Kenesaw Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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Village · Adams County · Population 917 (2020 census) · ZIP 68956 · Founded 1872

About Kenesaw

Kenesaw is a village of about 917 people (2020), the most it has had, in western Adams County at 2,051 feet. It lies just north of US 6/34, reached by Spur S-1A (Smith Way), about 14 miles west of Hastings; I-80 is about 9 miles north at Exit 291 in Buffalo County. Kenesaw has its own public school, a nursing home, a pool, a park, a museum, a horse arena and the City Auditorium, a 1930s New Deal building renovated in 2026, where the village offices now are. Kenesaw is on Central Time.

History

The townsite was chosen in 1871 and surveyed in 1872 as the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad built through; the post office opened that year. The village is named for Kennesaw Mountain, the Civil War battlefield in Georgia, and keeps the single-n spelling. A. D. Williams founded the Kenesaw Times in 1876, and in 1882 Mrs. M. A. Brass organized the county’s first women’s suffrage group here. In 1883 the Burlington began its Denver cutoff from Kenesaw. Fires struck in 1907, 1911 and 1916, and a flood on June 13, 1967, put about three feet of water over most of the town. The actress Sandy Dennis, who won an Academy Award for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, grew up in Kenesaw.

Highways and trails through Kenesaw

Route	One way	Other way
US 6/34Just south of the village (Spur S-1A)	East to Juniata and Hastings	West to Heartwell and Minden

Nearby towns

Prosser	about 6 mi northeast	County roads
Heartwell	about 8 mi west-southwest	US 6/34
Juniata	about 8 mi east-southeast	US 6/34
Holstein	about 11 mi south	County roads
Roseland	about 12 mi south-southeast	County roads
Hastings	about 14 mi east	US 6/34
Minden	about 18 mi west-southwest	US 6/34
Kearney	about 23 mi west-northwest	County roads and I-80

Things to see

the Kenesaw City Auditorium (1930s; renovated 2026) · Wasenek Weekend each August

Events in Kenesaw

Wasenek Weekend
Wasenek Weekend is held in Kenesaw, Nebraska, on the first weekend of August (Friday and Saturday).

Know of another event here? Tell us about it.

Schools and health care

Schools: Kenesaw Public Schools, 110 N. 5th Ave.: Kenesaw Elementary (PK–6) and Kenesaw Secondary (7–12)

Health care: Accura HealthCare of Kenesaw, 100 W. Elm Ave. (nursing home); nearest hospital: Mary Lanning Healthcare, Hastings, about 14 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Adams County (adamscountyne.gov); City of Hastings; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Past and Present of Adams County (1916); NEGenWeb Adams County; History Nebraska (Naval Ammunition Depot, Kool-Aid, Crystal Lake markers); National Park Service; National Register; Amtrak; Nebraska Game and Parks; Hastings Visitors Guide (CVB); Nebraska 211; KSNB; KRVN; SchoolDigger. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.