Biohazard Cleanup Near West Atkinson Atkinson, NE

Atkinson is a city in Holt County in north-central Nebraska, the county's second-largest community after the county seat, O'Neill.

The first settlers reached the Atkinson area about 1875 as part of General John O'Neill's second Irish colony in Holt County, settling along the Elkhorn River.

Atkinson was platted in 1880, when the railroad was extended to that point, and it was named for Colonel John Atkinson, one of the original owners of the town site.

The 2020 census counted 1,306 residents in Atkinson, up 4.9 percent from 1,245 in 2010, when the city had 549 households.

Atkinson's population reached its peak of 1,521 in the 1980 census.

Hay Days, a three-to-four-day festival held every August since the early 1900s to celebrate the end of the hay harvest, is Atkinson's main celebration, with a parade, dances, park games, and duck races.

Students in Atkinson attend West Holt High School, and the town also has St. Joseph Catholic School, which serves preschool through eighth grade.

Nebraska's Cowboy Trail, the state's long-distance rail trail, passes through Atkinson at Railroad Park, where historical markers recount the town's repeated attempts to get started and the Orphan Train's arrival in Holt County in 1912.

NOAA climate records for the Atkinson area show about 25 inches of precipitation a year, with all-time extremes ranging from 112 degrees above zero to 35 degrees below zero.

Atkinson covers about 1.64 square miles at an elevation of 2,106 feet on the level prairie west of O'Neill.