Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Halsey, NE

Halsey is an incorporated village in Nebraska that lies mostly in Thomas County, with a portion extending into neighboring Blaine County.

Halsey was established in 1887 when the railroad was extended to that point.

The village was named for Halsey Yates, a railroad employee.

Halsey had 68 residents in the 2020 census, down from 76 in 2010 but up from 59 in 2000; its population peaked at 144 in 1980.

In the 2010 census, Halsey's 76 residents lived in 35 households, 24 of them families.

The village covers 0.19 square miles, all of it land, at an elevation of about 2,700 feet, along Nebraska Highway 2.

Halsey is the gateway to the Bessey Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forest, the largest hand-planted forest in the United States, covering roughly 90,000 acres.

The hand-planted forest at Halsey began with plantings in 1902 urged by botanist Charles E. Bessey, and the Bessey Tree Nursery in the village, established in 1902, is the oldest federal tree nursery in the country and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Civilian Conservation Corps crews reforested some 20,000 acres near Halsey during the 1930s and built the facilities of the Bessey Recreation Complex.

In October 2022, the Bovee Fire burned roughly 4,189 acres of the hand-planted forest near Halsey and destroyed the Nebraska State 4-H Camp.