Brewster Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

BREWSTER WEATHER

Village · Blaine County · County seat · Population 12 (2020 census) · ZIP 68821 · Founded 1884 · Peak population 69 (1950)

About Brewster

Brewster is a village of 12 people (2020), the seat of Blaine County, at about 2,497 feet on the North Loup River in the north-central Sandhills. After the 2010 census it became the smallest incorporated county seat in the United States. NE 91 runs through town from Dunning toward Taylor and Burwell, and NE 7 begins here and runs north to Ainsworth. Brewster has the 1908 county courthouse, the United Church of Christ and Uncle Buck’s Lodge; it has had no post office since 2004 (mail for ZIP 68821 comes through Dunning), and its children attend Sandhills Public Schools in Dunning and Halsey. NDOT is resurfacing and realigning NE 91 east of town in 2026, so expect lane closures. Brewster is on Central Time.

History

George Washington Brewster, a Civil War veteran and newspaperman, homesteaded here and laid out the town in 1884, naming it for his ancestor William Brewster of the Mayflower. He founded the Brewster News that year and built a hotel, a bridge over the North Loup and the county’s first fair buildings. When Blaine County was organized in 1886, Brewster, Ladora (about half a mile away) and Blaine Center fought over the county seat; Ladora held it briefly in 1887, but Brewster won in November 1887, and Ladora’s businesses moved over. The outlaw Doc Middleton ran a saloon here in 1887. A railroad was graded toward Brewster but never built, so the town stayed small. The first courthouse burned on September 7, 1907, and the present two-story concrete-block courthouse went up in 1908. The church burned in January 1957 and was rebuilt the next year. The post office closed on March 31, 2004.

Highways and trails through Brewster

Route	One way	Other way
NE 91Through town	East to Taylor and Burwell	Southwest to Dunning and NE 2
NE 7Begins at NE 91 in Brewster	North to Ainsworth

Nearby towns

Dunning	about 15 mi west-southwest	NE 91
Linscott	about 16 mi south-southwest	local roads
Halsey	about 21 mi west	NE 91 and NE 2
Purdum	about 22 mi west-northwest	local roads
Anselmo	about 22 mi south	NE 91 and NE 2
Taylor	about 27 mi east-southeast	NE 91
Merna	about 32 mi south	NE 91 and NE 2
Thedford	about 37 mi west	NE 91 and NE 2
Broken Bow	about 39 mi south-southeast	NE 91 and NE 2
Burwell	about 39 mi east-southeast	NE 91
Ainsworth	about 42 mi north	NE 7

Things to see

the 1908 Blaine County Courthouse, 145 Lincoln Ave. · the Brewster United Church of Christ (1958), the only church in town · the North Loup River, with a USGS stream gauge at Brewster · Milburn Dam WMA, about 15 miles south-southeast

Schools and health care

Schools: No school in town; Sandhills Public Schools, 107 Gandy Ave., Dunning, (308) 538-2224 (high school in Dunning, elementary in Halsey)

Health care: No clinic in the county; nearest hospital: Broken Bow, about 39 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Blaine County (blainecounty.ne.gov); NEGenWeb Blaine County and Belle Dunn's county history; Nebraska Who's Who (1940) county sketch; Jim Forte Postal History; USPS Postal Bulletin; Courthouses.co; Nebraska Game and Parks; U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; USGS; NDOT; Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway; History Nebraska; VisitNebraska; Sandhills Public Schools; SchoolDigger; KOLN. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.