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History · Curtis

Curtis’ post office opened in 1877, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940

1877first post office
0on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Curtis began

When was Curtis founded?

1877

The Curtis post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 806149 years
Founding year: the first Curtis post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Curtis’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Curtis are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Curtis’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Curtis’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Curtis came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Curtis.

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Curtis was laid out in 1886, soon after the railroad was extended to that point. The community has the name of a trapper who operated in the area. Curtis is home to Medicine Valley Schools, which was formed in 1969. The school name is derived from its location in the Medicine Creek Valley.

Curtis describes itself as "Nebraska's Easter City", and presents an annual pageant on Palm Sunday.

In 2021, the town proposed a program to increase the population offering free land if you have a house built and financial incentives for enrolling children into the public school system.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Curtis, decade by decade

Today4 recent
Curtis, Nebraska downtown 22010Curtis, Nebraska downtown 2Curtis, Nebraska downtown 12010Curtis, Nebraska downtown 1Detailed map of2010Detailed map ofMapNEMap-doton-Curtis2005NEMap-doton-Curtis

Questions about Curtis’ history

What year was Curtis founded?

The Curtis post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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

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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 (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.