Arnold, NE

If you’re looking for a vacation full of bright lights, lots of traffic, large crowds and bustling activity, you won’t find it in Arnold, and that’s precisely why people love it here! 

Arnold is a hospitable community located on the western edge of Custer County, Nebraska, where Highway 92 meets Highway 47/40. Our roughly 600 souls are comprised of hard-working, independent, grounded individuals - farmers, ranchers and entrepreneurs. Our residents carve out a low key, honest way of life, helping friends and neighbors in times of need and coming together for the betterment of the Arnold way of life. 

Our tagline “Growing Great Things” couldn’t be more telling of the community’s heart and soul. While it’s true you won’t find everything here you find in the big city, it’s far from a sleepy community. Arnold is a progressive community that hosts several events and activities throughout the year for local residents and visitors to enjoy, including kids’ activities and holiday celebrations. Arnold is home to SORC (Sandhills Open Road Challenge), a one-of-a-kind multi day event, Arnold River Battle, and Devils Den Motorcycle Rally, just to name a few of the many activities and events held in Arnold. It’s the perfect combination for experiencing life in a rural community while engaging in unique and exciting activities without the crowds of the big city. When you visit you will find no one is a stranger for long in Arnold.

Often referred to as the most beautiful area in Nebraska, Arnold enjoys exceptionally scenic countryside, from the twists and turns of the South Loup River bottom, to unique loess canyons and the famed gently rolling Sandhills. If you love taking photographs, there is no shortage of beauty to capture when you visit Arnold! 

This diverse landscape lends itself to many outdoor recreation opportunities. Hunters from all over the nation have hunted our hills in search of the best deer, turkey, and other wild game. From private guided hunting expeditions and adventures, Arnold Lake/Campground and Recreation Area, to the South Loup River, Arnold is a hot spot from spring through fall. 

You’ll find activities such as fishing, swimming, kayaking, hunting, golfing at the Arnold Golf Course, bowling at Triangle Lanes (one of the few solid wood lanes left in the state of Nebraska), sand volleyball, softball, soccer, biking, and so much more in the immediate area. Ours is a family friendly community with things for all ages to occupy themselves with.  

A self-sufficient community, Arnold has a variety of businesses which supply residents and visitors with daily staples as well as unique and fun shopping excursions, historic stops, and fun day activities. A fun day trip to Arnold could include such things as sightseeing at Devil’s Den with a drive through its steep drop-offs and a view overlooking Arnold in the valley. Stopping for coffee, latte’s, smoothies and a gourmet treat and a little shopping at Historic BrewBakers Coffee House & Gifts, an architecturally beautiful restored building. Visiting Center School Museum – an early 1900’s restored schoolhouse museum complete with costumes. Stopping at Finch Memorial Library which is registered on the National Registry of Historic Places, a beautiful example of a preserved historic building for that blend of history and technology. Take in a movie at the Rialto Theater, modern comfort and new movies viewed in a local historic building. As your visiting Arnold, make sure to check the front of select historical buildings for local historical markers attached, which capture the history  in writing and by historic photo! This no doubt will enrich your knowledge and experience of the local area. Of course we anticipate you’ll get hungry while your visiting Arnold, and to accommodate you we have several wonderful eating establishments to choose from; Arnold Exchange, Jakes Horses & Harleys, Mighty Mart and Grazers, each with its own flair and style of cooking. No matter what time of day it is you can find good eats for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, or maybe you’re into picnics, Reeds Grocery is fully stocked for those needs as well! If by chance you can’t do everything you want in one day, and we honestly hope that’s the case, we can help you with that too. Bring your camper and stay at Arnold Lake/Campground and Recreation Area, Arnold Motel and Campsite or Hidden Valley Campground. If you just need a room there’s Arnold Winsome Inn, Halstead House B&B, and Center School Museum B&B. We couldn’t think of another town so richly blessed, so after some deliberation, we decided to tell the truth - Arnold is a unique place and we want to share our wonderful community with you!   

In 1880, a covered wagon had crawled slowly over the Nebraska plains, carrying a young family of land-seekers. Richard Allen and his wife, their new baby daughter, and his wife’s sister said their goodbyes to their home in Iowa, and with a wagon loaded with their belongings, struck off for a new life. Their destination was Kansas, but hot winds and parched country caused them to veer NW and head up the South Loup Valley. They drew up to where the land was level, the soil rich, and the water plentiful - the valley where the family would find a home and build a town.     

John Finch was the first cowboy they met on the last day of their journey. He came upon them in their small prairie schooner. He was searching desperately for camphor to revive a friend who’d been crushed under his horse when it had stumbled. The Allen’s sent their supply of Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, but by the time Finch returned, it was too late.   

No sooner had the Allen’s made camp (deciding upon a suitable spot where Arnold now stands), when a group of angry cowboys warned them to move on, not wanting settlers in the area. The young couple, however, were determined and gradually made friends with the ranch hands. 

The covered box lifted from the wagon made a suitable shelter while Mr. Allen put up a small sod house. The sod house was quickly replaced when Mr. Allen build a log house. Mrs. Allen papered the walls with old newspapers, using flour and water for paste. In this meager log cabin, the small group of four weathered the terrible winter of 1880-81 that was so devastating to the cattlemen. 

Ephriam “SWAIN” and Sarah Finch were also some of the first settlers in the area who settled South-East of present-day Arnold. Swain (1836-1905) made quite a name for himself in the area. Swain and Sarah Finch’s life as rugged pioneers has been recorded in detail in Butcher’s and Gaston’s histories of Custer County. They made their home on the ranch until his death in 1905, when Sarah Finch moved to later established Arnold and stayed in her home until she died in 1920. Solomon Butcher, well-known pioneer photographer and author of “Pioneer History of Custer County”, became a close friend of Swain Finch and was a frequent visitor in his ranch home. It was Swain Finch who raised the money for Butcher to publish his county history in 1901”, as reported in “One Hundred Years on the South Loup”, by Noreen Hall Mills.  

At first, Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Ephriam SWAIN Finch were the only women in the country. The two women were called often to nurse the sick and “lay out the dead.” More and more homesteaders began to trickle in. Landis Correll, an impoverished, unschooled Church of Christ preacher was among those who arrived in the newly forming town. In a young man’s country, Landis Correll was old, 60, shriveled, with a long white beard, but if any could be said to be the “father” of Arnold, it would be this good and kindly man. No matter what their faith, he served the people well, married them, buried them, and comforted them. His last sermon before his death in 1906 was titled, “Can an old man be useful?” 

Together Finch family, Allen family, Correll family, J. D. Haskell families, and the George Arnold family were some of the other early families to make their homes in Arnold. Since 1876, mail destined for this part of the Loup valley was brought by horseback every two weeks from Plum Creek (Lexington) and addressed to “Arnold & Ritchie Ranch, C/O Postmaster.” The ranch partners had taken turns handling the mail; now a change would have to be made. 

Richard Allen offered to have the post office in his sod house, and on March 21, 1881, he, along with Landis Correll and George Arnold, met to choose a name for the new office. The three names considered were “Correll,” “Allen,” “Arnold.” Arnold was chosen and a letter sent off to Washington for a new rubber stamp. 

George Arnold, partially paralyzed from a stroke suffered the year before, probably never knew the little office given his name ever developed into a town, which was laid out in 1883. After his stroke, he had gone back east to his family home in Ohio, and died in 1900, leaving no relatives in Arnold. 

The first store in Arnold was located in the sod house of Richard Allen. A visionary, Allen quickly added “Allen’s addition” increasing the size of the town. The Allen family had outgrown their log home, so in 1887, they built a frame structure located where the town hall site is now. It was believed to be the first frame structure in Arnold. It was moved several years later when they again built a larger home, and this first house still stands in Arnold today. Another one of the older houses still standing in Arnold was the Fay G. and Ruth (MacFarland) Finch house. 

Arnold held its own and would grow over the years, but Arnold finally made it big when the railroad laid track thru town. June 14th 1912 was definitely a day to celebrate as nearly 6000 people came to celebrate this wonderful event, and Arnold entered a new era as a Railroad Town.