Merna, NE

Merna is a village in Custer County, Nebraska, United States. The 2020 census counted 343 residents. Merna was named Merna in honor of the young daughter of the first postmaster. Recently, Merna was at the center of a geological controversy regarding a depression in the land several miles west of town in the Loess Hills. That mix gives Merna a clear local shape within Nebraska, with older layers still visible in current places. The local scoop is a place whose streets, landmarks, and institutions keep its earlier story close to the present. Originally called the Bartak Depression after the owners of the land, it was redubbed the Merna Crater by University of Kansas geology professor Wakefield Dort, Jr.