Sweetwater Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Sweetwater Area Cameras

Unincorporated community · Buffalo County · ZIP 68869 · post office 1874–1961

About Sweetwater

Sweetwater is an unincorporated community in Beaver Township in northern Buffalo County, at 2,060 feet on NE 2 midway between Ravenna and Hazard, on Mud Creek, a tributary of the South Loup. Its mail comes through Ravenna (68869).

History

Sweetwater was named for the good water pioneers found here. It had a post office from 1874 to 1961 and became a station on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad; the 1890 gazetteer called it a village 25 miles north of Kearney and recorded a cyclone that June. The Sweetwater Mill Bridge over Mud Creek and an archeological site nearby are on the National Register. Willa Cather’s “Sweet Water” in A Lost Lady may have been inspired by it.

Highways and trails through Sweetwater

Route	One way	Other way
NE 2Through the community	Northwest to Hazard	Southeast to Ravenna

Nearby towns

Poole	about 5 mi south-southeast	County roads
Hazard	about 5 mi northwest	NE 2
Ravenna	about 5 mi east-southeast	NE 2
Pleasanton	about 7 mi southwest	County roads
Litchfield	about 11 mi northwest	County roads

Things to see

the Sweetwater Mill Bridge over Mud Creek (National Register 1992)

Health care

Hospitals: CHI Health Good Samaritan and Kearney Regional Medical Center, Kearney, about 24 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Bassett, History of Buffalo County and Its People (1916); Who’s Who in Nebraska (1940); Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (1925); NEGenWeb Buffalo County; History Nebraska and its markers; National Register; Buffalo County; City of Kearney; Visit Kearney; Nebraska Game and Parks; Central Platte NRD; Audubon Rowe Sanctuary; Kearney Regional Airport; school districts. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.