Omaha

The Midwestern city of Omaha, Nebraska, may have gotten its start as a stop on the wagon trail, but it has since leveraged its location at the center of the United States to become an important hub for transportation, communications and military operations. The city's continued growth reflects sustained efforts at economic and cultural revitalization.

Landscape

Omaha is centrally located in the Midwest, about 468 miles west of Chicago, 1,285 miles west of New York and 1,612 miles east of Los Angeles. Sited on the eastern edge of Nebraska where the Missouri River creates the border with Iowa to the west, Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska, and the 39th largest in the US as of 2023.

Occupying more than 100 square miles of land, Omaha is the center of a 2,400 square mile metropolitan area of suburban communities. The terrain is quite wooded, and features the gently rolling hills characteristic of the Missouri River basin. The Missouri is the second longest river in the US and a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The city's highest elevation is 1,270 feet above sea level.

Architectural styles vary widely throughout Omaha, from the Art Deco Union Station, to the Italianate-style commercial buildings popular in the late 1800s, to the Prairie Style of the early 1900s made famous by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Homes are predominately wood-framed.

The "continental" climate is somewhat extreme, ranging from warm humid summers to winters chilled by arctic air dipping down from Canada. The average high temperature in July is 85 degrees Fahrenheit, while the average January low is 11 degrees. Spring and summer rains contribute most of the average 30 inches of rain per year. Winters are dry, but still bring an average snowfall of 32 inches.

As with most of the Midwest, Omaha is susceptible to the occasional tornado. The "Easter Sunday" storm of May 23, 1913, sawed through the center of the city, killing 140 people.

People

After losing residents to the suburbs during the 1970s and 80s, Omaha's population rebounded to record levels by the turn of the twenty-first century. In 2022, the population was estimated at 485,153. That year, the population of the Omaha, Nebraska–Council Bluffs, Iowa metropolitan area was estimated at 976,875, nearly half the entire population of Nebraska.

As of 2022, the ethnic breakdown of Omaha was 71.5 percent White and 11.9 percent African American, with 14.8 percent Hispanic or Latino, 4.1 percent Asian, and small minorities of other ethnicities. The metro area was 76 percent White, 11 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 7 percent Black.

Omaha claims to be one of the twenty-five most affordable cities in the nation. Area housing prices are particularly reasonable as compared with each of the nation's coasts.

Omaha is smack dab in the middle of Midwestern meat-and-potatoes country, so it has a wealth of steakhouses: just a few of the more famous names include Omaha Prime, The Drover, Johnny's and Gorat's.

Economy

Railroads, river traffic and highways all converge in Omaha. The city's reputation as a shipping hub was cemented with the arrival of the railroads in the 1860s. Located on the eastern edge of the cattle-grazing belt and the western edge of the nation's pork-producing region, Omaha became a natural center for the meatpacking and shipping industries.

By 1900, the city claimed to be the fourth-busiest rail center in the country. Union Pacific Corp., the largest railroad company in the US, is headquartered in Omaha and employs 3,500 workers statewide. In 2001, Nebraska led the nation in commercial livestock slaughter. Fortune 500 firm ConAgra Foods' Omaha headquarters also takes advantage of the area's meat and grain (corn, soybeans and wheat) production.

During the Cold War, the Strategic Air Command (SAC), located at nearby Offutt Air Force Base, wanted a communications network that could withstand a nuclear blast. Local firm Kiewit Construction Co. laid fiber-optic cable for SAC in the 1980s, and then took a chance on a national rollout of the technology. The local telecom industry grew to include half a dozen fiber-optic networks and about two dozen call centers. In 2001, telecom-related jobs employed more than 50,000 people in Omaha. One of the largest network-related employers is electronic payment processor First Data Corp. (FDC) with about 5,000 employees. In January 2019, a Wisconsin financial technology company, Fiserv, announced that it would be buying First Data. The merger has the potential to cause layoffs among FDC employees.

Omaha's reliance on two very cyclical industries has also hurt the local economy at times. Farming took a big hit in the late 1970s, as crop and land values plummeted. In 2000, the US stock market bubble, propelled by telecom firms, finally burst. Local favorite Level 3 Communications' stock went from $130 to $13 in the space of a year, finally sinking below $3 in 2002. The poster child for corporate fraud, Enron, was originally headquartered in Omaha before moving to Houston, Texas. Local firm MFS Communications was bought by WorldCom, which ended up beating Enron for the biggest bankruptcy of 2002.

Fortunately, Omaha was able to fall back on its other foundations: service industries (especially education, insurance and healthcare) and the military. Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, a Fortune 500 company founded in 1909, employs 3,235 in Omaha. Nebraska Medicine, including the state's largest hospital, Nebraska Medical Center, employs 8,000 workers, while its research and education partner, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, employs about 5,200. CHI Health, with fourteen area hospitals, employs 11,000 workers in Nebraska and southwestern Iowa. Offutt Air Force base, about 10 miles south of the city, employs more than 9,500.

No survey of Omaha and economics is complete without mention of Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha" and founder of holding company Berkshire Hathaway. Thanks to his savvy investments, a share of the company purchased for $18 in 1965 was worth $82,650 as of November 2003. Buffett is one of the richest men in the world.

Landmarks

Omaha is well-known among baseball fans as the home of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) World Series, held at the city's Rosenblatt Stadium every June. Near the stadium is the Henry Doorly Zoo, better known as the Omaha Zoo. Beginning its existence in the 1800s with a pair of bison, the zoo got a major infusion of cash in the 1970s, thanks in large part to the efforts of Walter Scott, one of the principal founders of Level 3 Communications. The zoo claims the largest indoor desert ecosystem in the world, along with world's second largest free-flight aviary.

Omaha's downtown area has seen extensive revitalization centered on the 17,000-seat Qwest (another networking firm) Convention Center and Arena that opened in 2003. Slated for both sporting events and concerts, the center will also host the annual River City Roundup, which includes the ProRodeo Summer Tour Finale.

Other downtown landmarks include One First National Center. Completed in 2002, the forty-five-story home of First National Bank is the tallest building between Minneapolis and Denver. Gallop North America also has a new building on the riverfront, and Union Pacific's new headquarters is scheduled to open in 2004. In addition, Omaha has announced the creation of "Riverfront Place" in 2003. Planned for a 6-acre site near the Gallup building, the $35 million project will create a new "urban living space" with homes and commercial space.

The city's 1931 train depot, Union Station, was donated to Omaha in 1973 and is now home to the Durham Western Heritage Museum. Among the museum's holdings is a repository of 200,000 negatives and prints that trace the history of Omaha. The city's Joslyn Art Museum also opened in 1931. Its collections include works by Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, and Grant Wood.

In addition to UN-Omaha, the city is home to Creighton University and the College of St. Mary. For shoppers, the Old Market features historic storefronts that hold a variety of Stores and restaurants.

History

Omaha is named for the Native American tribe that once frequented that area, along with buffalo, beavers, and many other animals that once lived on the prairie lands. Under the direction of President Thomas Jefferson, explorers Lewis and Clark first trekked to the site of Omaha in 1804. The city grew from a small fur trading post to become a supply station for pioneers heading west in search of gold, or taking wagons in order to set up new homesteads.

After the negotiation of a treaty with the Omaha Indians in 1854, Omaha was incorporated as a city in 1857 with a population of about 1,500. Telegraph lines, completed in 1861, contributed to the new city's growth. President Abraham Lincoln designated the site for a spot along the transcontinental railroad in 1863, and the first rails were laid two years later, as the Civil War was ending. The route to San Francisco was completed in 1869.

As the arrival of the railroad eased the need to supply wagon trains, the city focused on meatpacking operations. By 1893, Omaha had the third largest cattle yards in the US, and by 1955 it boasted the largest.

The "Omaha Platform" was the 1892 political manifesto of the Populist Movement, a political party that was short-lived, but whose defense of farmers and laborers would later influence many Democratic politicians, including Harry Truman.

The military has long had a presence in Omaha, dating back to the establishment of Fort Omaha in 1878. During World War II, the area's Fort Crook was home to a Martin Aircraft plant that produced B-29 bombers, including the Enola Gay, the plane used to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. Offutt Air Force Base now stands on this site, and remains a vital part of the nation's military command.

Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town in west Omaha in 1917. The center for troubled youths was made famous in a 1938 film starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, and is still in operation today.

In March 2019, historic floods affected Omaha along with communities in Nebraska and thirteen other states. The still-frozen soil in the Midwest was unable to absorb water from heavy rains and melted snowpack, which caused the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to overflow their banks. In addition to the Missouri River, the Elkhorn and Platte Rivers to the west and south of Omaha, respectively, also flooded.

Trivia

• Omaha has produced an abundance of actors, including Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Nick Nolte. Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island but grew up in Omaha.
• The Mutual of Omaha building is a feature of the Omaha skyline, but also has seven floors that are underground.
• After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush and other White House personnel were flown to Omaha's Offutt Base to work from secure SAC facilities.
• Gerald R. Ford, the thirty-eighth president of the United States, was born in Omaha.

Bibliography

"Quick Facts: Nebraska; Omaha City, Nebraska." United States Census Bureau, 1 July 2023, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/omahacitynebraska/IPE120217. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.