Garfield County, Nebraska

Garfield County, Nebraska

County Seat: Burwell
Founded: 1884
Named For: James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States
License Plate Prefix: 83
Population: 1,813 (2020 census)
Area: 571 sq mi

History

Garfield County was created in 1884 and named in honor of President James A. Garfield. The area was settled by homesteaders drawn to the North Loup River Valley. Burwell, the county seat, developed as a ranching and trade center and later became known for hosting Nebraska’s Big Rodeo. The county’s history is rooted in agriculture, frontier resilience, and community celebration.

Geography

Location: North-central Nebraska
Landscape: River valleys, rolling hills, and Sandhills prairie
Major Highways: Nebraska Highways 11, 91, 70
Adjacent Counties: Holt (N), Wheeler (E), Valley (S), Loup (W), Rock (NW)

Culture & Landmarks

• Garfield County Courthouse (Burwell) – Built in 1901, still in use today.
• Nebraska’s Big Rodeo Grounds – Historic venue for one of the state’s oldest rodeos.
• Garfield County Historical Museum – Preserves pioneer and ranching heritage.
• Calamus Reservoir State Recreation Area – Major regional destination for outdoor recreation.

Notable Communities

• Burwell – County seat and home of Nebraska’s Big Rodeo.
• Erina – Rural community with deep agricultural roots.

Events & Festivals

• Nebraska’s Big Rodeo (Burwell) – Multi-day event with parades, concerts, and rodeo competitions.
• Garfield County Fair – Livestock shows, exhibits, and community gatherings.

Natural Attractions & Recreation

• Calamus Reservoir – Boating, fishing, camping, and scenic views.
• North Loup River – Canoeing, tubing, and wildlife viewing.
• Calamus Golf Course – 9-hole course near the reservoir.

Living in Garfield County

Garfield County offers a peaceful rural lifestyle with strong community traditions and access to outdoor recreation. Burwell provides essential services and hosts major events, while the surrounding landscape supports agriculture and tourism. With its rodeo heritage and natural beauty, Garfield County is a proud and welcoming part of Nebraska’s Sandhills region.

Outdoors — Camping, RV, Hunting & Fishing

Garfield County is the recreation anchor of the eastern Sandhills. Calamus Reservoir State Recreation Area is the largest developed camping and boating destination for a hundred miles in any direction, and Burwell has more commercial campgrounds than any other town in the region.

Calamus Reservoir SRA. 42285 York Point Rd., Burwell — park office (308) 346-5666. The Virginia Smith Dam (earthen, 96 feet, completed 1985) and the SRA headquarters are in Garfield County; the reservoir itself extends west into Loup County. Surface about 5,124 acres with roughly 31 miles of shoreline.

Camping at Calamus — 177 sites total, open year round. 122 improved pads with 30/50-amp electric and 55 non-pad primitive sites, across four areas:

• Homestead Knolls — electric plus, modern restrooms, shower house, water, fish-cleaning station. RVs to 50 feet.
• Nunda Shoal — electric plus, modern restrooms, shower house, water, fish-cleaning station. RVs to 50 feet.
• Valley View Flat — basic and electric plus, modern restrooms, shower house, water; holds the reservable group campground (up to eight tents).
• Hannaman Bayou — basic camping only, best for tents, with the kayak and canoe launch.

Parking-lot camping is permitted in designated spots at Valley View Flat and Hannaman Bayou. Half the electrical sites are reservable; the rest are first come, first served. Camping runs about $30 a night for a modern electric pad and $15 basic, plus a park entry permit — $7 daily or $35 annual on Nebraska plates, $14 daily or $70 annual out of state.

The dump and fill station is at LITTLE YORK POINT — not at Homestead Knolls, not at Nunda Shoal, not at Valley View Flat. Plan your departure route around it; if you camp at Hannaman Bayou you will be driving back for it.

Shoulder-season warning: the area is open year round on paper, but Nebraska state areas routinely shut off water systems and close shower houses outside the warm season, and Calamus does not publish its dates. Call the park before an October-to-April trip.

Boating and fishing at Calamus. Five docks and four boat ramps, a protected jetty launch at Buckshot Bay, and the paddle launch at Hannaman Bayou. The upper lake is restricted to 5 mph no-wake — know where the line is before you plane off. Species: walleye, white bass, wipers, channel catfish, carp, freshwater drum, muskellunge, northern pike, crappie and yellow perch. The muskie fishery is the unusual one and draws anglers from out of state. Fish-cleaning stations at Homestead Knolls and Nunda Shoal, an unsupervised swimming beach, and three concession areas renting boats and supplies.

Calamus State Fish Hatchery — just below the dam, 6 miles northwest of Burwell on Highway 96. (308) 346-4226. Free, weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed weekends and holidays. Self-guided; group tours of ten or more by appointment. No pets. Some listings place this in “the Custer County area” — it is in Garfield County.

Other camping around Burwell. Burwell City Park on North 7th Avenue — $10 a night, first come first served, no reservations; City of Burwell (308) 346-4509. Reported to have four electrical hookups (two back-in, two pull-through) along the North Loup River with coin-operated showers. Fort Knox Campground, 46377 Hwy 96 — (308) 293-1044, full hookups with 30 and 50 amp and sewer, sites from 32×100 up to 65×100 feet, genuinely long-rig friendly, April 1 to October 31, campers and RVs only, no tents. Willow Springs RV Park & Campground, about 2 miles out — (308) 750-1364, reported at roughly 60 full-hookup sites with laundry and a dump station. Also listed locally, with no published facility detail — call each directly: Calamus Lodge Campground (308) 346-4331, Dad’s Calamus East (308) 346-5567, Calamus Flats (308) 214-0292, 91 Pines (308) 214-0198, Garfield County Fairgrounds (308) 214-0933, Kamp Kaleo (308) 346-5083, and Wagner Bunkhouse & Cabins (308) 346-4931.

Nebraska’s Big Rodeo. Founded in 1921 and cancelled only in 1943–45 at the President’s request, this is a PRCA-sanctioned rodeo inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in July 2022. It runs the last weekend in July, four evening performances, gates 6:30 and performance 7:30. The Garfield County Frontier Fairgrounds date to 1922 and are a 40-acre National Register historic district (listed 1985) with 13 contributing buildings — the state’s oldest rodeo grounds still in original use, with the original wooden covered grandstands and a three-quarter-mile track. Burwell goes from about 1,200 residents to nearly 20,000 during rodeo week.

Other fishing. Gracie Creek Pond — stocked rainbow trout, with a handicapped-accessible fishing dock. Ladybird Lake and the Burwell city park pond also offer access. The North Loup River holds brown and rainbow trout in its upper reaches and carp and channel catfish lower down, but the public access point is Kent Diversion Dam WMA over in Loup County — everything else needs landowner permission.

Hunting. Calamus Reservoir WMA is 9,942 acres shared with Loup County, and roughly ninety percent of the land around the SRA is public — the single best public hunting block in this part of the state. Add Mirdan Canal WMA (52 acres) and the hatchery grounds (136 acres). Game: deer, wild turkey, sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chicken, pheasant, quail, dove, ducks, geese, rabbit and coyote. Over 400 bird species have been documented around Calamus, and there is a self-guided birding tour at the SRA. Horseback outfitters: Heart in Your Hand and Rowse’s 1+1 Ranch.

One correction worth making, because it is wrong in a lot of places: Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park is in Valley County, not Garfield. It carries a Burwell mailing address, which is what fools people, but it sits six miles southeast of town across the county line. It is well worth the drive — original 1874–81 buildings, open Wednesday to Sunday May through September — and there is no camping on site; Game and Parks sends visitors to Calamus, six miles away.

Garfield County at a Glance

Garfield County, Nebraska — organized in 1884 out of the western half of Wheeler County and named for President James A. Garfield. County seat Burwell, which took the seat from Willow Springs in 1890 when the Burlington railroad came through. The North Loup River crosses the southwest; the Calamus River enters from the west and is impounded at Calamus Reservoir on the county’s western edge. The name Loup is French for wolf, after the Skidi Pawnee, the Wolf Creek People — not, as people assume, after the river’s looping course. 113 listings across 1 towns.

Getting there: Highway 91 runs east and west through Burwell and Highway 11 north and south; Highway 96 runs northwest to the dam and the fish hatchery.

For visitors: this is the recreation anchor of the eastern Sandhills. Calamus Reservoir SRA — 5,124 acres of water, 177 campsites, 122 with electric, and a muskie fishery that pulls anglers from out of state. Nebraska’s Big Rodeo, founded in 1921 and in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, fills Burwell to twenty thousand people the last weekend of July on the state’s oldest rodeo grounds still in original use. The Calamus State Fish Hatchery is free and open weekdays, and Fort Hartsuff is six miles southeast over the Valley County line. Terrain runs from grass-stabilized dunes in the north and west down into the broad sandy North Loup valley.

Garfield County · Sandhills · Highway 91 Corridor · Explore Nebraska