Broken Bow, NE

Broken Bow has a vibrant retail sector serving Central Nebraska to distances of 50 miles or more. Several businesses, boutiques, the Wild Rose Art Gallery and the Custer County Museum are located around the city square. Others, including the Fox Theater, which has three different movie screens and is tastefully remodeled, are in close proximity to the square. The downtown area, after several years in the planning stages, has seen its streets, sidewalks, utilities and historic bandstand renovated over the course of the past couple of years. The result is a quaint city square of unmatched beauty and charm. The Broken Bow Library, located one block east of the square underwent an expansion and complete renovation project in the past two years as well. The library is now state of-the art and offers conference rooms for meetings and special events. The historic Arrow Hotel on the square has added 20 new rooms in a new facility named Arrow East on the south side of the square. Several businesses on the west end of town have emerged as Broken Bow's retail and business area has expanded in that direction. Mid-Plains Community College has established a campus with new facilities in the area and the recently built Cobblestone Hotel and Suites with the One Box Convention Center is situated nearby. In the spirit of renovating facilities, businesses all over town, including the east end, have been upgraded. Two new 12 unit apartment complexes have been built downtown near the library occupying the better part of a full city block.

There is no shortage of recreational opportunities in Broken Bow and the surrounding area. In addition to the public park in the square which has a brand new playground with all new equipment, Tomahawk park is located two blocks north and six blocks west. Tomahawk Park offers three outdoor tennis courts, two large covered picnic table shelters, a bathroom facility, basketball court and playground equipment. Tent camping is allowed in the park and 15 pull through camper sites with full hook-ups are available for a fee. A dump station is also available. The Melham Wellness Center is also located at Tomahawk and has all the latest equipment as well as a heated indoor tennis/basketball court. Two well maintained baseball and softball fields are located at the west end of the park – Paul Brown Field and Tyke Arnold Field respectively.

The largest of the parks in the city, Melham Memorial Park, occupies the bulk of 65 acres located close to Melham Memorial Medical Center in the northeast part of town. This site contains a 5 acre pond stocked with several species of fish. Close by is a recently constructed Olympic sized aquatic center with a water slide and other features to accommodate all age groups. Near this complex are three baseball/softball fields and two soccer fields. Located within the park is a bike/walking trail system, much of which is new, Disc Golf Course, and several new trees have been recently planted to compliment the large number of existing mature trees scattered throughout the park. Two smaller parks in the city system are North Side Park and South 5th Street Park. All of the approximate 105 acres of park grounds are kept in pristine condition by the city parks department.

For the golfing enthusiast, Broken Bow Golf Club offers a well-kept 9 hole course just west of town. The course is open to the public and has rental golf carts as well as a driving range available. Broken Bow Golf Club also offers Cornhole Tournaments.  Pleasure Lanes is a great place for family fun bowling, as well as league action. The Nebraska One Box Gun Club is a shooting facility a short distance from town which is a site developed by the One Box Gun Club and features league shoots and other events. Shooting activities include skeet, trap and sporting clays. Facilities include a large clubhouse with a fully equipped kitchen. Private shoots for groups of ten or more are available by appointment.

The Custer County Fairgrounds in Broken Bow is an extremely busy facility for much of the year. The Ag Society has done a tremendous job in recent years of accomplishing new building construction projects as well as upgrades to existing buildings and arenas. More equine events are added each year with ever increasing numbers of participants. The fairgrounds hosts the popular Custer County Fair in late July/early August each year and the DC Lynch Carnival a bit earlier in the summer. The Mid States Rodeo Finals have been held here the last couple of years as has the Nebraska Jr. High Rodeo, both events anticipated to be back in Broken Bow this year.

Broken Bow offers facilities that are educational and fun to visit, one being the Custer County Museum on the west side of the square. The museum is staffed and maintained by the Custer County Historical Society and offers loads of genealogical information as well as the Solomon Butcher Photo Gallery. Butcher was the premier photographer of the sod house period in the late 1800's and early 1900's in Broken Bow and Custer County. Both the museum and the  Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway Visitor Center are important stops for tourists coming through Broken Bow and supply pertinent information in the way of maps, brochures and the like for our traveling visitors. The visitor center is housed in a fully restored barn on a beautifully landscaped 14 acre site on the east edge of town.

Broken Bow and Custer County are greatly involved in agriculture; farming, ranching and raising livestock are key components of our economy and have led to a tremendous number of local businesses that support and supply the agriculture industry. Adams Land and Cattle, with its corporate offices in Broken Bow, is one of the premier cattle feeding operations in the world with a capacity of roughly 130,000 head of cattle in two locations in close proximity to Broken Bow. Their largest state-of-the-art feedlot facility lies about four miles south of the city. Thomas Livestock, another industry leading livestock producer, is also headquartered in Broken Bow. Its hog operations in several locations around the county constitute a farrow to finish operation with 16,500 sows. Some 580,000 market hogs are finished each year in these facilities making Thomas Livestock one of the most successful swine operations in the world. Adams Land and Cattle and Thomas Livestock give hundreds of local people employment opportunities in their operations, and purchase for feed huge amounts of grains, especially corn from local farm producers.

Manufacturing industries in Broken Bow include BD Life Sciences Preanalytical Systems (BD). BD employs over 500 people in Broken Bow and is a global medical technology manufacturer with locations all over the world. The Broken Bow plant is in the midst of a multi-million dollar expansion and facility improvement project. BD's impact on the local economy without question is substantial. Another significant employer in industry is Sargent Irrigation and its affiliates Sargent Pipe and Sargent Drilling. The company has its administrative office headquarters in Broken Bow and is among the world leaders in the water well drilling industry. The company has nine locations in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas and does business across the globe.

Jennie Melham Memorial Medical Center, is a 23 bed Critical Access Hospital located in Broken Bow and includes a 24 hour emergency room, specialty clinic and, as a result of a sizeable remodeling project completed in 2018, houses the Central Nebraska Medical Clinic. The hospital has seen several renovation projects take place over the years including a $3.6 M expansion project completed in 2003. The hospital employs over 150 professional and support staff.

The Broken Bow Public School system serves over 800 students in high school, middle school, elementary and preschool facilities. The school system has an excellent reputation and strives to provide the latest in technologies. It has a student/teacher ratio of 12:1, less than the state average of 14:1. Its fine arts programs are among the best available. Custer Campus is the site in Broken Bow of Mid-Plains Community College. Broken Bow is one of the extended campuses in the Mid-Plains system and offers several courses for students seeking further educational opportunities. 16,000 students are enrolled at the six campuses in the MPCC system.

A post office was established for the future town of Broken Bow by early homesteader Wilson Hewitt in November, 1879. Hewitt and his family lived just east of present day Broken Bow in a dugout on the bank of “the Muddy” (Mud Creek) which became the first post office, with Hewitt as its postmaster. The first name and then two or three others submitted for the town were rejected as being too similar to others in the state. In the mean time Hewitt's two sons had brought home a broken Indian bow from a nearby canyon prompting the submittal of the name Broken Bow, which was accepted for the new post office and future town. It's said that the broken bow was inadvertently thrown in the fire with other rubbish by Mr. Hewitt's cleaning lady. A remnant of the relic was saved and is displayed in the Custer County Museum.

The plat for the future site of Broken Bow was filed in June of 1882 by Jesse Gandy, one of the early settlers in the area. Mr. Gandy donated sites for the Custer County courthouse and the Broken Bow city square that same year. Broken Bow was named county seat in November, 1882 and incorporated as a village in 1884. Trees were planted in the city square on Arbor Day 1886 and the square became the towns first public park. The Broken Bow Commercial Square Historic District, including the public square, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Broken Bow's population with the coming of the railroad had reached 1,647 by the 1890 census and it became a city of the second class in 1884. The population reached a high of 3,979 in the 1980 census and was at 3,559 in 2010.