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Town Overview
Panama is a village of 235 on 0.28 square miles in southeastern Lancaster County, about 18 miles southeast of Lincoln. Its population has been remarkably steady — 253 in 2000, 256 in 2010, 235 in 2020.
The village was founded in 1888 on land owned by Moses J. Mitton, John Forrest and Gilbert F. Steeves, after the settlement moved a mile north to sit closer to the railway. The name almost certainly comes from the Isthmus of Panama, much in the news at the time because of American involvement in the canal. Panama incorporated as a village in 1904.
It has an unusual rule. According to local history, Caroline "Carrie" Steeves wrote a clause into the original village bylaws stating that if Panama ever allowed a business to sell alcohol, the Steeves family would reclaim the land they had deeded to the village. The prohibition still stands, surviving even the new bylaws adopted in 1977.
Robert Dinsmore Harrison, U.S. Congressman from 1951 to 1959, was from Panama.
Adjacent Counties & Nearby Towns
Lancaster County is Nebraska's second most populous county, with 322,608 residents in 2020 across 846 square miles, and its seat is Lincoln, the state capital. It borders Saunders County to the north, Cass County to the northeast, Otoe County and Johnson County to the southeast, Gage County to the south, Saline County to the southwest, and Seward County and Butler County to the northwest.
Nearest towns. Bennet is about 5 miles north, Hickman about 6 miles west-northwest and Firth about 7 miles southwest. Downtown Lincoln is about 18 miles northwest. Distances given here are straight-line measurements.
Points of Interest & Events
A dry village by deed. Panama's alcohol prohibition is not a modern ordinance but a condition attached to the land the village was built on, and it makes Panama one of the few communities in Nebraska where the rule traces to a founder's clause rather than a vote. It is the fact most often told about the place.
The village that moved. Before it was formally established, the settlement picked itself up and shifted a mile north to be nearer the railway — a common enough manoeuvre in 1880s Nebraska, and the reason Panama sits where it does.
Events. No recurring town-wide celebration could be independently verified for Panama at the time of writing, so none is claimed here.
Education & Health
Schools. Norris School District 160, founded in 1964 and named for Senator George W. Norris, serves nine small communities across Lancaster, Gage and Otoe counties — Roca, Hickman, Firth, Cortland, Panama, Princeton, Holland, Cheney and Rokeby — from a single 160-acre campus about 12 miles south of Lincoln, surrounded by the Norris Forest School Arboretum. Four buildings (elementary, intermediate, middle and high school) hold just under 2,000 students. The campus was badly damaged by the May 2004 Hallam tornado and took more than 20 months and over $35 million to rebuild.
Health care. There is no hospital in Panama. Lincoln, about 18 miles northwest, has the region's full range of hospital care.
Highway Access
Panama sits on the county road network southeast of Lincoln. The nearest numbered route is Nebraska Highway 43, which runs north–south a few miles east through Bennet before meeting Nebraska Highway 2 — the direct road northwest into Lincoln, about 18 miles away.
The nearest interstate is Interstate 80 on the north side of Lincoln.
Panama is a village of 235 in southeastern Lancaster County, about 18 miles southeast of Lincoln. Founded in 1888 after the settlement moved a mile north to reach the railway, and named for the Isthmus of Panama, it incorporated in 1904. It remains dry to this day under a clause written into the original bylaws by Caroline Steeves: if the village allowed alcohol sales, her family could reclaim the land they had deeded to it. It is served by Norris School District 160.
Navigate & Explore Panama
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Road Conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov
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