Our Community

The Norfolk Community

Nestled in northeast Nebraska, Norfolk offers everything you would expect: first rate recreation, community celebrations, award-winning charm, unique shopping, and welcoming accommodations. Norfolk is located in the heart of the Elkhorn River Valley of Madison County. U.S. Highways 81 and 25 and Nebraska Highways 24 and 35 intersect in Norfolk. Norfolk is 112 miles northwest of Omaha, 121 miles north of LIncoln, and 75 miles southwest of Sioux City, Iowa.

A city of over 24,000, Norfolk is the economic growth center for an area encompassing six counties. Norfolk is the major retail trade center for northeast Nebraska. The economy is comprised of activities in agriculture (both grain and livestock farming), manufacturing, and services (including retail and wholesale trade, education, and health care.)

The primary retail trade area extends approximately 39 miles north, 38 miles northeast, 26 miles south, and 55 miles northwest and contains approximately 59,000 people. Wholesale firms in the community distribute groceries, food, soft drinks, farm products, bottles, oil and gas, agriculture, well installation equipment, janitorial products, welding, paper products, steel, syringes, electronic resistors, burial vaults, construction materials, high pressure/hydraulic hoses, and treated cellulose insulation. Five major manufacturing industries include Covidien, Norfolk Iron and Metal, Nucor Steel, Veyance Technologies, and Vulcraft. Three of the major non-manufacturing employers are Affiliated Foods, Faith Regional Hospital, and Norfolk Public Schools. The community's higher education needs are provided by Northeast Community College, located right here in Norfolk, and Wayne State College which is located 31 miles northeast of Norfolk.

Among the many services offered in Norfolk are churches, Cowboy Trail, Elkhorn Valley Museum and Research Center, Memorial AquaVenture Waterpark, Norfolk Arts Center, the YMCA, DeGroots Orchards, Madison County Museum, Poppy's Pumpkin Patch, Ashfall Fossil Beds, Divots DeVent Center, parks, and recreational areas. Community members find golfing, fishing, walking/hiking, swimming, skating, tennis, bowling, and movie theaters also available for leisure time activities.

The most famous person from Norfolk is Johnny Carson of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. Prior to his death in 2005, Johnny donated more than $2 million to the Carson Regional Radiation Center at Faith Regional Health Services. A donation of $650,000 helped to build the theater at Norfolk High School that bears his name and seats an audience of 1,234. The Norfolk Arts Center received $100,000 as did the Ekhorn Valley Museum, which hosts the Johnny Carson Tonight Show exhibit. Johnny also donated $1 million to bring long-distance technology to the Life Long Learning Center, located on the Northeast Community College campus. Norfolk has been the home of many outstanding individuals including: Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice for Tiny the Tiger, and Orville Carlisle, inventor of a safe model rocket system, whose rockets are on display in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Norfolk is a great place to live, work, and raise a family.