Funk Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Funk Area Cameras

Village · Phelps County · Population 175 (2020 census) · ZIP 68940 · Founded 1887 · Peak population 204 (2000)

About Funk

Funk is a village of 175 people (2020) in eastern Phelps County, at 2,244 feet on the Burlington line about 7 miles east-northeast of Holdrege and 7 miles west of Axtell. The Funk Waterfowl Production Area, about 2,000 acres of Rainwater Basin wetland, is just north and northeast of the village, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Rainwater Basin district office is 4 miles north-northeast. The former school is a community center with a commercial kitchen. Funk is on Central Time.

History

Phillip C. Funk, a Civil War veteran, settled on 160 acres two miles north of the present town in 1877. When the railroad reached Holdrege in 1883, he persuaded its officials to put a townsite between Holdrege and Axtell, and Funk was platted on May 3, 1887, on land bought from August Anderson. L. T. Brooking built the first elevator and house and became the first postmaster, when the post office opened on January 18, 1888, and editor of the Funk Enterprise. Fridhem Lutheran Church moved into town in 1910, and Funk was incorporated in 1913. Irrigation arrived in 1938. Judge John Robert Brown (1909–1993), chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the civil rights era, was born in Funk.

Highways and trails through Funk

Route	One way	Other way
US 6/34Along the Burlington line by the village	East to Axtell and Minden	West to Holdrege

Nearby towns

Axtell	about 7 mi east	US 6/34
Holdrege	about 7 mi west-southwest	US 6/34
Wilcox	about 8 mi south-southeast	County roads
Atlanta	about 13 mi west-southwest	US 6/34
Loomis	about 14 mi west	US 6/34 and NE 23
Minden	about 15 mi east	US 6/34
Kearney	about 19 mi north-northeast	County roads and I-80
Elm Creek	about 19 mi north-northwest	County roads
Bertrand	about 21 mi west-northwest	US 6/34 and NE 23

Things to see

the Funk Waterfowl Production Area and the Funk-Peterson Wildlife Trail (National Recreation Trail, 2008) · the History Nebraska marker in Harmony Park · the Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District office · Sacramento-Wilcox WMA, about 7 miles southeast

Health care

Nearest hospital: Phelps Memorial Health Center, Holdrege, about 7 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Phelps County (phelpscounty.ne.gov); City of Holdrege; History Nebraska markers (Phelps County, Camp Atlanta, Funk, Holdrege silt loam); HMdb; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); NEGenWeb Phelps County (post offices); National Register (NPGallery); Nebraska Game and Parks; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Rainwater Basin Joint Venture; KRVN; Central Nebraska Today; Federal Judicial Center; SchoolDigger. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.