History

Antelope County was created in 1871 and organized the same year, taking its name from a hunting party’s encounter with antelope on the Elkhorn. Neligh has been the county seat throughout, named for John D. Neligh, who laid out the townsite. The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad arrived in 1880 and set the line of towns that still runs across the county.

The county’s best-known building is the Neligh Mill, built in 1873 on the Elkhorn and now a State Historic Site — the only nineteenth-century Nebraska flour mill with its original machinery still in place. Tilden, Elgin, Clearwater, Orchard, Oakdale and Royal fill out the county, most of them railroad towns of the 1880s.

The 1877 Ponca removal passed through Antelope County. White Buffalo Girl, a child who died on the march, is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Neligh, where the town has tended her grave ever since. See the Ponca Trail of Tears.

Geography

Antelope County covers roughly 860 square miles of north-east Nebraska, drained by the Elkhorn River and its tributary the North Fork. The land is rolling prairie and farmland, with wooded creek bottoms along the Elkhorn and its feeders. It borders Knox County to the north, Pierce County to the east, Madison County to the south-east, Boone County to the south, Wheeler County to the south-west and Holt County to the west.

Outdoors — Camping, RV, Hunting & Fishing

There is no state park or state recreation area in Antelope County. What it has instead is one exceptional trout stream and one world-class fossil site.

Camping and RV

Riverside Park, Neligh — 100 Riverside Lane. 32 camping pads with electric and water at each, 15/30/50-amp depending on the site, and a dump station on site — a genuine one, not a drive into town. Shower house with Wi-Fi. First come, first served, self-registration; budget around $20 a night. It sits on the Elkhorn and makes a good put-in for tubes and kayaks.

Grove Lake WMA, Royal — 86502 Grove Lake Road. Roughly 2,000 acres with a fifty-acre lake and three primitive camping areas, about fifteen sites, free, up to fourteen days. Water hydrants are present. There are no electrical hookups, no showers and no dump station — vault toilets only. First come, first served, open year round.

Fred Penn Park at Neligh also lists camping with hookups, but the site count and facilities are not published — ring the city before relying on it.

Fishing — the trout stream

The East Branch of Verdigre Creek through Grove Lake WMA is the standout water in this part of the state. About two miles of public access, holding wild rainbow and brown trout, with roughly two hundred catchable rainbows stocked weekly, year round. The creek is ten to fifteen feet wide over gravel and sand, with pools to about three feet. Because it is spring-fed it holds trout temperature all year and never freezes — it is fishable in every season. No park entry permit is needed; it is WMA ground.

Grove Lake itself is about fifty acres. The Elkhorn at Neligh gives channel catfish and river species.

Hunting

Grove Lake WMA is prime ground for deer, turkey, pheasant and quail, and Game and Parks names it specifically in its north-east Nebraska pheasant guidance. Hackberry Creek and Red Wing WMAs are also in the county. All are free, with no entry permit. Open Fields and Waters walk-in tracts change annually — check the current Public Access Atlas.

Ashfall Fossil Beds

Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park, 86930 517th Avenue near Royal, is in Antelope County — it is often wrongly placed in neighboring counties. A twelve-million-year-old volcanic ash bed where rhino, horse and camel skeletons lie articulated where they fell. National Geographic called it the Pompeii of prehistoric animals. Rhino Barn, fossil prep lab, a one-mile interpretive trail and picnic shelter.

It is closed from mid-October through 30 April, and admission is charged in addition to a Game and Parks vehicle entry permit — two payments, not one. There is no camping; Game and Parks directs campers to Grove Lake.

The Cowboy Trail

The Cowboy Trail crosses the county through Neligh, Tilden, Oakdale and Clearwater, on the old railroad grade. Walking, biking and horseback riding; helmets required.

Events

The Antelope County Fair is the fixed point of the local calendar, and Neligh, Tilden, Elgin and Orchard each hold their own summer celebrations.

Dates move year to year, so they are kept with the listings rather than repeated here.

Browse event listings in Antelope County →
Submit an event or correction →

Antelope County at a Glance

Antelope County, Nebraska — about 860 square miles of Elkhorn valley farmland and rolling prairie in the north-east of the state. County seat Neligh, home of the 1873 Neligh Mill, the only nineteenth-century Nebraska flour mill with its original machinery intact. 493 listings across 8 towns.

Getting there: US-275 runs the length of the county through Neligh, Oakdale, Tilden and Clearwater; NE-14 crosses north to south at Neligh; NE-45 serves Elgin.

For visitors: Ashfall Fossil Beds near Royal, where twelve-million-year-old rhinos lie where they died, open May to mid-October. Grove Lake WMA, with two miles of spring-fed trout water that never freezes. The Cowboy Trail through four county towns.

Antelope County · Northeast Nebraska · County Cameras