Funk, Nebraska

Funk Waterfowl Production Area, in Phelps County, is one of the largest blocks of grassland and playa wetland in the Rainwater Basin, with about 1,013 acres of restored grass and 983 acres of managed wetland in three large basins. Restoration crews have dug out 169,500 cubic yards of fill and sediment from the Peterson Unit alone. In spring 2023, 32 whooping cranes used its ponds over at least 14 days, the first family group arriving on March 30 and the last birds leaving by April 23.

What the plaque says

Funk, Nebraska 1887-1987 Civil War veteran P. C. Funk came to Divide Township in Phelps County in 1877 and purchased 160 acres of land two miles north of the present town. By 1883 the Nebraska-Colorado Railroad, now the Burlington Northern, had extended its line as far west as Holdrege. Through the efforts of P. C. Funk, railroad officials were persuaded to establish the Funk townsite along the railroad between Axtell and Holdrege. The village was platted in May 1887 on land purchased from August Anderson for $2,500. A townsite committee consisted of J. S. Johnson, William Johnson, Frank Johnson, George Johnson, P. C. Funk, Alfred Johnson, Charles Skallberg, Swan M. Milner, and C. F. Franzen. The first grain elevator and house were built by L. T. Brooking, who later became the town's first postmaster and editor of the newspaper, the Funk Enterprise. In 1910 the Fridhem Lutheran Church moved to Funk. The town survived three serious fires and faced difficult times during the drouth and depression of the 1930s. Irrigation came to the area in 1938 and improved the life of farmers and villagers. Funk Centennial Incorporated Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Kearny State Historical Park — 18 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 — 24 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

• First Site of Bethel Lutheran Church and Cemetery — 3.0 mi
• Site of Old Sacramento — 3.9 mi
• Phelps County — 6.5 mi
• Axtell, Nebraska — 6.5 mi