Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Magnet, NE

Magnet is an incorporated village in Cedar County in northeastern Nebraska.

Magnet was platted in 1893 when the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway was extended to that point.

Magnet was named by its founder, B. E. Smith, who hoped to attract settlers to the region "as the magnet attracts iron."

Magnet's motto is "Magnet: The town too tough to die!", earned through a long series of disasters.

In February 1925, a fire burned an entire block of Magnet's Main Street.

On June 18, 1937, a tornado tore through Magnet destroying many businesses and homes; the town rebuilt over that summer with help from neighboring towns.

A second tornado struck Magnet on May 6, 1975, destroying two homes, heavily damaging many more, and knocking out the town's lights and water.

Magnet's little jailhouse, built around 1902 after earlier service as a voting booth, was among the buildings destroyed by the 1975 tornado.

In the railroad's early days, travelers arriving at Magnet in 1894 found only a platform and an old boxcar; the tracks through town were eventually torn up in 1965.

Magnet's population peaked at 178 in the 1910 census, stood at 57 in 2010 — in 29 households — and had fallen into the mid-40s by the 2020 census.