Stapleton: Sandhills County Seat

Stapleton is the county seat of Logan County, one of the least-populated counties in Nebraska. Logan County was established in eighteen eighty-five and named for Civil War General John A. Logan.

The town itself was established in nineteen twelve, when the Union Pacific reached the site, and was named for a Mr. Stapleton whose donation helped start it. For decades the county seat sat at the village of Gandy, just a few miles away.

When the Union Pacific extended its line through Logan County in the early nineteen tens and reached Stapleton, commerce shifted rapidly, and a special election in nineteen twenty-nine made the move official. Today Stapleton serves a cattle ranching economy much as it always has.