Ellsworth Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Unincorporated community · Sheridan County · ZIP 69340 · Founded 1888

About Ellsworth

Ellsworth is an unincorporated community in the Sandhills of southern Sheridan County, on NE 2, the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway, and the BNSF railroad, where NE 27 starts north toward Gordon, about 52 miles away. Lakeside is about 7 miles west and Alliance about 30 miles west. The post office ZIP is 69340. Ellsworth is on Mountain Time.

History

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy chose the site for a depot and water stop when it built across the Sandhills in 1887–88; in 1890 it was only a side track. The name probably came from Ellsworth, Minnesota. Bartlett Richards's Spade Ranch built a store, a hotel and stockyards here in 1898, moved its headquarters to Ellsworth in 1901, and opened a post office in the store in 1904; Richards built a brick house north of the store in 1902–04. The Spade grew to about 500,000 acres by 1900. Richards was convicted in the federal land-fencing cases and died in prison at Hastings at 49. The Bixby family has owned the core of the ranch since the 1920s and still runs it as a working ranch.

The Spade Ranch Store, built about 1898 by W. T. Merritt, has been run by the Morgan family since 1971 and was listed on the National Register in 2010, as was the District No. 119 North School on Sandy Avenue.

Highways and trails through Ellsworth

Route	One way	Other way
NE 2The Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway	West to Lakeside, Antioch and Alliance	East to Bingham, Hyannis and Grand Island
NE 27Begins at NE 2 in Ellsworth	North past the Mari Sandoz grave to Gordon	South end at NE 2

Nearby towns

Lakeside	about 7 mi west	NE 2
Bingham	about 10 mi east-southeast	NE 2
Antioch	about 15 mi west	NE 2
Hoffland	about 19 mi west	NE 2
Hyannis	about 27 mi east	NE 2
Alliance	about 30 mi west	NE 2
Gordon	about 52 mi north	NE 27

Things to see

Morgan's Cowpoke Haven, the 1898 Spade Ranch Store on the west side of NE 27: ranch supplies, tack, boots and hats, and books by local authors under a pressed-tin ceiling · the Spade Ranch marker at a small rest stop on NE 27 just north of NE 2; the ranch headquarters, about 20 miles north-northeast, is private · the Japanese Balloon Bombs marker, 15 miles north on NE 27, and the Mari Sandoz marker, 24 miles north, near her grave

Health care

Nearest hospital: Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance, about 30 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Who's Who in Nebraska, Sheridan County (1940); NEGenWeb Sheridan County (Evans and Manion accounts, Perkey data); Nebraska State Gazetteer (1890); Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names; History Nebraska and its markers; National Register nominations; Nebraska Game and Parks; Nebraska Department of Transportation; Nebraska Emergency Management Agency; U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Sheridan County; Sheridan County Historical Society; Visit Sheridan County; Visit Nebraska; Gordon-Rushville Public Schools; Hay Springs Public Schools; Sheridan County Journal Star; Nebraska Examiner; Nebraska Public Media; Clint D. Andersen, Potash (2003). Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.