Minden is located in Kearney County (of which it is the county seat) 22 miles south of Kearney between Heartwell and Funk along Hwy 6/34 near Fort Kearny State Recrecation Area.
The town was only a stretch of open prairie in 1876, without a single inhabitant or building, when settlers voted 165 to 67 to remove the courthouse from Lowell to the more centrally-located "Minden."