Aurora Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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City · Hamilton County · County seat · Population 4,678 (2020 census) · ZIP 68818 · Founded 1871

About Aurora

Aurora is a city of 4,678 people (2020), the most it has had, and the seat of Hamilton County, at 1,795 feet on Lincoln Creek. US 34 and NE 14 cross in town, I-80 Exit 332 is just south, and Grand Island is about 18 miles west-northwest. Aurora has Memorial Community Health’s critical access hospital, Aurora Public Schools, the Edgerton Explorit Center, the Plainsman Museum, the 1894–95 courthouse on the square, Streeter Park with its pool and free RV camping, the 9-hole Poco Creek golf course, a municipal airport and the Prairie Plains Resource Institute, which looks after native prairie preserves around the county. Aurora is on Central Time.

History

In March 1871 seven men at Chariton, Iowa — David Stone, Darius Wilcox, Robert Miller, James O. Doremus, Justinian Ray, Nathaniel H. Thorpe and Stillman P. Lewis — formed a town company. They chose a site marked by two big cottonwoods on Lincoln Creek and on June 19, 1871, named it for Aurora, Illinois. The post office, opened that April as Spafford’s Grove, took the name Aurora in 1872. After five elections Aurora took the county seat from Orville City, beating the rival town of Hamilton 481 votes to 400, and the records moved on January 1, 1876. Aurora incorporated on July 3, 1877, and the Burlington’s Republican Valley line ran its first train in on October 14, 1879. The courthouse on the square, by William Gray of Lincoln, was built in 1894–95 after its predecessor burned. Harold “Doc” Edgerton, the MIT engineer behind strobe and high-speed photography, was born in Fremont in 1903 and grew up in Aurora, and psychologist J. P. Guilford, born near Marquette in 1897, graduated from Aurora High School in 1914.

Highways and trails through Aurora

Route	One way	Other way
US 34East–west through the city	West to Phillips and Grand Island	East to Hampton and York
NE 14North–south through the city	North to Marquette and Central City	South to I-80 (Exit 332) and Clay Center

Nearby towns

Hampton	about 6 mi east	US 34
Marquette	about 10 mi north	NE 14
Giltner	about 10 mi southwest	County roads or I-80
Stockham	about 11 mi south-southeast	County roads
Phillips	about 11 mi west-northwest	US 34
Bradshaw	about 14 mi east	US 34
Hordville	about 16 mi north-northeast	NE 14 and county roads
Central City	about 17 mi north	NE 14
Grand Island	about 18 mi west-northwest	US 34
York	about 22 mi east	US 34
Clay Center	about 24 mi south	NE 14

Things to see

the Edgerton Explorit Center (science center, opened 1995) · the Plainsman Museum (opened 1976) · the Hamilton County Courthouse (1894–95, National Register) · the Streeter-Peterson House, 1121 9th St., and the Temple Craft Building, 12th St. (National Register) · Streeter Park, with pool and free RV camping · the Lincoln Creek Prairie Trail · Poco Creek Golf Course (9 holes) · Pintail and Gadwall wildlife management areas

Events in Aurora

A’ROR’N Days
Aurora’s community festival on the last weekend of June.
Hamilton County Fair
The Hamilton County Fair is held each summer at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Aurora, organized by the Hamilton County Agricultural Society, established in 1871…

Know of another event here? Tell us about it.

Schools and health care

Schools: Aurora Public Schools (Aurora 4R), 300 L St., (402) 694-6923: Aurora Elementary (PK–5), Aurora Middle School (6–8) and Aurora High School (9–12)

Health care: Memorial Community Health, 1423 Seventh St., (402) 694-3171: critical access hospital, clinic and the Memorial Community Care nursing home

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); 1890 Hamilton County history (NEGenWeb); Bremer, Centennial History of Hamilton County (1967); Plainsman Museum town histories; History Nebraska; National Register; Nebraska Game and Parks; Prairie Plains Resource Institute; Memorial Community Health; Nebraska Secretary of State; Aurora News-Register; KOLN; SchoolDigger. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.