Original Townsite of Oak

Before the mill there was Oak Grove, a road ranch on the Little Blue that B. S. Comstock bought in 1861, called in A. T. Andreas's 1882 history the most noted stage station in the county. On August 7, 1864, about forty raiders came while Comstock was away; his family and five or six men held the stockade, though Kelly of Beatrice and a man named Butler were killed. The ranch was rebuilt in 1865. Oak took its name from nearby Oak Creek. The railroad town peaked at 237 people in 1910 and counted 54 in 2020.

What the plaque says

Original Townsite of Oak The original townsite of Oak grew up around a gristmill constructed here in 1882. By 1883 the village had a druggist, physician, blacksmith, and milliner. Oak was platted in April 1884. In 1888 all businesses but the mill moved two miles west to the present site of Oak after the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad was completed to that point., The White Oak Roller Mills continued to operate until the 1940s, and the buildings were razed in 1977. Nuckolls County Celebration Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site — 22 mi
  A Kitkahahki Pawnee village of the late 1700s above the Republican, where a museum shelters a lodge the women built and a family bundle carried out of Massacre Canyon and given back to this place.

More markers nearby

• Indian Captives — 1.6 mi
• The Skirmish at Spring Creek — 5.8 mi
• Friedensau — 11 mi
• 1864 Indian Raids — 12 mi