Hitchcock County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 2,616. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Trenton. In the Nebraska license plate system, Hitchcock County is represented by the prefix 67 (it had the sixty-seventh-largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922).

History

Hitchcock County was formed in 1873. It was named for US Senator Phineas Warren Hitchcock. The Massacre Canyon battle between Sioux and Pawnee took place on August 5, 1873, at a spot three miles east of Trenton.

Geography

The terrain of Hitchcock County consists of rolling low hills. The flattened hilltops are used for agriculture; mostly dry farming with some center pivot irrigation. The Republican River flows eastward through the central part of the county. The county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.2%) is water. The eastern two-thirds of the state of Nebraska observes Central Time; the western portion of the state observes Mountain Time. Hitchcock County is the westernmost county to observe Central Time.

Lakes

*Swanson Lake: formed by a dam on the Republican River, between Stratton and Trenton.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 6 * US 34

U.S. Highway 34 * N-17

Nebraska Highway 17 * N-25

Nebraska Highway 25 * N-25A

Nebraska Highway 25A

Adjacent counties

* Red Willow County – east * Rawlins County, Kansas – south * Dundy County – west (Mountain Time border) * Hayes County – north * Frontier County –northeast

Demographics

As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 3,111 people, 1,287 households, and 899 families in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,675 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 98.36%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.10%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.29% Native American, 0.13% Asian, 0.29% from other races, and 0.84% from two or more races. 1.41% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 1,287 households, out of which 28.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.10% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 6.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.10% were non-families. 27.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.89. The county population contained 23.80% under the age of 18, 5.90% from 18 to 24, 22.60% from 25 to 44, 25.40% from 45 to 64, and 22.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 95.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $28,287, and the median income for a family was $34,490. Males had a median income of $25,833 versus $18,879 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $14,804. About 10.90% of families and 14.90% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 22.90% of those under age 18 and 8.40% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Villages

* Culbertson *

Palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

(partial) * Stratton * Trenton (county seat)

Former communities

* Beverly * Blackwood * Cornell * Dike * Driftwood * Meeker * Poe * Rill * Rupert

Politics

Hitchcock County is strongly Republican in presidential elections. Since 1900, the county has failed to back the Republican candidate in only five presidential elections, most recently in 1936 in the midst of

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's national landslide victory. Republicans also hold a voter registration advantage of 1,326 registered Republicans compared with just 262 registered Democrats in Hitchcock County as of 2021.

References

External links

{{authority control Nebraska counties 1873 establishments in Nebraska Populated places established in 1873