Axtell, Nebraska

Gary Anderson was born in Holdrege on October 8, 1939, grew up on a farm near Axtell and finished Axtell High School in 1957. The Army sent him to its Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning in 1959, and at the 1962 world championships in Cairo he won four individual titles. Both Olympic golds came in the 300-meter three-position rifle, Tokyo with a world record and Mexico City beating it; no one else won the event twice running. He sat in the Nebraska Legislature from 1973 to 1977 and directed the Civilian Marksmanship Program from 1999 to 2009.

What the plaque says

Axtell, Nebraska Swedish immigrants began homesteading Mirage Township, Kearney County, in 1873. By 1876 these families had formed the Swedish Lutheran Church (Bethany Lutheran), the first church in Kearney County. The tempo of settlement increased with the coming of the Burlington and Missouri River Rail- road in 1883. Tradition says Axtell was named after the engineer of the first train to pass through the village. Axtell was incorporated December 14, 1885. Cooperative effort resulted in the establishment of three Axtell institutions. A mutual insurance company was founded April 19, 1885, to cover losses from fire, hail, wind, and theft. Pastor K. G. William Dahl, deeply concerned that people "remember them that are in bonds," received community support in establishing Bethphage Mission February 19, 1913. The first reorganized school district in Nebraska, R-1, was ratified in a special election May 6, 1952, by the residents of Axtell and thirteen surrounding school districts. In the early 1900s Axtell was known as "Windmill Town" because of its many windmills. International renown was brought to Axtell in 1964 and in 1968 by Gary Anderson, who won Olympic Medals in rifle marksmanship. Axtell Centennial Corporation Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Kearny State Historical Park — 13 mi
  The 1848 army post on the Platte, built on a strip of Pawnee land bought for $2,000 in goods, where emigrant wagons passed by the thousand and only the cottonwoods outlasted the fort.
• Rowe Sanctuary — 18 mi
  Audubon's sanctuary on the Platte near Gibbon, where the river's sandbars are kept bare so that sandhill cranes, more than a million in the valley each spring, can roost safely at night.

More markers nearby

• Funk, Nebraska — 6.5 mi
• Walker's Ranch — 7.4 mi
• Site of Old Sacramento — 9.1 mi
• First Site of Bethel Lutheran Church and Cemetery — 9.5 mi