Dawson, Nebraska
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Grant precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68337. It stands on Cottonwood Creek. The Survey maps it on the Dawson quadrangle. 148 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 974 feet above sea level.
On record in Dawson
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Miles Ranchlisted 2012
Alfred and Magdalena Schmid Farmsteadlisted 2005
Population over time
2 figuresDawson grew from 146 to 148 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 146 | |
| 2020 | 148 | +2 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1916 USGS Humboldt quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Dawson quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Falls City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
8 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Dawson between 2007 and 2020, burning about 282 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 July 2013 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 April 2016 | Debris and open burning | 70 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 18 April 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 17 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | 110 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 23 March 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 15 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 29 February 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 26 February 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 17 February 2020 | Debris and open burning | 80 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Dawson: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nemaha Valley Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
18 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dawson in 18 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 7 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1996 | Tornado (F0) | Dawson | $10,000 | no account filed |
| February 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $1,000 | Window blown out of a house, wind damage to outbuildings. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Dawson | - | Storm chaser report of hail measured up to 1 in diameter. |
| April 2024 | Funnel Cloud | Dawson | - | The National Weather Serivce in Topeka relayed a report to the Omaha-Valley National Weather Service of a funnel cloud in Richardson County, to the east of Du Bois. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | NWS employee reported an estimated 60 mph wind gust. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | Rural carrier reported several locations with trees or large limbs down on or near roads south of Dawson and Humbuldt. |
| May 2019 | Tornado (EFU) | Dawson | - | Storm chasers and a sheriff deputy collected video of a small tornado that moved north-northeast in open fields south of Dawson, NE. No discernible damage was noted from this tornado. |
| May 2019 | Heavy Rain | Dawson | - | An observer measured 3.82 inches of rain southeast of Dawson in the previous 24 hours. |
| May 2019 | Tornado (EFU) | Dawson | - | A storm chaser videoed a brief touched down near NE Highway 8 south of Dawson. |
| March 2012 | Hail | Dawson | - | Hail nickel to quarter-size fell for several minutes covering the ground white. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Dawson | - | Hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter fell along with thunderstorm wind gusts of over 60 mph. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph blew down a tree across Highway 75 a little south of the intersection of Highway 8. The winds were accompanied by hail which reached up to 1.5 inches in diameter. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | Thunderstorms winds snapped a power pole in the vicinity...wind speed was estimated at 65 mph. |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Dawson | - | A line of mini-supercells moved north across southeast Nebraska this late afternoon and early evening. The storms produced several small and short-lived tornadoes that touched down from west of Falls City up to south of Auburn. This was the first report of a touchdown with this outbreak. The tornadoes apparently all touched down in open areas, were short-lived and produced very little or no damage. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verdon | 6.4 miles | 11 | |
| Nim City | 6.4 miles | 11 | |
| Humboldt | 6.5 miles | 11 | |
| Salem | 7.0 miles | 11 | |
| Stella | 7.7 miles | 11 | |
| Athens (historical) | 10.2 miles | 12 | |
| Straussville | 10.5 miles | 11 | |
| Shubert | 10.7 miles | 11 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Dawson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3151377 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 828603. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





