{"id":6010,"date":"2023-07-19T12:33:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T12:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=6010"},"modified":"2026-08-21T16:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:17:27","slug":"frontier-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/frontier-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontier County, Nebraska"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Frontier County is a county in Nebraska, United States, on the Great Plains south of the Platte River valley. It had a population of 2,519 at the 2020 census and covers 980 square miles (2,530 km2) centred near 40&deg;32&prime;N 100&deg;23&prime;W.<\/p>\n<p>Stockville is the county seat, and its postal code is 69042. The county has one city, four villages, and three unincorporated communities. It sits in the Central time zone.<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in Frontier County<\/h2>\n<p>Frontier County has eight named places: one city, four villages, and three unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. Populations are from the 2020 census; unincorporated places carry no separate count.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Place<\/th>\n<th>Type<\/th>\n<th>Pop.<\/th>\n<th>ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Curtis<\/td>\n<td>City<\/td>\n<td>806<\/td>\n<td>69025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Eustis<\/td>\n<td>Village<\/td>\n<td>389<\/td>\n<td>69028<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Maywood<\/td>\n<td>Village<\/td>\n<td>262<\/td>\n<td>69038<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Stockville<\/td>\n<td>Village &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>25<\/td>\n<td>69042<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Moorefield<\/td>\n<td>Village<\/td>\n<td>27<\/td>\n<td>69039<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Freedom<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Orafino<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Quick<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Curtis is the county&#8217;s largest place and home to the University of Nebraska&#8217;s Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, making it the county&#8217;s employment and school hub even though Stockville, with just 25 residents, holds the courthouse.<\/p>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>69025 &mdash; Curtis<\/li>\n<li>69028 &mdash; Eustis<\/li>\n<li>69038 &mdash; Maywood<\/li>\n<li>69039 &mdash; Moorefield<\/li>\n<li>69042 &mdash; Stockville<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Freedom, Orafino, and Quick are unincorporated crossroads with no post office of their own; mail there is served by the ZIP code of the nearest listed village.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>Frontier County lies on rolling, sand-hill-edged tableland drained by the Medicine, Curtis, and Muddy creeks, which feed south toward the Republican River basin. Farmland and cattle range cover most of the county, with little standing water beyond a scatter of small creeks and stock ponds.<\/p>\n<p>It borders <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/lincoln-county-nebraska\/\">Lincoln County<\/a> to the north, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/dawson-county-nebraska\/\">Dawson County<\/a> to the northeast, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/gosper-county\/\">Gosper County<\/a> to the east, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/furnas-county\/\">Furnas County<\/a> to the southeast, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/red-willow-county\/\">Red Willow County<\/a> to the south, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/hitchcock-county\/\">Hitchcock County<\/a> to the southwest, and <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/hayes-county\/\">Hayes County<\/a> to the west.<\/p>\n<p>The land rises gently from the creek bottoms toward low divides separating the Medicine Creek and Muddy Creek drainages, and shelterbelt tree rows planted along section lines during the Dust Bowl era still mark many farmsteads today. Most of the county is given over to dryland and irrigated cropland, with the sandier northern reaches used mainly for cattle grazing.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>The 2020 census counted 2,519 residents, down slightly from the previous decade. Curtis (806) and Eustis (389) are the two largest communities, together holding roughly half the county&#8217;s population. At about 2.6 people per square mile, Frontier is sparsely settled even by rural Nebraska standards. County-level median household income figures are not separately confirmed here; the Nebraska median stood at $74,590 in the 2023 American Community Survey, and this largely agricultural county tracks below the state figure.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Agriculture drives the county&#8217;s economy &mdash; cattle grazing on the sandier ground and irrigated corn and soybeans in the creek bottoms. Curtis anchors local employment through the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, a two-year campus of the University of Nebraska system focused on agricultural production, veterinary technology, and diesel technology. Grain elevators and farm-supply businesses in Curtis and Eustis round out the local economy.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>Frontier County was organized in 1872, named for its position on the western edge of Nebraska&#8217;s settled frontier in the late 19th century. The county courthouse in Stockville was completed in 1889 and remains in use, making Stockville, despite its population of 25, one of the smallest functioning county seats in Nebraska. The county&#8217;s towns grew up along the branch rail lines and creek-bottom farmland that drew homesteaders west from the Platte valley in the 1880s, with Curtis emerging as the commercial center once the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad reached it, eventually overtaking the courthouse town of Stockville in population many times over.<\/p>\n<p>Farming and ranching have remained the county&#8217;s economic backbone through more than a century of boom-and-bust cycles, including the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, when many area families left for work elsewhere and some of the smaller unincorporated communities lost what little population they had.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>U.S. Route 83 runs north&ndash;south through the county past Eustis and Curtis, and Nebraska Highways 18, 21, and 23 connect the smaller villages to it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>North Platte &mdash; 40 miles north via US-83<\/li>\n<li>McCook &mdash; 35 miles south via US-83<\/li>\n<li>Lexington &mdash; 45 miles northeast via NE-23<\/li>\n<li>Cambridge &mdash; 20 miles southeast via NE-23<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The nearest commercial airport is North Platte Regional Airport (LBF), about 40 miles north of Curtis.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is Frontier County, Nebraska?<\/strong><br \/>It is in southwestern Nebraska, on the Great Plains south of the Platte River valley and north of the Republican River basin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of Frontier County?<\/strong><br \/>2,519 people, per the 2020 census.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is Frontier County?<\/strong><br \/>980 square miles (2,530 km2), of which 975 square miles is land.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the county seat of Frontier County?<\/strong><br \/>Stockville, population 25, one of Nebraska&#8217;s smallest county seats.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns are in Frontier County?<\/strong><br \/>One city (Curtis) and four villages (Eustis, Maywood, Moorefield, and Stockville), plus three unincorporated communities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP codes are in Frontier County?<\/strong><br \/>69025 (Curtis), 69028 (Eustis), 69038 (Maywood), 69039 (Moorefield), and 69042 (Stockville).<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Frontier County known for?<\/strong><br \/>Hosting the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis, a University of Nebraska campus for agricultural and technical programs.<\/p>\n<p>More counties in this state: <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/category\/nebraska\/\">Towns and villages in Nebraska<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frontier County is a county in Nebraska, United States, on the Great Plains south of the Platte River valley. It had a population of 2,519 at the 2020 census and covers 980 square miles (2,530 km2) centred near 40&deg;32&prime;N 100&deg;23&prime;W. Stockville is the county seat, and its postal code is 69042. The county has one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Towns & Villages in Frontier County, Nebraska","_seopress_titles_desc":"Frontier County, Nebraska: population, towns, ZIP codes, geography, history and FAQs for Curtis, Eustis, Stockville and more.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-6010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nebraska","tag-towns-and-cities","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11102,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions\/11102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}