Saline County Nebraska 22

Saline County, Nebraska

A corridor of Czech heritage, prairie towns, and civic pride.

Saline County anchors southeast Nebraska with historic communities, fertile farmland, and a legacy of cultural resilience. From Wilber’s courthouse square to the quiet charm of Friend and Western, every town and trail reflects the state’s immigrant spirit and rural strength.

County Seat: Wilber
Founded: 1855
Named For: Saline (salt) springs in the area
License Plate Prefix: 22
Population: 9,042 (2020 census)
Area: 576 sq mi

History

Saline County was established in 1855 and named for the salt springs found in the region. The county became a center of Czech immigration, with Wilber eventually declared the “Czech Capital of the USA.” The region’s history includes pioneer settlement, cultural preservation, and agricultural innovation.

Geography

Location: Southeast Nebraska
Landscape: Rolling prairie, farmland, and river valleys
Major Highways: U.S. 6, Nebraska Highways 15, 103
Adjacent Counties:
Seward (N),
Lancaster (NE),
Gage (E),
Jefferson (S),
Fillmore (W)

Culture & Landmarks

• Saline County Courthouse (Wilber) – Historic courthouse built in 1927.
• Czech Museum – Preserves Czech-American heritage in Wilber.
• Friend Historical Society Museum – Local history and pioneer exhibits.

Notable Communities

• Wilber – County seat and cultural center, known for its Czech heritage.
• Crete – Largest city in the county, home to Doane University.
• Friend, Western, Tobias, DeWitt, Dorchester, Swanton – Small towns with deep agricultural roots and community pride.

Events & Festivals

• Wilber Czech Days – Parade, kolaches, music, and cultural celebration.
• Saline County Fair – Livestock shows, exhibits, and entertainment.
• Friend July 4th Celebration – Fireworks, games, and family fun.

Natural Attractions & Recreation

• Prairie Trails – Walking, birdwatching, and scenic drives.
• Community Parks – Playgrounds and picnic areas in Friend, Wilber, and surrounding towns.
• Wildlife Viewing – Deer, pheasants, and prairie species across the county.

Living in Saline County

Saline County offers a peaceful rural lifestyle with strong community ties and a proud cultural legacy. Wilber anchors the county with services and events, while towns like Friend and Western preserve the region’s Czech and agricultural traditions. With its festivals, trails, and welcoming spirit, Saline County is a proud part of Nebraska’s southeastern corridor.

Saline County at a Glance

Saline County, Nebraska — created 16 March 1855 and organised 18 February 1867, the same month Nebraska entered the Union. The name is a mistake that stuck: the early pioneers believed great salt springs and deposits lay here. There is no commercial salt in Saline County; the salt basin is over in Lancaster. Population peaked at 20,097 in 1890, fell for seventy years, and has been climbing back — about 15,000 now, the fastest-growing county in this corner of the state since 2020. [nd_county_listings county="saline"] listings across [nd_county_towns county="saline"] towns.

Getting there: US-6 crosses the county, with NE-15, NE-33, 41, 74 and 103 filling in. The Big Blue River runs south through the eastern half past Crete and Wilber; Swan Creek and Turkey Creek drain the centre and south. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad reached Crete in 1870 and pushed on through DeWitt toward Beatrice in 1872, dropping stations about every nine miles for engine water — and naming them alphabetically westward from Lincoln, which is how Crete and Dorchester got their names. Friend was named in 1873 for settler Charles E. Friend, whose “Friendville” the railroad shortened. Central Time.

Three county seats and a raid with 160 wagons. Swan City held the seat from 1867 until the railroad passed it by and its people moved to DeWitt; it is gone, and a state historical marker stands where it was. Pleasant Hill took the records in July 1871. Then, after contested elections in 1877, Wilber prevailed — and on 28 January 1878 a contingent of three hundred people drove 160 wagons and teams to Pleasant Hill to fetch the records. Wilber has held it since. The present courthouse’s cornerstone was laid 5 June 1928.

Wilber is the Czech Capital — twice over. Governor Frank Morrison proclaimed it Czech Capital of Nebraska in 1963, and on 10 July 1987 a document signed by President Ronald Reagan made it Czech Capital of the USA. Four Wilber citizens founded the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber in February 1962; the first festival that August drew about 20,000 people, and by the fifth, in 1966, 60,000 came over two days. The Wilber Czech Festival is held on the first full weekend of August — folk dance, music, pageantry, handcrafts and Czech royalty — and the Wilber Czech Museum keeps the rest of the year. The evidence behind the claim is on the ground: three Sokol halls and two Z.Č.B.J. fraternal lodges in this one county are on the National Register, at Wilber, Dorchester, Western and Saline.

The Vise-Grip was invented at DeWitt. William Petersen, a Danish immigrant blacksmith, worked out locking pliers there during the Depression years and first sold them out of the trunk of his car; he, three sons and a daughter built Petersen Manufacturing into a company employing over seven hundred people. The family sold in the mid-1980s; Newell Rubbermaid announced the plant’s closure in September 2008, and the last Vise-Grip made in DeWitt came off the line on 31 October 2008, ending an eighty-four-year run. The building did not stay empty — Malco Products bought it in 2018 and makes Eagle Grip locking pliers there today.

For visitors: Doane University at Crete, founded in 1872 and Nebraska’s oldest liberal arts college, on a 300-acre campus whose historic buildings and surrounding College Hill Historic District are both National Register listings; the Crete Downtown Historic District; the Hotel Wilber and the Sokol Pavilion; Warren’s Opera House at Friend; and at Western, the Michael Witt Fachwerkbau, a German half-timbered building rare anywhere in the Plains. Out of doors, everything public here belongs to the Lower Big Blue NRD: Walnut Creek Public Use Area north of Crete has a 20-acre lake with seven fishing jetties and a ramp; Willard L. Meyer Recreation Area near Tobias is 195 acres around a 95-acre lake with electric camper hookups, a beach and two shelters; Green Top WMA south of Friend and Swanton WMA northwest of Swanton add hunting, fishing and primitive camping. There is no state park or state recreation area in the county.

Born here. Dana Altman (1958), head basketball coach at Oregon since 2010, previously at Creighton and Kansas State, with a Final Four and more than 750 career wins. Laurence Wild (Wilber, 1890), Naval Academy basketball All-American, undefeated Navy head coach, and Governor of American Samoa 1940–42. Teri Steer (Crete, 1975), shot putter, bronze at the 1999 World Indoor Championships and the Pan American Games. C. L. Edson (Wilber, 1881), humour columnist for the Kansas City Star and the New York Evening Mail. And Willard Schmidt of Swanton, who won gold in basketball at the 1936 Berlin Olympics — the first Olympic basketball tournament ever held.

One hard day belongs on the record. On 18 February 1969 a ruptured railroad tank car released anhydrous ammonia at Crete. Five residents died in their homes and eleven were injured; three men riding the freight died of injuries in the derailment. It remains one of the worst rail hazardous-materials incidents in Nebraska history.