Arapahoe, NE

Arapahoe is a Furnas County city in the Republican River valley, where the 2020 census counted 1,002 residents. The Arapahoe Town Company formed in Plattsmouth in spring 1871 under Captain E. B. Murphy, then surveyed the town site on July 18. The river shaped the first map, while the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad later gave farm products a route toward larger markets. A post office opened in 1872, adding another fixed point to the new settlement.

Furnas County roads still place Arapahoe among the small cities of south-central Nebraska. Farming, cattle, and town services fill the surrounding landscape, and the Republican River remains the clearest geographic reference. Early years brought hard weather too: a grasshopper plague in the 1870s damaged crops, but settlers stayed and rebuilt. Arapahoe's story is a river-valley town story, with a planned beginning, a railroad-era boost, and a compact center serving the farms around it. The town's name and river setting remain linked in local geography.