Laurel, NE

Laurel is a Cedar County city at the meeting of Nebraska Highways 15 and 20 in the state’s northeast corner. The 2020 census counted 975 residents. Laurel sits about 42 miles northeast of Norfolk, 40 miles west of Sioux City, and 45 miles south of Yankton, so its daily map reaches across three states and several rural service areas. The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge school district has its elementary and high school in Laurel, while Wayne State College is about 15 miles south in Wayne. The highway crossing still gives downtown its practical center.

Laurel was founded around 1893 under the name Claremont Junction. Railroads brought the first town lots and freight connections, then the Grant Highway and Sunshine Highway—today’s U.S. 20 and Nebraska 15—created another kind of crossing at the edge of town. Electricity replaced the old gaslights in 1916, and trucks, buses, and automobiles gradually took over work once handled by the rail lines. Laurel remains a small northeastern Nebraska city with a school district, a highway junction, and a downtown built around transportation changes.