Seneca Nebraska

Unincorporated community (former village) · Thomas County · Population 49 (2020 census) · ZIP 69161 · Founded 1888 · village 1888–2014 · Peak population 476 (1920)

About Seneca

Seneca is an unincorporated community of 49 people (2020) in western Thomas County, at 2,969 feet on the Middle Loup River and the railroad along NE 2, about 14 miles west-northwest of Thedford and 11 miles east of Mullen. Its ZIP code is 69161.

History

When Chicago, Burlington & Quincy construction stopped for the winter of 1887–88, Seneca was founded at the end of track in January 1888; it later became a division point, with a depot, rail yard and roundhouse that employed more than 70 people. The Potash Highway, later NE 2, was built through town in 1918–23, and Seneca had hotels, banks, a lumberyard, an automobile dealership and its own newspaper. It reached 476 people in 1920. After the courthouse at Thedford burned that year, Seneca forced a vote on the county seat and lost, 514 to 362. The highway was moved south of town in the early 1940s and the railroad later moved its operations away. A 2013 village ordinance banning horses in town led to a petition to disincorporate; it passed by a single vote in May 2014 (16–15 in the official canvass), and the county dissolved the village at the end of June 2014.