Clay Center Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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City · Clay County · County seat · Population 735 (2020 census) · ZIP 68933 · Founded 1879 · Peak population 1,065 (1910)

About Clay Center

Clay Center is a city of 735 people (2020) and the seat of Clay County, at 1,782 feet near the middle of the county. NE 14 runs north–south through town, and NE 41 begins here and runs east to Geneva; US 6 is about 4 miles north, and Spur 18D leads west to the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. Clay Center has the 1917–19 courthouse, the county fairgrounds, a public library, the Clay County Historical Society museum and Crooked Creek Country Club, a 9-hole course. Students attend Sandy Creek Public Schools. Clay Center is on Central Time.

History

Sutton had been the county seat since 1871. In the summer of 1879 O. P. Alexander, trustee for a town site company, laid out Clay Center at the geographic center of the county to win the courthouse, and W. D. Young’s frame building of May 1879 served as the first courthouse; the post office moved in that July from Marshall, 2 miles east. After a year of disputed votes and a fight in the Nebraska Supreme Court, Clay Center won the November 1879 election, 1,967 votes to Harvard’s 1,867. The railroad arrived in 1886, and the town reached its peak of 1,065 people in 1910. The present courthouse, by William F. Gernandt of Omaha, was built in 1917–19 and is on the National Register. In 1942 the Navy’s ammunition depot took in farmland in eastern Adams and western Clay counties; much of it became the USDA’s U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, authorized in 1964 and named for Senator Roman L. Hruska in 1978.

Highways and trails through Clay Center

Route	One way	Other way
NE 14North–south through the city	North to US 6, Aurora and I-80 (Exit 332)	South to Fairfield and Nelson
NE 41Begins in Clay Center	East to Geneva

Nearby towns

Harvard	about 7 mi north-northwest	NE 14, US 6 and Spur 18A
Fairfield	about 7 mi south-southwest	NE 14
Saronville	about 8 mi northeast	NE 14 and US 6
Inland	about 10 mi west-northwest	NE 14 and US 6
Glenvil	about 11 mi west	County roads
Edgar	about 12 mi south-southeast	County roads
Sutton	about 12 mi east-northeast	NE 14 and US 6
Deweese	about 13 mi south-southwest	NE 14
Ong	about 14 mi southeast	County roads
Hastings	about 18 mi west-northwest	US 6
Aurora	about 24 mi north	NE 14
Geneva	about 24 mi east	NE 41

Things to see

the Clay County Courthouse (1917–19, National Register) · the Clay Center Public Library in the 1930s Library and Gymnasium building (National Register, 2022) · the Clay County Museum · the Clay County Fair and the Old Trusty Antique Engine & Collectors Show at the fairgrounds · White Front WMA, 2 miles west and 2 north · Massie Waterfowl Production Area, 3 miles south on NE 14 · Crooked Creek Country Club (9 holes)

Events in Clay Center

Clay County Fairgrounds
Annual Clay County fair in Clay Center, NE featuring 4-H exhibits, rodeo events, and grandstand entertainment.
Old Trusty Antique Engine & Collectors Show
Old Trusty Antique Engine & Collectors Show is held in Clay Center, Nebraska, on the weekend after Labor Day.

Know of another event here? Tell us about it.

Schools and health care

Schools: Clay Center has no school building; it is in the Sandy Creek district, whose PK–12 campus is at 30671 Highway 14 near Fairfield, (402) 726-2151

Health care: Nearest hospital: Mary Lanning Healthcare, Hastings, about 18 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Clay County (claycounty.ne.gov); City of Sutton; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Johnson, History of Nebraska (1880); Nebraska State Gazetteer (1890–91); NEGenWeb Clay County; Newberry Library county atlas; National Register (NRHP nominations); History Nebraska; HMdb; Nebraska Game and Parks; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Rainwater Basin WMD); USDA-ARS; SABR; Visit Nebraska; SchoolDigger. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.