Hardy Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Hardy Area Cameras

Village · Nuckolls County · Population 97 (2020 census) · ZIP 68943 · Founded 1880 · Peak population 496 (1910)

About Hardy

Hardy is a village of 97 in the southeast corner of Nuckolls County, about a mile north of the Republican River and the Kansas line and about 7 miles east of Superior.

History

The Spring Valley post office opened a mile west of here in March 1875 and took the name Hardy in June 1880. That July the town was laid out on Lincoln Land Company ground as the Burlington & Missouri completed its Republican Valley line, and the Missouri Pacific extended its Central Branch to the state line here the same year, so Hardy began with two railroads. It was named for a Burlington official, and it was partly built from the ruins of Big Bend City, a town begun about ten years earlier just across the line in Kansas. The Hardy Herald, published by R. K. Hill, ran until 1957.

By 1882 Hardy had about 225 people, a bank opened in June 1881, Lutheran and Methodist congregations and a graded school, with limestone quarries five miles north. In 1887 it had a $10,000 brick schoolhouse, a lumber yard, a grain elevator, a steam feed mill and a brick yard. The village reached its largest population, 496, in 1910.

Highways and trails through Hardy

Route	One way	Other way
NE 8East–west by the village	East to Byron and US 81 at Chester	West to Superior (about 7 mi) and NE 14

Nearby towns

Superior	about 7 mi west	NE 8
Cadams	about 8 mi northwest	County roads
Byron	about 8 mi east	NE 8
Ruskin	about 10 mi north-northeast	County roads
Nora	about 11 mi north-northwest	County roads
Deshler	about 14 mi northeast	County roads
Chester	about 16 mi east	NE 8

Things to see

St. Paul Lutheran Church, 404 Main St. · St. Peter Lutheran Church, 5011 Road C · Hardy Cemetery · Lovewell State Park, Kansas, about 9½ mi southwest

Schools and health care

Schools: Hardy is in the Superior Public Schools district: Superior Elementary, Superior Middle School and Superior Senior High School, 601 W. 8th St., Superior

Health care: No clinic in Hardy; nearest: Brodstone Family Medical Center, 525 E. 11th St., Superior; hospital: Brodstone Healthcare (Brodstone Memorial Hospital), 520 E. 10th St., Superior, a 25-bed critical access hospital

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (1925); Nebraska State Gazetteer (1890); Who's Who in Nebraska, Nuckolls County (1940); NEGenWeb Nuckolls County; History Nebraska and its historical markers; National Park Service; National Register of Historic Places; Nebraska Game and Parks; Little Blue NRD; Nebraska Department of Transportation; city, school, diocese and hospital websites. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.