Newcastle

History

Newcastle was incorporated as a village in 1893, soon after the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway was extended to that point. According to one tradition, it was named from a pioneer settler's house that was known locally as the "new castle". Newcastle hosts a unique Labor Day celebration every year that garners many attendees. Activities include an afternoon parade, fire hose water fights and an old fashioned wheat threshing exhibit. The township has long had a close history with the abandoned riverfront town Ionia. It is listed on the Nebraska Historical markers due to close campsites of Lewis & Clark and reference to the Ionia volcano. The Ionia volcano is mentioned both by the explorers within their memoirs and local residents within the late nineteenth century county history publication “Dixon County History” published 1982.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land. Located near Newcastle is the Ionia Volcano, a mineral deposit that once sat in cliffs on the edge of the Missouri River. Water from the river would leak through fissures in the cliff and cause steam to rise. Much of the so-called volcano washed into the river in the 1870s, and today the site is more than a mile from the river.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,632
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,404
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,384
• White-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 · Aves
  1,168
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,146
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,138
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,131
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,077

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2024-03-06
  6 km SSE of Santee, Nebraska
• M 3 — 2023-12-10
  11 km ESE of Wakonda, South Dakota
• M 3.1 — 2021-01-04
  5 km N of Tyndall, South Dakota