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Anselmo is a village in Custer County, Nebraska, platted in 1886 when the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad was extended to the site, and situated along Nebraska Highway 2 at its junction with Spur 21A. The town takes its name from Anselmo B. Smith, a civil engineer who platted railroad towns across the region for the Lincoln Town-Site Company. Like many Custer County communities, Anselmo has seen its population decline steadily from its early twentieth-century peak — the 2020 census counted 108 residents, down from 159 in 2000 and 145 in 2010. Despite its small size, the village's most notable native son had an outsized impact on the modern world: Jay Wright Forrester, born in Anselmo, became a pioneering computer engineer who invented magnetic-core memory — the dominant form of computer memory for two decades — and later founded the field of system dynamics at MIT. Politician Sandra Kauffman is another notable figure with ties to the community. Anselmo remains a quiet farming town along the Sandhills Journey corridor of central Nebraska.
Adjacent Counties
Custer County borders Valley County (northeast), Loup County (northeast), Sherman County (southeast), Buffalo County (southeast), Dawson County (south), Lincoln County (southwest), Logan County (west), and Blaine County (northwest).
Nearby Towns
Merna (about 11 miles southeast via NE-2) · Broken Bow (Custer County’s seat, about 20 miles southeast via NE-2)