Cherry

Formed January 1, 1883 (70^th county)

Cherry County (5,455), Valentine (2,630)

The tan brick Modern courthouse at Main and 4^th streets was built in 1954.  United States Highway 83 is Main Street in this part of the town.  John Latenser and Sons are the designers of the courthouse.  A Justice Center was built in 2011.  Veteran memorials are on the grounds.  The county was organized on January 1, 1883 from Native American Territory as the 70^th county with Valentine as the only county seat.  The county is named for Calvary officer Samuel A. Cherry.  Valentine is named for Congressman Edward K. Valentine. 

Cherry County government consists of a sheriff and 3 Commissioners.  Two District Court Judges and Three County Court Judges serve Cherry, Blaine, Boyd, Brown, Custer, Garfield, Greeley, Holt, Howard, Keya Paha, Loup, Rock, Sherman, Valley and Wheeler counties.  This huge county is on the northern border with South Dakota.  Scottsbluff, Nebraska is southwest and Omaha, Nebraska is southeast of the county.  The county center is 50.2 miles Southwest of Valentine nearer Nenzel.  The county is surrounded clockwise by South Dakota and Keya Paha, Brown, Blaine, Thomas, Hooker, Grant, and Sheridan counties. 

The area of the county is 5961 square miles.  It is 1 out of 93 in the state.  It ranks 51 out of 93 in population in the state.  It has a density of 0.9 persons per square mile making it 87 out of 93 in the state.  Cherry County has 56.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 20 crosses the county east to west from Brown County to Sheridan County.  United States Highway 83 goes north to south from South Dakota to Thomas County.  The county is overall rectangular.  Valentine is in the northeast quarter of the county.  Valentine is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 48.2% of the county population.

Wood Lake