Willow Island Nebraska

Unincorporated community · Dawson County · post office 1874–1991

About Willow Island

Willow Island is an unincorporated community and census-designated place of 25 people (2020) in western Dawson County, on US 30 and the Union Pacific about 5 miles west-northwest of Cozad and 5 miles east-southeast of Gothenburg, at about 2,525 feet. It had ZIP code 69171. Its area is split between the Gothenburg and Cozad school districts.

History

Josiah Huffman, the first settler, arrived in April 1873, and the post office opened in 1874. The name comes from an island about 10 miles long in the Platte just south of the townsite. Because the place went by both Willow and Willow Island, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names ruled in 1902 that Willow Island was the official name. The post office closed in 1991. The Willow Island Pony Express station of 1861 was not here: it stood south of the river about 6 miles southeast of Cozad, and its cabin is now in Cozad’s Veterans Memorial Park.

Things to see

Willow Island WMA and East Willow Island WMA nearby · the Willow Island Pony Express Station cabin in Cozad