Norfolk Nebraska History & Facts

Norfolk is a city in Madison County, Nebraska, United States, 113 miles northwest of Omaha and 83 miles west of Sioux City at the intersection of U.S. Routes 81 and 275. The population was 24,210 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth-largest city in Nebraska. It is the principal city of the Norfolk Micropolitan Statistical Area.

In late 1865 three scouts were sent from a German Lutheran settlement near Ixonia, Wisconsin, to find productive, inexpensive farmland that could be claimed under the Homestead Act. From the Omaha area they followed the Elkhorn River upstream to West Point. Finding that area too crowded, they continued up the river. On September 15, they reached the junction of the Elkhorn and its North Fork, and chose that area as a settlement site. On May 23, 1866, a party of 124 settlers representing 42 families from the Ixonia area set out for northeast Nebraska in three wagon trains. They arrived at the new site on July 15. A second group of settlers from Wisconsin arrived in July 1867. These collective wagon parties established the first church in Madison County, St. Paul's Lutheran, which is still operating today.

The original name of the colony was a variant of "North Fork", but accounts differ on the exact name: "Northfork", "Nor'fork", and "Nordfork" are all suggested. The name was submitted to federal postal authorities, and at some point was transmuted to "Norfolk". Nebraskans typically pronounce it as "Norfork".

The North Fork settlement was named the county seat in 1867. In 1875 a series of elections changed this. In the first of these Norfolk, which at the time had 45 voters, was eliminated. In a subsequent election Madison was chosen over Battle Creek

Norfolk is located at 42°1′42″N 97°26′01″W (42.0283379, -97.4169964).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.78 square miles (27.92 km2), of which 10.69 square miles (27.69 km2) is land and 0.09 square miles (0.23 km2) is water.

Famous Peoples From Norfolk Nebraska

Joyce Ballantyne

(April 4, 1918 – May 15, 2006) was a painter of pin-up art. She is best known as the designer of the Coppertone girl, whose swimming costume is being pulled down by a dog.

She was born in Norfolk, Nebraska during World War I, and grew up in Omaha. She attended the University of Nebraska for two years and then transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago to study commercial art and the American Academy of Art.

After two years at the Art Institute, Ballantyne joined Kling Studios, where she painted Rand McNally maps and illustrated books for Cameo Press. She then moved to the Stevens-Gross Studio, where she remained for more than a decade. While at the studio, she became part of a group of artists that included Gil Elvgren, Al Moore, and Al Buell.

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