Norfolk Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

City · Madison County · Population 24,955 (2020 census) · ZIP 68701 · Founded 1866

About Norfolk

Norfolk is a city of 24,955 people (2020), the most it has counted and the largest city in Madison County, at 1,532 feet where the North Fork joins the Elkhorn River. US 81 runs north–south through the city on 13th Street and US 275 east–west on Omaha Avenue; NE 35 heads north to Wayne and NE 24 east to Stanton. Norfolk is a regional center for northeast Nebraska, home to Faith Health, Northeast Community College, the Norfolk Regional Center and the Norfolk Veterans’ Home, and the eastern trailhead of the Cowboy Trail is in Ta-Ha-Zouka Park. Norfolk Regional Airport serves general aviation; there is no scheduled airline service. Norfolk is on Central Time.

History

Scouts from a German Lutheran settlement around Ixonia and Watertown, in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, reached the junction of the Elkhorn and its North Fork in September 1865, and the first families arrived in July 1866; their St. Paul’s Lutheran was the county’s first church. In 1868 they asked for a “North Fork” post office, and postal officials, taking it for a misspelling, named it Norfolk; many residents still say “Norfork.” Norfolk was the first county seat, but voters chose Madison in 1875. The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad arrived in 1879, a Union Pacific branch in 1880 and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha in 1882. Norfolk became a village in 1881 and a city in 1886, and the state asylum, now the Norfolk Regional Center, took its first patients in 1888. Joyce Hall started the Norfolk Post Card Co. here in 1908 before founding Hallmark in Kansas City. Johnny Carson, born in Corning, Iowa, in 1925, moved to Norfolk at age eight, gave his first paid show as “The Great Carsoni” in 1939 and graduated from Norfolk High School in 1943; his gifts helped build the Carson Cancer Center and the Johnny Carson Theatre. Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger, and pin-up painter Joyce Ballantyne were born here.

Highways and trails through Norfolk

Route	One way	Other way
US 81North–south through the city on 13th Street	North out of the county	South to Madison and Columbus
US 275East–west on Omaha Avenue	West to Battle Creek, Meadow Grove and Tilden	East toward Omaha
NE 35North from US 275	North to Wayne	South end at US 275
NE 24East from US 275	East to Stanton	West end at US 275

Nearby towns

Enola	about 9 mi south-southwest	US 81
Battle Creek	about 9 mi west-southwest	US 275
Stanton	about 12 mi east-southeast	NE 24
Pierce	about 13 mi north-northwest	County roads
Madison	about 14 mi south	US 81
Meadow Grove	about 16 mi west	US 275
Tilden	about 21 mi west	US 275
Humphrey	about 23 mi south	US 81
Newman Grove	about 26 mi southwest	County roads
Columbus	about 41 mi south	US 81

Things to see

the Elkhorn Valley Museum, 515 Queen City Blvd., with the Johnny Carson Gallery and the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame (Tuesday–Saturday 10–5) · the Johnny Carson boyhood home at 306 S. 13th St. (private; historical marker out front) and the Carson mural and statue at 3rd Street and Norfolk Avenue · Ta-Ha-Zouka Park on the Elkhorn: campground, dog park, disc golf and the Cowboy Trail trailhead · Skyview Park and Lake, 1900 W. Maple Ave.: a 50-acre lake, an arboretum, disc golf and 2½ miles of trail · the Norfolk Arts Center, 305 N. 5th St. · nine National Register sites, among them the Grand Theater, the Hotel Norfolk, the Carnegie Library, the Masonic Temple and the 1974-listed post office and courthouse · the Great American Comedy Festival in June, Big Bang Boom over the Fourth of July and Oktoberfest in September

Events in Norfolk

Big Bang Boom
Big Bang Boom, a local celebration in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Great American Comedy Festival
Norfolk’s June comedy festival in Johnny Carson’s hometown, at the Johnny Carson Theatre.
Norfolk Oktoberfest
Norfolk Oktoberfest is held in Norfolk, Nebraska, on the third weekend of September.

More about this event: Big Bang Boom

Know of another event here? Tell us about it.

Schools and health care

Schools: Norfolk Public Schools: seven elementary schools (PreK–4), Norfolk Middle School (5–6), Norfolk Junior High (7–8) and Norfolk Senior High (9–12), 801 Riverside Blvd.; Norfolk Catholic; Lutheran High Northeast (9–12), 2010 N. 37th St.; Christ Lutheran School, 511 S. 5th St.; St. Paul’s Lutheran School (PreK–8), 1010 Georgia Ave.; Northeast Community College, 801 E. Benjamin Ave.

Health care: Faith Health (formerly Faith Regional Health Services), 2700 W. Norfolk Ave., (402) 371-4880; Carson Cancer Center, 110 N. 29th St.; Norfolk Regional Center (state psychiatric hospital), 1700 N. Victory Rd.; Norfolk Veterans’ Home, 600 E. Benjamin Ave.

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Encyclopaedia Britannica; NEGenWeb Madison County; History Nebraska and its markers; National Register; Madison County; City of Norfolk; City of Newman Grove; City of Battle Creek; Nebraska Game and Parks; Nebraska DHHS; Norfolk Daily News; school districts. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.