The original site of Beaver Crossing was about three miles northwest of the present town, where a trail from Nebraska City to Fort Kearny crossed Beaver Creek. John Leonard and Daniel Millspaugh were the first settlers in this area in 1862, and Roland Reed established the first post office in January 1868. About 1871 the post office was moved to the present town site, where a flour mill had been built. During that decade many settlers arrived, and Beaver Crossing grew and prospered. The town was incorporated in 1892. The area became well known for its artesian wells, the first of which was discovered in 1895. Wells in this park poured fresh water into what was once the largest swimming pool in the state, and other wells supplied the Smiley Botanical Gardens on the southeast edge of town. In the 1930s, goldfish and water lilies were raised there commercially in fifty ponds, but later irrigation demands lowered the water table and the artesian wells went dry.