Hayes Center is a village in southwestern Nebraska and the county seat of Hayes County. It was established in 1885, a year after the county formally organized, and takes its name from its position near the geographic center of the county — Hayes County itself is named for President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was in office when the county was created by the Nebraska Legislature on February 19, 1877.

The village sits at an elevation of roughly 3,058 feet on the region's rolling, hilltop terrain, much of it now given over to center-pivot irrigation. The 2020 census recorded 224 residents, a slight increase from 214 in 2010 — a rare bit of growth for a county whose overall population has been gradually declining.

Hayes County's earliest recorded history includes an unusual episode: in January 1872, Russian Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich took part in a lavish buffalo hunt near Medicine Creek, organized by U.S. Army Generals George Custer and Phil Sheridan, with 25-year-old William "Buffalo Bill" Cody serving as guide. In the decades that followed, Texas cattle drives passed through the area's Corral Canyon en route to the railroad terminus at Ogallala, shaping the county's early ranching economy alongside its farming.

In April 2021, Hayes Center drew national attention as the first municipality in Nebraska to pass a local ordinance restricting abortion, declaring itself a "sanctuary city for the unborn"; Blue Hill, Nebraska adopted a similar measure about a week later.

Hayes Center, founded in 1885, is the county seat of Hayes County in southwestern Nebraska, named for its central position within the county. Home to about 224 residents (2020 census), it serves as the small ranching-and-farming county's main service hub. The surrounding area's history includes an 1872 Grand Duke Alexis buffalo hunt guided by a young Buffalo Bill Cody and later Texas-to-Ogallala cattle drives through nearby Corral Canyon.