Townsite Number Thirteen (later Pawnee) had been designated as the temporary county seat.

The railroads enabled Pawnee to develop as an agricultural trade center.

Pawnee continued to develop during the Great Depression, largely because of Federal works projects.

A hospital to care for the Ponca, Pawnee, Kaw, Otoe, and Tonkawa people opened January 15, 1931.

[8] Finally, the federal government built a reservoir named Pawnee Lake two miles north of town in 1932; the lake has 5.4 miles of shoreline, a surface area of 310 acres, and a maximum depth of 24.3 feet.

[10] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.2 square miles (5.7 km2), all land.

[8] A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Pawnee on September 3, 2016,[12] causing cracks and minor damage to buildings.

[13] The earthquake was caused by the deep injection of wastewater created by the practice of fracking to release oil trapped in shale rock.