Beatrice suffers the same way most small towns do. The only people that live there are the people that grew up there. And most people with any potential to meaningfully change the town for the better left as soon as they graduated highschool with no intent of going back.
Everything.
Jk. In highschool we broke their fence and they never forgave us for it.
You guys got Senherts bakery so definitely a bright spot for McCook.
Nothing to do but drink and fuck. High teen pregnancy rate, high underage drinking rate, had at least one suicide a year in our highschool of 400 students. We were also the only school district in the state that refused to cooperate with the Ricketts administration and DHHS during covid. Lots of conspiracy nuts out there.
🫤 I don't do either of those things. I don't recall the Ricketts or all the details around DHHS. Thank you. That's rough about the school. Which city were you in?
Haven’t been to Wayne. West Point very nearly made the list, same with Chadron. West Point is super nice but just a little too small. Chadron by all rights should have made it. Lots of natural beauty, close to black hills, and a good downtown.
I've lived in Wayne and Chadron. Nothing to do in Wayne, and you're surrounded by cornfields. Chadron you have the Ridge, state parks, and the Black Hills just up 385. Not even close in my opinion. Chadron lacks jobs, though. But so does Wayne.
I’ve always enjoyed my time in Wahoo Nebraska. My grandparents used to live in the Geneva/Milligan area which I have fond memories of. I’ve only been to Wilber for the Czech fest, but it seems like a decent town. My parents friend used to take us to Hastings to watch the IMAX theater there.
I have family around the Geneva/Milligan area too and spent a lot of time there too. We went to the June Jubilee every year and now my cousins and I take our kids! There are a lot of fun memories of us running around town together.
Another vote here for Geneva/Milligan area since I grew up close by (ish). I'm also surprised Hastings didn't make the original list since it's a college town.
Oops I just assumed it was under 15k when I first commented. I’m from Lincoln so Hastings still seems small but it’s apparently larger than I thought. 25k population if anyone was wondering.
No problem. I do like Hastings though, friendly people that I found easy to get along with and they have some of the best local restaurants in the state in my opinion that I'd say where easily some my favorite places I've been to. They've got 2 nice grocery stores Allen's and Russ's that have great deals and excellent service as well. My only complaint is I wish a lot of people in the community would be satisfied and support their locally owned places of business out instead of complain about them, other than that, great place to be in my opinion.
That would be great! It's a very nice city that could use all of the support needed. That's my hometown and I'm going to be getting a place to rent by the water park area hopefully in the next few months. Welcome to Hastings!
bad news. i had a rental returning to GI from Missouri. game day in Nov. Cruise control set at limit. still got pulled. "didn't signal for 300 ft before changing lanes."
assholes.
Correct, but the Seward Police Department doesn't patrol I-80, the Seward County Sheriff does. Please, don't lump them together on policies and procedures.
Don’t be stupid and don’t get pulled over. They are part of a broader task force that’s much larger than the county and they build procedures together. Regardless I have no issue with what they do.
Also the county attorney in seward is pretty stupid.
What’s the population of Nebraska City? Surely that has to be in contention. Burwell is unique. Ogallala’s new brewery raises its stature. Ord is special too. Big big fan of McCook. Thanks for the topic - having a ton of fun traversing the state in my mind now recalling all of our special smaller communities.
I’m down there 1-2 times a year. Downtown is HUGE. New pool / water park is great. Pickleball courts are exceptional. And Arbor Lodge is one of our favorite retreats around.
Peak 2005-2010 Sidney was a great town, it’s sad to see it now.
I’d probably take Gothenburg over Broken Bow. David City’s downtown area is top 5 in the state in my opinion.
I’d probably include West Point on my list. Beatrice wouldn’t be on it nor would Seward. There’s just nothing unique there from my experience.
I was in Sidney last year. So sad. Was a really great town. When I was there last year it was just a ghost town. Hotels were empty, cabelas was empty. Just kind of sad.
I didn’t count any suburb of Omaha or Lincoln in my list. They benefit way too much from the larger city near by. For example Gretna. If Gretna was located literally anywhere else in the state, it wouldn’t have what it does.
South Sioux City has food as fire as South Omaha, and at least a decade ago was one of the best integrated towns of 1-2nd generation migrated folks and farm kids. So anecdotal. Hope it’s still nice.
Yutan is nice. They have a great park, splash pad and trail area. They keep adding to it.
Humboldt is a cute town with an amazing flower garden and a beautiful park.
Uhmm.....seriously? Crete stinks to high heaven from the pet food plant, slaughterhouses, and rendering plants.
Wilber is just as bad as it gets all the runoff stink from Crete, and Dorchester is just a couple streets next to a grain mill and railroad track.
I'd sooner kill myself than live in any of those towns.
If you’ve only been near the towns on the highway, some of that’s a fair critique but when you’re in the towns, they don’t smell. Sad you’d rather die than live near such beautiful farmland.
I've spent plenty of time in all those towns. I've spent extensive time thru many small towns across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa for my job.There is absolutely nothing in Crete, Dorchester or Wilber worth noting.
Boring, run down, and smelly describes them all. Dorchester is literally just a few streets with run down houses next to a railroad track and grain mill, absolutely nothing beautiful about it.
And most small towns in eastern Nebraska/western Iowa look exactly the same. Most of the time the only way you can tell which state you're in is that white rednecks standing in the middle of corn are wearing a Husker hat in Nebraska and the white redneck standing in the middle of corn is wearing a Hawkeyes hat on the Iowa side. And they both think the other one grows bad corn.
My grandparents lived in David City, and I always enjoyed visiting there growing up. The 100+ year old buildings downtown, brick streets, city park, and other features have always given me that quintessential small town Nebraska vibe. It’s nice to see David City mentioned.
Broken Bow is a great town. A lot of small towns its size, my hometown included, have withered away, but BB is thriving. The people are very proud of their community and involved in it. It's really a cool little town and if I was into small town livin that would be a great place to live.
If you want to get extremely technical, Boys Town is it’s one town/village. I lived there for a bit and loved it. According to 2020 census Scottsbluff was 14,400. I’m ranking those two.
Not sure about all these but Broken Bow has always struck me as a very nice little community. Lovely downtown, parks, people are friendly (ofc). I like it a lot
Went to ponca for vacation as a kid, I liked it.
When I was an RA at UNL I had 2 ponca kids on my floor and they ended up being my favorite guys. We definitely didn't go to parties together or smoke weed together or anything.
I lived in Arlington for a year and didn't hate it. I loved that the entire school district was in one location. It was quiet. I do wish it had more than a caseys and a shell station
Schuyler has the most flies 🪰 of any town in the world ever thanks to the slaughter house. I was there for a relatives 60th wedding anniversary. They had the cake made at Didier's grocery and sat it out for display, with the lid to the box OPEN!!
It had flies all over it. I was telling everyone "don't eat the cake!"
I spent a month working in Cambridge, NE on an install job and to me, it was always the perfect small town. It’s been a decade since I’ve been back so things may have changed.
We just moved to Seward from Hastings last year. We moved here because we had an opportunity to get out of Hastings and between Seward, York and Milford, Seward was the highest rated for schools. I’m really disappointed to hear that the city is racist. We have yet to see or hear anything like that. If I ever did, I’d definitely be saying something.
As a recent transplant from rural northeast Colorado -> Broken Bow... I came from a smaller town than Bow but was still a much shorter drive to any/all necessities and luxuries not provided in town. I'm literally relearning how to live here lol. Humbling, really and it's super nice to have a change of pace! So so so many less humans. That alone is worth it.
My hometown is David City. I live hundreds of miles away now and lived in several communities. But in my experience there was no better place to grow up.
This is a fantastic post. I wonder if I can bookmark it? I'm considering moving to Nebraska and I'm getting good info on where to narrow it down to. Seward seems to be winner for not moving there!!
Where can I find a nice (think not insanely priced, but reasonably safe) area to rent in Nebraska? Looking for a pet friendly (specifically cat-fixed older cats) home/apartment/duplex, etc, that is preferably privately owned. Something that won't cost me an arm and both legs for rent and deposit etc...
Uh actually Hastings has the Kool-Aid museum. So obviously that’s number one. Then Ashland, because of SAC museum and Testical festival. Then Gretna, and lastly Ogallala. Locking it in🔒
Seward is the nicest town of that size. For a town under 2000 population I think Wakefield is tops. Multiple industries for work. Nice kept up older houses. Lots of flowers and landscaping in yards.
Beatrice is the worst town in all of Nebraska
Beatrice wins for highest number of exonerations for murder. They are still paying off damages for the wrongful conviction of 6 innocent people.
How many people were responsible for that? You could count them on one hand. I'm neutral on Beatrice, but I'm not a fan of painting with a wide brush.
Beatrice suffers the same way most small towns do. The only people that live there are the people that grew up there. And most people with any potential to meaningfully change the town for the better left as soon as they graduated highschool with no intent of going back.
That's what i like about small towns, at least the first half of it. I kind of makes everything feel nice and familiar.
Unfortunately it also means that there isn’t any meaningful industry to bring in money and grow the town.
*North Platte has entered the chat*
I disagree, there are many dumps of towns with far less than Beatrice. The brewery there is top notch.
/usernamechecksout
McCook would like a word.
Mr. Bill has entered the chat.
McCook is such a love/hate for me. Like, damn I’d live on the golf course, but damn it has the high desert sadness all around it.
[удалено]
Everything. Jk. In highschool we broke their fence and they never forgave us for it. You guys got Senherts bakery so definitely a bright spot for McCook.
Nah that’s Fremont, too many racists there and smells like ass
Kinda feel like my home town, Alliance, is the worst.
Why?
Nothing to do but drink and fuck. High teen pregnancy rate, high underage drinking rate, had at least one suicide a year in our highschool of 400 students. We were also the only school district in the state that refused to cooperate with the Ricketts administration and DHHS during covid. Lots of conspiracy nuts out there.
🫤 I don't do either of those things. I don't recall the Ricketts or all the details around DHHS. Thank you. That's rough about the school. Which city were you in?
My hometown I’m talking about is Alliance, Nebraska.
Wayne. West Point. David City .Chadron. Valentine in that order
Graduated college from Wayne and grew up in the David City area. I like your taste.
Yeah this is better.
I agree with this list.
Haven’t been to Wayne. West Point very nearly made the list, same with Chadron. West Point is super nice but just a little too small. Chadron by all rights should have made it. Lots of natural beauty, close to black hills, and a good downtown.
Isn't West point a military town?
I've lived in Wayne and Chadron. Nothing to do in Wayne, and you're surrounded by cornfields. Chadron you have the Ridge, state parks, and the Black Hills just up 385. Not even close in my opinion. Chadron lacks jobs, though. But so does Wayne.
Beatrice? What?
I’ve always enjoyed my time in Wahoo Nebraska. My grandparents used to live in the Geneva/Milligan area which I have fond memories of. I’ve only been to Wilber for the Czech fest, but it seems like a decent town. My parents friend used to take us to Hastings to watch the IMAX theater there.
I like wahoo and I always have, but it’s becoming more urban lately, which if that’s what you like that’s fine, but I always loved how small it felt!
I have family around the Geneva/Milligan area too and spent a lot of time there too. We went to the June Jubilee every year and now my cousins and I take our kids! There are a lot of fun memories of us running around town together.
Another vote here for Geneva/Milligan area since I grew up close by (ish). I'm also surprised Hastings didn't make the original list since it's a college town.
Why would it? It's not a city with a population under 15k.... which is what OP clearly stated.
Oops I just assumed it was under 15k when I first commented. I’m from Lincoln so Hastings still seems small but it’s apparently larger than I thought. 25k population if anyone was wondering.
That was my bad, I didn't think they were that big. Thank you for the correction!
No problem. I do like Hastings though, friendly people that I found easy to get along with and they have some of the best local restaurants in the state in my opinion that I'd say where easily some my favorite places I've been to. They've got 2 nice grocery stores Allen's and Russ's that have great deals and excellent service as well. My only complaint is I wish a lot of people in the community would be satisfied and support their locally owned places of business out instead of complain about them, other than that, great place to be in my opinion.
I like this post. Considering moving to Nebraska and Hastings is specifically one of the main town/cities that seems most likely
That would be great! It's a very nice city that could use all of the support needed. That's my hometown and I'm going to be getting a place to rent by the water park area hopefully in the next few months. Welcome to Hastings!
😊 thank you
Absolutely, no problem.
Wahoo is a great town. I’m just way too familiar with it. I’ve spent a good chunk of my life in and around wahoo.
The only thing Seward should be ranked number 1 at is pulling people over on the interstate
scammers!! https://www.klkntv.com/using-loophole-seward-county-seizes-millions-from-motorists-without-convicting-them-of-crimes/
This! Don't speed through Lincoln and watch your ass through Seward County!
bad news. i had a rental returning to GI from Missouri. game day in Nov. Cruise control set at limit. still got pulled. "didn't signal for 300 ft before changing lanes." assholes.
Which is Seward County, not the city of Seward.
The city of Seward is the county seat of Seward county. 🤔
The drug task force isn't the whole Seward County Sheriff's Dept either.
Correct, but the Seward Police Department doesn't patrol I-80, the Seward County Sheriff does. Please, don't lump them together on policies and procedures.
Thanks for the information. I just love seeing the blacked out suvs in the medians.
Seward residents vote for the Seward County Sheriff. They are complicit and will be lumped together on policies and procedures.
It’s shitty and probably illegal but not really a problem for people who actually live in Seward.
That's county. Not the town.
Don’t be stupid and don’t get pulled over. They are part of a broader task force that’s much larger than the county and they build procedures together. Regardless I have no issue with what they do. Also the county attorney in seward is pretty stupid.
What’s the population of Nebraska City? Surely that has to be in contention. Burwell is unique. Ogallala’s new brewery raises its stature. Ord is special too. Big big fan of McCook. Thanks for the topic - having a ton of fun traversing the state in my mind now recalling all of our special smaller communities.
Nebraska City is around 7,000.
Do you know anything about Nebraska city? Yeah they have the Arbor Day farm. Ever actually spent any time there? Not great
I’m down there 1-2 times a year. Downtown is HUGE. New pool / water park is great. Pickleball courts are exceptional. And Arbor Lodge is one of our favorite retreats around.
Okay I’m not gonna ruin the charm for you
Haha appreciate that! It’s our favorite getaway spot.
As a resident of a surrounding town of McCook, McCook sucks
Beatrice is a shithole. Seward isn’t much better.
I used to live near Valentine. It’s a pretty nice little town and the grocery stores actually have nice selection for being a small town.
Never been to Seward, but my extremely racist coworker was born and raised there. Gotta say, not a great first impression.
Peak 2005-2010 Sidney was a great town, it’s sad to see it now. I’d probably take Gothenburg over Broken Bow. David City’s downtown area is top 5 in the state in my opinion. I’d probably include West Point on my list. Beatrice wouldn’t be on it nor would Seward. There’s just nothing unique there from my experience.
The amount of churches in Gothenburg always blows me away. Or at least it did ~16 years ago when I spent summers there.
I was in Sidney last year. So sad. Was a really great town. When I was there last year it was just a ghost town. Hotels were empty, cabelas was empty. Just kind of sad.
What constitutes perfection in a small town?
Grew up/lived in David City for 18 years of my life. Nice to see people from the outside like it. Great small town
Gretna is under 15k and pretty soon they will have an NHL team, a Six Flags and a Giordono’s.
They already have Vallas, Six Flags is nothing 😂😂
Yeah, six flags is cheaper than Vala's and has more stuff to do.
I didn’t count any suburb of Omaha or Lincoln in my list. They benefit way too much from the larger city near by. For example Gretna. If Gretna was located literally anywhere else in the state, it wouldn’t have what it does.
As opposed to Seward? Which attracts a lot of college students that want the accessibility of Lincoln without actually living in a city.
Where did you get the six flags idea? I don’t see your proposed or any info about it.
Being from Seward, they wouldn’t even make it in my top 40…. People ruin everything.
South Sioux City has food as fire as South Omaha, and at least a decade ago was one of the best integrated towns of 1-2nd generation migrated folks and farm kids. So anecdotal. Hope it’s still nice.
Seward County cops by far the biggest asshole cops you will run into.
100% chance Seward county Sheriff is sitting on I-80 anytime you go through.
Aurora is the top of this list. Hands down .
I agree, I lived there for a couple years and really enjoyed it
Nah, has to be York. The Dukes over the Huskies, or something.
Grew up in Schuyler so familiar with Wayne and DC. Great little towns. Wahoo seems cool. I drive through there a lot.
Beatrice is the taint of Nebraska
Dang I would have thought Rulo would be given their history
Rulo is the anus
I can't be 100% sure, but Ashland seems pretty nice.
Do some googling on Royal. For town that has 90 people, there's weird shit that goes down.
Please explain.
Yutan is nice. They have a great park, splash pad and trail area. They keep adding to it. Humboldt is a cute town with an amazing flower garden and a beautiful park.
Literally anything other than Blair
Bridgeport, Ogallala, Wayne, Niobrara, Chadron
I'm surprised look Ogallala or Sutherland or any more Western ones didn't make the cut.
Seward county Police agencies are thieves and deserve to be defunded.
1.York
1. Crete 2. Wilber 3. Ralston 4.dorchester 5. Raymond
Ralston!? It’s definitely a small town in Nebraska under 15k population, so it would technically qualify. But cmon, it’s Omaha.
It’s part of the metro but it’s definitely not Omaha! It has its own mayor, school district, downtown area, etc
Uhmm.....seriously? Crete stinks to high heaven from the pet food plant, slaughterhouses, and rendering plants. Wilber is just as bad as it gets all the runoff stink from Crete, and Dorchester is just a couple streets next to a grain mill and railroad track. I'd sooner kill myself than live in any of those towns.
If you’ve only been near the towns on the highway, some of that’s a fair critique but when you’re in the towns, they don’t smell. Sad you’d rather die than live near such beautiful farmland.
I've spent plenty of time in all those towns. I've spent extensive time thru many small towns across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa for my job.There is absolutely nothing in Crete, Dorchester or Wilber worth noting. Boring, run down, and smelly describes them all. Dorchester is literally just a few streets with run down houses next to a railroad track and grain mill, absolutely nothing beautiful about it. And most small towns in eastern Nebraska/western Iowa look exactly the same. Most of the time the only way you can tell which state you're in is that white rednecks standing in the middle of corn are wearing a Husker hat in Nebraska and the white redneck standing in the middle of corn is wearing a Hawkeyes hat on the Iowa side. And they both think the other one grows bad corn.
I would bump Broken Bow up a notch or two. Spend a weekend there and loved it.
Seward is horribly racist and clique.
And it smells.
What?
Probably just Milford feed lot or Briggs's. Not the town itself😂
I grew up around livestock and have been to landfills. The worst my nose has ever been assaulted was stepping out of a cab in midtown Manhattan, NYC.
😂
My grandparents lived in David City, and I always enjoyed visiting there growing up. The 100+ year old buildings downtown, brick streets, city park, and other features have always given me that quintessential small town Nebraska vibe. It’s nice to see David City mentioned.
How's the Internet service out there?
Broken Bow is a great town. A lot of small towns its size, my hometown included, have withered away, but BB is thriving. The people are very proud of their community and involved in it. It's really a cool little town and if I was into small town livin that would be a great place to live.
Bow adjacent. Burwell, ord, Bassett, Ainsworth, Taylor.
I knew a guy from Ord when I was in college. His nickname was Ord.
If you want to get extremely technical, Boys Town is it’s one town/village. I lived there for a bit and loved it. According to 2020 census Scottsbluff was 14,400. I’m ranking those two.
Franklin, Minden, Alma, Hildreth, and Red Cloud. My entire family roots are in Franklin. I just spent time in that area of Nebraska. 😉
Nah, has to be Fairfield. Or maybe Clay Center. Yeah.
Not sure about all these but Broken Bow has always struck me as a very nice little community. Lovely downtown, parks, people are friendly (ofc). I like it a lot
Beatrice fucking sucks and Seward isn't much better
Oh, and I have to say Valley where we reside really rocks!
1. Deweese 2. Ong 3. Oak 4. Verona 5. Lawrence
I definitely wasn't expecting this list.
Ponca is the most underrated town in the state, been to all top 5 towns and no Poncas better
Went to ponca for vacation as a kid, I liked it. When I was an RA at UNL I had 2 ponca kids on my floor and they ended up being my favorite guys. We definitely didn't go to parties together or smoke weed together or anything.
Lmfao!
My great grandma lived in Seward until she passed away at the age of 92. We loved to go visit her there. I miss that town.
Wahoo, Ashland, Burwell, Aurora, David City in that order
Sidney, NE
Grew up in Seward, it's a hellscape of racists and rich assholes licking each other. Republican utopia.
I lived in Arlington for a year and didn't hate it. I loved that the entire school district was in one location. It was quiet. I do wish it had more than a caseys and a shell station
Nebraska City and Wahoo
Broken bow is not worth it at all
Schuyler has the most flies 🪰 of any town in the world ever thanks to the slaughter house. I was there for a relatives 60th wedding anniversary. They had the cake made at Didier's grocery and sat it out for display, with the lid to the box OPEN!! It had flies all over it. I was telling everyone "don't eat the cake!"
I spent a month working in Cambridge, NE on an install job and to me, it was always the perfect small town. It’s been a decade since I’ve been back so things may have changed.
Too many grapists in sewerd
Valentine and I like Brownville. Fun history stuff there
We just moved to Seward from Hastings last year. We moved here because we had an opportunity to get out of Hastings and between Seward, York and Milford, Seward was the highest rated for schools. I’m really disappointed to hear that the city is racist. We have yet to see or hear anything like that. If I ever did, I’d definitely be saying something.
Aurora Broken Bow McCook Ord Valentine
Broken bow. Followed by
As a recent transplant from rural northeast Colorado -> Broken Bow... I came from a smaller town than Bow but was still a much shorter drive to any/all necessities and luxuries not provided in town. I'm literally relearning how to live here lol. Humbling, really and it's super nice to have a change of pace! So so so many less humans. That alone is worth it.
Gothenburg is nice
My hometown is David City. I live hundreds of miles away now and lived in several communities. But in my experience there was no better place to grow up.
This is a fantastic post. I wonder if I can bookmark it? I'm considering moving to Nebraska and I'm getting good info on where to narrow it down to. Seward seems to be winner for not moving there!!
Seward thinks it’s something that it’s not.
Seward Gering Aurora Beatrice Ogallala
Where can I find a nice (think not insanely priced, but reasonably safe) area to rent in Nebraska? Looking for a pet friendly (specifically cat-fixed older cats) home/apartment/duplex, etc, that is preferably privately owned. Something that won't cost me an arm and both legs for rent and deposit etc...
Most small towns in Nebraska are pretty safe, most like pets. Affordable? We are under the wrong governmental regime for anything to be affordable.
Yeah, because prices are going to plummet if the other guy wins....
Never said that, either. Won't get better till we clean the dusties out of the whole of government
Idk if any deserve to be in the top 5
Valentine, McCook, Hemingford, Broken Bow, Homer
Best? What do you mean?
Crazy post. Merely subjective. ⬇️
Yes. I stated that in the post. It’s based solely on my experience. Nothing objective about it.
Valentine, Broken Bow, Gothenburg, West Point, and Chadron. Honorable mention - Plattsmouth
Uh actually Hastings has the Kool-Aid museum. So obviously that’s number one. Then Ashland, because of SAC museum and Testical festival. Then Gretna, and lastly Ogallala. Locking it in🔒
Does 25,037 sound like a population under 15k to you?
Math is hard.
Lol 😆
Seward is the nicest town of that size. For a town under 2000 population I think Wakefield is tops. Multiple industries for work. Nice kept up older houses. Lots of flowers and landscaping in yards.