Etna

A second, smaller panel stands in the grass beside this marker: a drawing of the Etna Store as it looked in 1930, by Roy Farnstrom. It shows a two-story frame building with a lower gabled wing on one side, the store the plaque says closed in the early 1930s. The corner of Etna Road and Highway 47, about fifteen miles north of Gothenburg and 2,802 feet above sea level, is otherwise open farmland now. The federal place-name record for the settlement also carries a variant spelling, Etha, alongside Etna.

What the plaque says

Etna The first Etna post office (1885-1895) was located three miles to the northwest. A new post office operated 1.5 miles east until 1921. In 1907 Etna saw the opening of a school, store, and telephone exchange. The store was enlarged by Andrew Ostergard in 1912 and later provided unofficial mail service until it closed in the early 1930s. The telephone exchange closed in 1933, the school in 1966. Automobiles and declining population reduced the need for services that such remote localities provided. Custer County Historical Society People of the Etna Community Nebraska State Historical Society, 2017

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Swedish Crosses Cemetery — 12 mi
• Road Ranches Along the Platte — 16 mi
• Fort McPherson and North Platte — 16 mi
• Custer County's First Courthouse — 17 mi