Kimball, NE

Kimball began as Antelopeville, a Union Pacific settlement that appeared around 1870 with a telegraph station, coal stop, water supply, and section housing. The railroad renamed the place in 1885 for Thomas Lord Kimball, and the new name stayed when Kimball County formed in 1888. That rail beginning gave the town its first shape, but farming and irrigation soon filled in the surrounding western Nebraska valley. Kimball became the county seat, built its courthouse on the square, and even started the state’s first countywide high school in 1910. Today the city’s local shorthand is still easy: railroad town, county seat, and high-plains farming center.