Axtell Nebraska 68924

Axtell was incorporated as a village on December 14, 1885, shortly after the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad reached the site in 1883; Swedish immigrants had begun homesteading the surrounding area as early as 1873, and Bethany Lutheran Church, built in 1876, was Kearney County's first church. Local tradition holds the town was named for the engineer of the first train to pass through.

Axtell is a village with a 2020 census population of 732, ZIP code 68924. Its economy is built on farming, and the town was historically nicknamed "Windmill Town" for its once-numerous windmills. It is home to Mosaic, a residential-services organization for people with developmental disabilities founded there in 1913 as Bethphage Mission, and it's the hometown of Olympic gold-medalist rifle shooter Gary Anderson, who won in 1964 and 1968.