Willow Island is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in western Dawson County

Dawson County, Nebraska

Dawson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of 2010, the population was 24,326. Its county seat is Lexington.Dawson County is part of the Lexington, Nebraska, Micropolitan Statistical Area....

, Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It lies near Interstate 80

Interstate 80

Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following Interstate 90. It is a transcontinental artery running from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area...

 along U.S. Route 30

U.S. Route 30

U.S. Route 30 is an east–west main route of the system of United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. It is the third longest U.S. route, after U.S. Route 20 and U.S. Route 6. The western end of the highway is at Astoria, Oregon; the...

, between the cities of Cozad

Cozad, Nebraska

Cozad is a city in Dawson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 3,977 at the 2010 census. The town is on the Great Plains of central Nebraska, along the Union Pacific Railroad and U.S. Highway 30, just north of the Platte River...

 and Gothenburg

Gothenburg, Nebraska

Gothenburg is a city in Dawson County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lexington, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,619 at the 2000 census.-History:...

. The city of Lexington

Lexington, Nebraska

Lexington is a city in Dawson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 10,230 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Dawson County. Lexington is located in southern Nebraska, on the Platte River, southeast of North Platte. It sits along the route of U.S. Route 30 and the Union...

, the county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Dawson County, lies southeast of Willow Island. Its elevation is 2,526 feet (770 m). Because the community had two different names, the Board on Geographic Names

United States Board on Geographic Names

The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:...

 ruled in 1902 that the community's official name was "Willow Island." Although Willow Island is unincorporated, it has a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

, with the ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

of 69171.