivisions, hauling grain out of southwest Nebraska, northern Kansas and northeastern Colorado, and coal to Nebraska’s largest coal-fired plant.

Perkins County has no river. There is no significant perennial stream anywhere in its 884 square miles — the water here is underground, in the Ogallala Aquifer, and the surface is drained by draws that run only after rain. That absence is the county’s defining physical fact, and it is also its economic history: after the Second World War this county helped pioneer center-pivot irrigation, and that technology is what steadied an economy dryland farming could not support. Over ninety-five percent of the land is in agriculture — corn, wheat and cattle — at a population density just over three people to the square mile.

The bust of the 1890s hit here harder than anywhere: from 4,364 people in 1890 to 1,702 in 1900, a loss of sixty-one percent in ten years. It took until 1930 to recover. Since then Perkins has been the steadiest county out here, down about half from peak where its neighbor Dundy is down seventy percent.

For visitors: the Perkins County Museum on Central Avenue in Grant, run entirely by volunteers, in three buildings — a fully restored 1905 house with stained glass, pocket doors and original hardwood, furnished in period; a country school moved in from west of Brandon, with the original desks and the old high school annuals; and an exhibit hall under renovation for agriculture, military and local history. It opens Friday and Saturday mornings in summer and fall, and tours can be arranged. Grant’s downtown is a National Register commercial historic district.

Outdoors, the honest answer is that there is no public water. Perkins County has no state park, no state recreation area, no reservoir and no state wildlife management area — there is no stream here to impound. What it offers is upland game and deer hunting on private ground and walk-in acres. Lake McConaughy is in Keith County to the north and Enders Reservoir is in Chase County to the south; neither is in Perkins, and both are commonly misfiled here from a glance at a map.

Born here — and all of them from Grant. Gary Glick (Grant, 14 May 1930) was the first overall pick of the 1956 NFL draft, taken by Pittsburgh — and he remains the only defensive back ever selected first overall in any NFL draft, a record that cannot now be broken by anyone but a defensive back. He won the 1963 AFL championship with San Diego. Bill Jackman (Grant, 1963) played basketball at Duke and Nebraska and then for eighteen teams in Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand and Venezuela, and went on to direct the Cotton Bowl Classic. Frank Anderson (Grant, 1959) coached baseball at Oklahoma State and Tennessee, where he won the 2024 College World Series. Hugh Davidson (Grant, 1928) was a football coach and NFL scout. And Danielle Anderson (Grant, 1986) records as Danielle Ate the Sandwich.