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History · Broken Bow Township

Broken Bow Township dates to 1882, and 14% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1886 on.

1882founded
0on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Broken Bow Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Broken Bow Township began

When was Broken Bow Township founded?

1882

Broken Bow Township dates its founding to 1882 (Wikidata).

2020 census: 694144 years
Founding year: Wikidata.The full story ↓
The story

How Broken Bow Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Broken Bow Township.

Read it all →

Broken Bow was platted in 1882. Its name, likely suggested by a settler who found a broken bow in a field at the site of a former Native American camping ground, was submitted by homesteader Wilson Hewitt to the U.S. Post Office Department. The railroad was built through Broken Bow in 1884, and the town was incorporated as a village that same year. Broken Bow was incorporated as a city of the second class in 1888.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Broken Bow Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s6 items
Broken Bow Globe Hotel 18861886Broken Bow Globe Hotel 1886Broken Bow's First Jail 18861886Broken Bow's First Jail 1886Group posed in front of the Holland & McDonald hardware store, Broken Bow, Nebraska1886Group posed in front of the Holland & McDonald hardwa…Group posed in front of the Holland & McDonald hardware store, Broken Bow, Nebraska1886Group posed in front of the Holland & McDonald hardwa…Broken Bow The Custer Leader newspaper 18871887Broken Bow The Custer Leader newspaper 1887DocumentBroken Bow Wagon Shop 18891889Broken Bow Wagon Shop 1889
1890s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Broken Bow Globe Hotel 1886
Retake this viewBroken Bow Globe Hotel 1886, 1886

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Broken Bow Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Gone or out of use
Cottage SchoolschoolCuster Center SchoolschoolFleming Valley SchoolschoolGremm SchoolschoolHighlandlocaleKing SchoolschoolMarquiss SchoolschoolPrairie View SchoolschoolSnake Run SchoolschoolSunny Dell SchoolschoolTappan Valley SchoolschoolVannice Schoolschool
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Broken Bow Township
Broken BowHilldaleSaint Joseph

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Broken Bow Township’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBroken Bow Globe Hotel 1886: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Kilfoil Township2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRyno TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGarfield TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBerwyn TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townEast Custer TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLillian TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Broken Bow Township’s history

What year was Broken Bow Township founded?

In 1882, according to Wikidata.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.