Shelton, Nebraska
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1895 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Precinct 24. It lies in ZIP code area 68876. The Survey maps it on the Shelton quadrangle. 1,034 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,018 feet above sea level.
On record in Shelton
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
Meisner Bank Buildinglisted 1999- Shelton Public Librarylisted 2024
Population over time
2 figuresShelton fell from 1,059 to 1,034 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 | 1,059 | |
| 2020 | 1,034 | -25 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 14 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.
- 1895 USGS Wood River quadrangle1:62500
- 1896 USGS Wood River quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Shelton quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What the histories say of this town
6,873 words1 chapter about Shelton from the published histories of the county, public domain and reproduced complete.
| Chapter | From | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People : a Record of Settlement, Org | Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People : a Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement (1916) | 6,873 words |
Fires near this place
18 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Shelton between 2007 and 2019, burning about 181 acres in total. 2 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 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 August 2012 | Natural | 54 acres | Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District | BROOKS TRACT |
| 7 June 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 5.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 11 June 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 1 June 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 18 May 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 17 May 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 22 April 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 41 acres | Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District | HANNON POLE FIRE |
| 15 April 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
38 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shelton in 38 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 17 hail, 16 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2019 | Flood | Shelton | $2,000,000 | no account filed |
| July 2014 | Hail | Shelton | $1,000,000 | Golf ball size hail was reported at the Shelton exit of Interstate 80. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Shelton | $500,000 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $250,000 | Wind gusts of 65 to 75 mph were reported. Reports included damage to power lines and transformers, large branches down, metal building and billboard destroyed. |
| July 2002 | Hail | Shelton | $250,000 | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Shelton | $150,000 | no account filed |
| June 2021 | Hail | Shelton | $100,000 | Hail up to 2 inches in diameter was reported. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Shelton | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Shelton | $40,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $30,000 | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Hail | Shelton | $25,000 | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Shelton | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Shelton | $25,000 | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Shelton | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $15,000 | Severe wind gusts occurred along a line of outflow well ahead and south of a line of thunderstorms to the north. A power line was down from a fallen tree in the community of Shelton. The Buffalo County Emergency Manager estimated the wind gust at 60 MPH. The emergency manager also reported an accident just south on Interstate 80 that was possibly weather related. A nearby observation at the Kearney Airport recorded a measured wind gust of 59 MPH at 1:59 AM CDT at the same time of the wind damage. There was also a public report of an estimated 60 mph wind gust was reported 3 miles south of Gibbon at the Windmill State Recreation Area. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $15,000 | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | $10,000 | A large tree fell onto a garage, damaging the roof. |
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Shelton | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Shelton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | A wind gust of 61 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located six miles north-northwest of Shelton. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH, resulting in some minor tree damage in Shelton. |
| April 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | Wind gusts estimated to be at least 75 MPH resulted in the derailment of approximately 15 rail cars on the westbound train line located just to the southwest of Shelton. Train traffic on both lines had to be stopped. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located six miles north-northwest of Shelton. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | A wind gust of 60 MPH was measured by a Nebraska DOT mesonet station located on Interstate 80 at the Shelton exit. |
| March 2013 | Tornado (EF0) | Shelton | - | A brief landspout tornado was reported just south of Shelton and just north of Interstate 80. No damage was reported, and top winds were estimated to be between 50 and 60 mph. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | Large tree limbs were blown down in Shelton, with one falling onto and damaging a vehicle. Crop damage was also reported north of town. |
| June 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | Shelton | - | Brief touchdown was reported 3 miles south of Shelton. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | Winds estimated at 60 mph. |
| July 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Shelton | - | An off-duty NWS employee and many other storm spotters witnessed the tornado north of Shelton. No significant damage was reported from the tornado itself as it bounced along the ground. |
| June 2024 | Hail | Shelton | - | no account filed |
| August 2022 | Hail | Shelton | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Shelton | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Shelton | - | no account filed |
| September 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Shelton | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denman | 5.5 miles | 15 | |
| Gibbon | 6.4 miles | 16 | |
| Buda | 14.6 miles | 16 | |
| Saint Michael | 16.9 miles | 12 | |
| Prairie Center | 18.0 miles | 16 | |
| Nantasket (historical) | 18.4 miles | 12 | |
| Poole | 18.8 miles | 13 | |
| Glenwood Park | 18.8 miles | 20 |
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 Shelton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3288895 | 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 833382. 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.
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.






