Hemingford Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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Village · Box Butte County · Population 787 (2020 census) · ZIP 69348 · Founded 1885 · Peak population 1,025 (1930)

About Hemingford

Hemingford is a village of 787 people (2020) in Box Butte County, at about 4,272 feet on NE 2, 18 miles northwest of Alliance. NE 2 and NE 71 continue together northwest toward Marsland and Crawford, and US 385 is about 8 miles southeast at Berea. Hemingford has its own schools, a public library and pool, a clinic of Box Butte General Hospital, a care center, a grocery and the county fairgrounds, home of the Box Butte County Fair since 1926. Box Butte Reservoir State Recreation Area, just over the line in Dawes County, is about 9 miles north. Hemingford is on Mountain Time.

History

Canadian immigrants settled here in 1885, and the village, named for Hemmingford, Quebec, the founder’s hometown, incorporated in 1886. When Box Butte County was organized in 1887 the seat went to Nonpareil, about 6½ miles west-northwest, but Hemingford won it in the 1890 election, helped by the Burlington’s Lincoln Land Company, which offered land and a courthouse. Alliance took the seat in an October 1898 vote, and in July 1899 the Burlington loaded the 100-ton courthouse onto flatcars and had it in Alliance six hours later. The county fair moved to Hemingford in 1926, and the village reached 1,025 people in 1930. On September 24, 2002, a television mast near town collapsed during reconstruction, killing two workers. The Hemingford Ledger, published since 1915, printed its last issue on December 5, 2024. Stephen King borrowed the name for his fictional Hemingford Home, Nebraska.

Highways and trails through Hemingford

Route	One way	Other way
NE 2Through town	Southeast to Berea and Alliance	Northwest with NE 71 to Marsland and Crawford

Nearby towns

Nonpareil	about 6 mi west-northwest	local roads
Berea	about 9 mi south-southeast	NE 2
Marsland	about 14 mi northwest	NE 2
Alliance	about 18 mi southeast	NE 2
Letan	about 22 mi south-southeast	NE 2 and US 385
Crawford	about 31 mi northwest	NE 2
Hay Springs	about 32 mi northeast	NE 2 and NE 87
Angora	about 33 mi south	NE 2 and US 385
Chadron	about 35 mi north	NE 2 and US 385
Bayard	about 41 mi south-southwest	NE 71
Scottsbluff	about 44 mi southwest	NE 71
Bridgeport	about 45 mi south	NE 2 and US 385
Harrison	about 48 mi west-northwest	NE 2 and US 20

Things to see

the Box Butte County Fair, 1100 Niobrara Ave., in early August · Box Butte Reservoir SRA (Dawes County), about 9 miles north · the site of Nonpareil, the first county seat, about 6½ miles west-northwest

Events in Hemingford

Box Butte County Fair
The Box Butte County Fair has been held in Hemingford since 1926, making it one of the longer-running county fairs in the Nebraska Panhandle.

Know of another event here? Tell us about it.

Schools and health care

Schools: Hemingford Public Schools, Niobrara Ave.: elementary (308) 487-3330 and high school (308) 487-3328

Health care: GNMSS – Hemingford clinic, 721 Cheyenne Ave., (308) 762-7244; Hemingford Community Care Center, 605 Donald Ave.; nearest hospital: Box Butte General Hospital, 2101 Box Butte Ave., Alliance, (308) 762-6660, about 18 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Box Butte County (boxbuttecountyne.gov); City of Alliance; Village of Hemingford; NEGenWeb Box Butte County; Nebraska Who's Who (1940) county sketch; 1890 Nebraska State Gazetteer; History Nebraska (incl. "Moving the Courthouse" and marker 416); National Register; NDOT; Nebraska Game and Parks; Box Butte General Hospital; Alliance Chamber of Commerce; Alliance Times; SchoolDigger; Nebraska Library Commission; SPACES; Open Plains Transit. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.