Butte was named from the small hills, or buttes, near the town site.
The Central Interstate Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact and US Ecology purchased land two miles west of Butte in the early 1990s. The land was to become the site of the compact's dump; however, following extensive controversy, the dump was eventually removed from consideration. Nebraska was officially removed from the compact after a series of long court battles that ended in 2004. The state of Nebraska had to pay a settlement and there have been attempts made to sell the compact's land just outside Butte.
Passages that mention Butte, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of western Nebraska and its people. General history. Cheyenne, Box Butte, Deuel, Garden, Sioux, Kimball, Morrill, Sheridan, Scotts Bluff, Banner, and Dawes counties. A group often called the panhandle of Nebraska1921 · page 359Read the page →
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at Alliance, however, and afterwards returned here to make his permanent home. In November. 1916, Mr. Thomas, better known throughout the Panhandle and Box Butte county as "Lloyd." was elected representative to the Nebraska Legislature from the district comprising Box Butte and Sheridan counties. He served in the regular session of 1917 and the special
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History of western Nebraska and its people. General history. Cheyenne, Box Butte, Deuel, Garden, Sioux, Kimball, Morrill, Sheridan, Scotts Bluff, Banner, and Dawes counties. A group often called the panhandle of Nebraska1921 · page 379Read the page →
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and after a sojourn in the wooded country they again returned to the open plains, but this time they came farther west, being among the first white settlers of Bo.x Butte county. They reached the town of Alliance before the railroad had been built and located on a homestead about twenty-four miles northeast of that city. As there were few trees on the
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Butte, 1890 to 1964
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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