Our major population centers are in three regions of Box Butte County.
the County seat and the largest, with a population of around
10,000. We sit at the southern edge of the county.
has a population of about 2000 and is in the northern segment
of the county.
Berea with a population of
50 full time residents, sits in between
Alliance and Hemingford.
We are a rural community and our
structure has always been
centered on farming and the railroad. Since itheir earliest days as a community,
Alliance and Hemingford have enjoyed the benefits of the railroad for mail, freight
and passenger delivery, and employment. Although there is no passenger service
now, we are still in a heavy rail corridor due mainly to being the center of the
BNSF coal traffic route.
Alliance is the home to one of WWII's
bases, and ours has the distinction
of producing some of the glider pilots and crews provided for D-Day.
This area still holds many Century
farms and ranches (those held in the
same family for 100 years or more) and is a large producer of beef, wheat, beans,
corn and coal trains. The BNSF railroad has a large roundhouse and yards located
in Alliance and has just completed another expansion, with still more to come.
There were other towns in Box Butte
during the formation of the area.
These never developed into large communities and were later abandoned with
the development of both Alliance and Hemingford.
Carpenter Girard Grand
Gregg Lawn Libby
We have history that marks the
progress through the western plains
being a terminal point for both North, West and East travel. We also have a
connection to the Denver-Deadwood stage lines, the Pony Express that ran along
the southern border of the county, and the more recent 50 passenger Glider and
Airborne parachute training for WWII's D-Day.
You may want to check out these
sites for more of the original county