Chappell Nebraska

City · Deuel County · County seat · Population 844 (2020 census) · ZIP 69129 · Founded 1884 · Peak population 1,297 (1950)

About Chappell

Chappell is a city of 844 (2020) and the seat of Deuel County, in the Lodgepole Creek valley of the southern Panhandle at 3,691 feet. US 30 (the Lincoln Highway) runs through town as 2nd Street beside the Union Pacific main line, US 385 joins it here from Julesburg, Colorado, and I-80 exit 85 is about a mile south. Chappell has Creek Valley Schools, a library and art gallery, a pool and a golf course, and like the rest of the county it is on Mountain Time.

History

The Pony Express ran up Lodgepole Creek in 1860–61, and its Nine Mile station stood just southeast of today's town. The Union Pacific built through in 1867 and named its siding for Charles Henry Chappell, a railroad man; station agent John O'Neil, here from about 1880 to 1885, was probably the first resident and taught the first school in the depot. J. B. and M. A. Carmichael surveyed the townsite in the summer of 1884 and filed the plat at Sidney on August 27, 1884; George W. McCluskey bought the first lots, built the first store and became postmaster. By 1887 Chappell had a new depot, three general stores, a bank and the Chappell Register.

When Deuel County was organized in 1889, Chappell became its temporary seat. After a disputed special election in which Big Springs precinct returned far more ballots than it had voters, several more elections and a court case, Chappell was declared the county seat on August 11, 1894. It incorporated as a village on September 10, 1907, the first in the county, and built its courthouse in 1915 during the Kinkaid homestead boom. Orianna Chappell, widow of the town's namesake, gave the library and its art collection. On June 7, 1944, a B-24J bomber caught fire in a thunderstorm and exploded about 2 miles southeast of town, killing all ten crew. The population peaked at 1,297 in 1950.

In 1961 Dick Cabela, born in Chappell in 1936, began selling hand-tied fishing flies by mail from his father's store here; with his wife, Mary, and brother Jim he built Cabela's, which moved to Sidney in 1968. Judge L. Steven Grasz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was also born in Chappell. U.S. Rep. Virginia Smith (1975–91) made her home here, and Frank W. Cyr, later called the father of the yellow school bus, was superintendent of Chappell's schools.

Things to see

The Deuel County Courthouse, 718 3rd St., a 1915 Classical Revival courthouse on the National Register · the Sudman-Neumann Heritage House, 701 5th St. (1911; National Register), with a Virginia Smith display, open Sundays 2–4 p.m. from May to Labor Day or by appointment (308-874-6346) · Pony Express Park at I-80 exit 85, with markers for the Lodgepole Creek valley and the 1944 bomber crash · the mural plaques downtown on 2nd St., one showing a Cabela's fishing fly · the Chappell Memorial Library & Art Gallery, 289 Babcock Ave. · Chappell Lake, with fishing and a disc golf course, beside the 9-hole Chappell Golf Club · the city pool, 402 Washington Ave. · Creekside RV Park, 16551 Road 14 · the Deuel County Fair, August 12–15, 2026