Surprise Nebraska

Village · Butler County · Population 37 (2020 census) · ZIP 68667 · Founded 1881

About Surprise

Surprise is a village of 37 people (2020) on the Big Blue River in southwestern Butler County, at 1,536 feet about 6 miles west-northwest of Ulysses and 6½ miles south of Rising City. Its 1913 Opera House and an 1897 truss bridge over the Big Blue a mile southeast are both on the National Register. Surprise is on Central Time.

History

George Miller & Sons built the Surprise Flouring Mills on the Big Blue in 1881; tradition holds that Miller was surprised to find so much waterpower so near the river’s source. The post office opened in 1883, the town was platted in 1884, and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley depot came in 1887; the line was abandoned in 1942. The village built its opera house and town hall in 1913 on land given by Miller, and from 1913 into the early 1930s its Chautauqua Park drew crowds of about 1,500. The census counted 323 people in 1910. The school taught grades K–12 from 1924 until its high school consolidated in 1953, and it closed about 2000; the post office closed in 1988.

Things to see

the Surprise Opera House, Miller and River Sts. (1913, National Register) · the Big Blue River Bridge, an 1897 Pratt truss about a mile southeast (National Register)