About Halsey
Halsey is a village on Nebraska Highway 2 in the Sandhills, mostly in Thomas County but touching the Blaine County line. The 2020 census counted 68 residents. The village covers about a fifth of a square mile. Its population has stayed under a hundred for decades.
History
Surveyors laid out a route for a Burlington branch line through the Sandhills in 1885. The rails reached this point on the Blaine and Thomas county line in 1887, and a town was laid out. It is named for Halsey Yates, whose father was a Burlington official. The first buildings included a sod schoolhouse that doubled as a church, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a saloon and a hotel. After the depot burned in 1904, the town was resurveyed and shifted mostly into Thomas County.
The national forest
In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt set aside a forest reserve south-west of Halsey. Every tree in it was planted by hand, an experiment pushed by the botanist Charles E. Bessey to see whether forest could be grown on the Great Plains. The Bessey Ranger District now covers about 90,000 acres and keeps its office in Halsey. Its nursery grows several million seedlings a year, and the Bessey Tree Nursery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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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.
Navigate & Explore Halsey
Get directions: search "Halsey Nebraska" in Waze or Google Maps
Road Conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov
Thomas County County Cameras: View Thomas County County cameras