About Curtis
Curtis is a city in Frontier County, in south-west Nebraska. It sits along Nebraska Highway 23 in the Medicine Creek valley. The city covers about 1.20 square miles, and the 2020 census counted 806 residents. Curtis tap water was judged the best tasting in the country at the 2014 Great American Water Taste Test.
History
The railroad was completed to Curtis on 6 October 1885, and the town was established on 17 August 1886. It was incorporated as a village on 13 January 1887, and became a city on 5 January 1922, once its population passed 800. Curtis served as a freight division point between Holdrege, Nebraska, and Sterling, Colorado, with a roundhouse and machine shop to go with it. The name is said to come from a trapper who worked the area.
Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture
The Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture stands in Curtis and is part of the University of Nebraska system. It took that form in 1965; its predecessor, the Nebraska School of Agriculture, dates to 1895. The college awards associate degrees and certificates in fields such as agribusiness management, agriculture production systems and veterinary technology.
Easter pageant
Curtis calls itself Nebraska's Easter City and puts on an annual pageant each Palm Sunday.
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Curtis is Frontier County's largest town, platted in 1886 by the Lincoln Land Company shortly after the railroad reached the site (the line was completed to Curtis on October 6, 1885). An earlier post office bearing the Curtis name had already been established nearby in 1877, named for a trapper called Curtis who had settled at the mouth of a local creek. The town was incorporated as a village in 1887 and became a City of the Second Class in 1922. Curtis grew into a railroad division point on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy's "High-Line," with a roundhouse and machine shop serving freight traffic between Sterling, Colorado, and Holdrege, Nebraska -- growth that eventually made Curtis far larger than the county seat, Stockville, though Curtis never managed to win the county seat away despite repeated attempts. Today Curtis is home to the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, a campus of the University of Nebraska system, and brands itself "Nebraska's Easter City" around an annual Palm Sunday pageant. In 2014, Curtis's tap water was recognized as the best-tasting rural water in the nation at the Great American Water Taste Test. With a 2020 population of 806, Curtis remains the county's economic and educational hub.
As the county's largest town and home to a University of Nebraska campus, Curtis functions as Frontier County's true commercial and educational center, even though the much smaller Stockville has held onto the county seat since 1872. Its railroad-division-town roots, best-tasting-water recognition, and "Easter City" branding give Curtis a stronger identity than its modest size might suggest.