Boone County, Nebraska

History

Boone County was created in 1871 and organized the same year, named for the frontiersman Daniel Boone. Albion has been the county seat throughout, and takes its name from the old poetic word for Britain. The county filled with farms along Beaver Creek and the Cedar River through the 1870s and 1880s, and the railroad brought St Edward, Petersburg, Cedar Rapids and Primrose.

It has stayed what it started as: a farming county of small towns, with Albion as its trade center.

Geography

Boone County covers about 687 square miles of east-central Nebraska. The land is rolling prairie and farmland, drained by Beaver Creek, the Cedar River and, along the southern edge, the Loup. It borders Antelope County to the north, Madison County to the north-east, Platte County to the east and south-east, Nance County to the south, Greeley County to the west and Wheeler County to the north-west.

Outdoors — Camping, RV, Hunting & Fishing

An honest headline: Boone County has one public campground and no public fishing lake at all. There is no state park, no state recreation area and no NRD recreation area in the county. That is worth knowing before you plan around it.

Camping and RV

Albion Campground, by Fuller Park next to the fairgrounds and aquatic center. 46 sites — 26 full-service with electric, water and sewer, and 20 overflow sites south of the main area with water and electric. 30-amp confirmed; 50-amp not. Dump station listed, and the 26 full-service sites have sewer at the pad.

Clean restrooms and showers next to the sites, open year round — unusual and useful. Wi-Fi included. Water hookups run 1 April to 31 October only. RV $25 a day, $125 a week, $465 a month April to September; tents $15. First come, first served — no reservations; register at City Hall, or at the police department after hours.

No municipal campground could be confirmed at Petersburg, St Edward, Cedar Rapids or Primrose.

Fishing

Game and Parks lists no public fishing water in Boone County. Beaver Creek, the Cedar River and the Loup all cross the county, but there are no published public access points — access is effectively private. The nearest listed still waters are Pibel Lake in Wheeler County and Davis Creek Recreation Area on the Valley–Greeley line.

Hunting

Beaver Bend WMA, on Beaver Creek south-west of St Edward, is the county’s public ground; its acreage and management objective are not published by Game and Parks. Otherwise Boone is almost entirely private, which makes Open Fields and Waters walk-in tracts the practical public option — walk-in only, hunting, trapping and fishing only, no camping, and enrolment turns over every year, so use the current Public Access Atlas rather than last season’s.

Game is what you would expect of good farm country: whitetail along the creek bottoms, pheasant in the stubble, turkey in the timber.

Trails and other outdoor

The Boone County Trails System at Albion runs from a trailhead at 1144 South 8th Street beside the fairgrounds, campground and aquatic center. Eight-foot concrete and accessible, in three routes: the Fuller Park Loop at 0.3 miles and flat, the Fairgrounds Loop at 1.5 miles and moderate — the steepest part is between the south-west radio tower and the water tower — and a 1.75-mile Extended Loop combining both.

Olson Nature Preserve is the county’s finest natural place: 112 acres on Beaver Creek eight miles north of Albion on Highway 14, managed by the Prairie Plains Resource Institute since 1995. Oak escarpment ridge, oak woodland, wetland and creek, with hiking trails, a footbridge over the creek, benches, a kiosk, a shelter and portable restrooms. Bald eagles and a long bird list. No camping.

Events

The Boone County Fair at Albion anchors the summer, and Albion, St Edward, Petersburg and Cedar Rapids each hold their own celebrations.

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

Browse event listings in Boone County →
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Boone County at a Glance

Boone County, Nebraska — about 687 square miles of rolling east-central farmland drained by Beaver Creek and the Cedar River, created in 1871 and named for Daniel Boone. County seat Albion. 135 listings across 8 towns.

Getting there: US-30 lies south; NE-14 runs north to south through Albion; NE-39 and NE-91 cross the county.

For visitors: the Olson Nature Preserve, 112 acres of oak escarpment and wetland on Beaver Creek north of Albion, and the accessible concrete loops of the Boone County Trails System. Albion’s 46-site campground has showers open year round. Be aware there is no public fishing lake in the county.

Boone County · Northeast Nebraska · County Cameras