Custer County, Nebraska $16,171. About 9.10% of families and 12.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.20% of those under age 18 and 9.10% of those age 65 or over. Custer County, Nebraska Custer County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,939. Its county seat is Broken Bow. The county was formed in 1877 and named after General George Armstrong Custer, who was killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn. In the Nebraska license plate system, Custer County is represented by the prefix 4 (it had the fourth-largest number
Custer, South Dakota Jackson), but it was renamed for Custer. Almost abandoned in 1876 after word of the much larger gold strikes in Deadwood Gulch spread, Custer later became an established city. Custer has had a smaller population and been less wealthy than the Northern Hills cities of Deadwood and Lead. In addition to gold, Custer and other cities based their economies on the extraction of industrial minerals, which are still important to the regional economy. Custer annually observes a "Gold Discovery Days" celebration and festivities over the last full weekend of July. This heritage tourism event celebrates the discovery of gold by