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Our major population centers are in three regions of Box Butte County.

      Alliance  is the County seat and the largest, with a population of around
      10,000.  We sit at the southern edge of the county.

      Hemingford has a population of about 2000 and is in the northern segment
      of the county.

      Berea with a population of about 50 full time residents, sits in between
      Alliance and Hemingford.

      We are a rural community and our economic 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 air 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 Mark 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 County during the formation of the area.
      These  never developed into large communities and were later abandoned with
      the development of both Alliance and Hemingford.

      Butte    Burbank    Carpenter    Girard    Grand Lake    Gregg    Lawn    Libby
                                                Malinda    Nonpareil

      We have history that marks the Railroad 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 web sites for more of  the original county
      history.

       Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences