Wakefield Nebraska

Navigate & Explore Wakefield

Get directions to Wakefield: Waze → · Google Maps → · Apple Maps →

Nearby businesses: Find businesses within 20 miles of Wakefield →

Road conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov

Cameras: View Dixon County cameras →

Dixon County → · Nebraska Town Directory →

City · Dixon County · Population 1,522 (2020 census) · ZIP 68784 · Founded 1881

About Wakefield

Wakefield is a city of 1,522 on NE 35 at the south edge of Dixon County; the south side of town extends into Wayne County (see also Wakefield in Wayne County). It has Wakefield Public Schools, a Faith Regional clinic, the Wakefield Health Care Center, the Michael Foods egg-processing plant, two museums and Logan Valley Golf Course.

History

Settlers took up land here from 1869. The town began in August 1881 as the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad (later the Omaha Road) built west: D. D. Lash put up a hotel, John T. Marriott opened the first store, and the post office opened on October 31, 1881, with Marriott as postmaster. Trains arrived about December 1, 1881. The town was named for the railroad's surveying engineer, Wakefield, and incorporated in 1883, the year a branch line was built from here to Hartington.

The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Salem congregation organized in 1883; its Gothic Revival church on the east edge of town, dedicated in 1906, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Rail service ended in 1977. Wakefield has grown in recent decades and reached its highest census count, 1,522, in 2020.

Things to see

Historic Chicago and North Western Depot Museum, 101 E. 1st St. · Graves Library Museum, 206 W. 3rd St. · Salem Lutheran Church (1906, National Register) on the east edge of town · Logan Valley Golf Course, 58472 858th Rd.