Halsey is a tiny Sandhills village founded in 1887 as a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad stop and named for railroad employee Halsey Yates. It sits astride the Thomas-Blaine county line and serves as the gateway community to the Bessey Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forest, the largest hand-planted forest in the country.

With just 68 residents at the 2020 Census (and a 2024 estimate near 62), Halsey remains one of Nebraska's smallest incorporated villages, its identity closely tied to the surrounding national forest and hatchery rather than any commercial base of its own.