60 Fun Facts About Omaha

Omaha sits on the bank of which river?

The city lies about 10 miles north of where the Platte flows into it, and much of Omaha is built in the river valley.

Omaha is the county seat of which Nebraska county?

The eight-county metro area spills across the river into Iowa and holds roughly a million people.

In the Omaha language, the city's name means what?

The Omaha and Ponca tribes speak closely related Siouan languages of the Dhegihan branch.

Omaha's pioneer period began in 1854 when speculators crossed the river from which neighbouring town?

The Lone Tree Ferry that carried them over earned Omaha its nickname, the 'Gateway to the West'.

Omaha was informally founded in 1854 at a picnic on Capital Hill, now the site of what?

The school began in 1859 inside the Nebraska Territory capitol building itself, and its student paper is the oldest continuously published newspaper west of the Mississippi.

Omaha was Nebraska's territorial capital, but the state capital moved in 1867 to which city?

The new capital, 53 miles to the southwest, was originally called Lancaster and renamed after the recently assassinated president.

In 1804 which expedition passed the riverbanks where Omaha would later be built?

Its leaders met Oto and Missouria chiefs at the 'Council Bluff' about 20 miles north of the present city.

Which railroad built west from Omaha from 1866 on the first transcontinental line?

The company is still headquartered in the city and remains one of Omaha's four Fortune 500 firms.

Omaha hosted a world's fair in 1898 under what name?

More than 2.6 million visitors saw 4,062 exhibits, and President McKinley spoke on 'President's Day' that October.

On 31 August 1898 Omaha's world's fair declared a special day in honour of which showman?

An 'Indian Congress' of tribes from across the West was held at the same time as the fair.

By the 1950s, what share of Omaha's workforce was in meatpacking and processing?

Omaha passed Chicago in meat processing in the late 1950s, only to lose 10,000 jobs as the industry restructured; only the Livestock Exchange Building survives.

Which of these Fortune 500 companies is NOT headquartered in Omaha?

ConAgra levelled the Jobbers Canyon historic district for a riverfront campus in the 1980s but later moved its headquarters to Chicago; Berkshire Hathaway is the fourth Omaha Fortune 500 firm.

Warren Buffett's nickname refers to his home city. What is it?

Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting draws tens of thousands to the city and is dubbed the 'Woodstock of Capitalism'.

Since 1950 Omaha has hosted which annual NCAA championship?

The tournament played at Rosenblatt Stadium through 2010 before moving downtown to what is now Charles Schwab Field.

Before Omaha, the college baseball championship was held in Kalamazoo and then in which city in 1949?

The 1947 and 1948 editions were played at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo before the one-year stop in Kansas.

Which Omaha ballpark hosted the college baseball championship from 1950 through 2010?

Named for a former mayor, it was imploded in 2012 and its site is now owned by the neighbouring zoo.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo grew out of a public zoo opened in 1894 under what name?

The zoo took its current name in 1963 after a $750,000 gift from Margaret Hitchcock Doorly in memory of her husband, a newspaper publisher.

The Henry Doorly Zoo's 13-storey desert exhibit, opened in 2002, holds what world record?

The 13-storey dome opened in April 2002; beneath it sits Kingdoms of the Night, the world's largest nocturnal exhibit.

Which civil rights leader was born at University Hospital in Omaha on 19 May 1925?

His family left for Milwaukee the following year after threats from the Ku Klux Klan; the house on Pinkney Street was torn down in 1965.

Which US president was born in Omaha in 1913 under the name Leslie Lynch King Jr.?

He was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and took his stepfather's name.

Which legendary dancer was born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha in 1899?

The AFI ranked him the fifth-greatest male star of classic Hollywood; his career spanned 76 years.

Which two-time Oscar-winning actor was born in Omaha on 3 April 1924?

Henry Fonda was also a Nebraskan, but from Grand Island; Brando was the only son of Marlon Sr. and Dorothy Pennebaker.

Omaha native Alexander Payne set which of his films in the city?

Citizen Ruth and About Schmidt were also shot in Omaha; Payne has won two Adapted Screenplay Oscars, for Sideways and The Descendants.

Which tennis player, a 2003 US Open champion, was born in Omaha in 1982?

He is married to the model and actress Brooklyn Decker.

Which three-weight undisputed boxing champion was born and raised in Omaha?

'Bud' Crawford was the first male boxer of the four-belt era to be undisputed in two and then three divisions.

The author of 'The Notebook' and 'A Walk to Remember' was born in Omaha in 1965. Who is he?

Eleven of his novels have been adapted into feature films.

Actress Gabrielle Union, star of 'Bring It On', was born in which city?

Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.

Which indie rock band was founded in Omaha by singer-songwriter Conor Oberst?

Its albums came out on Saddle Creek Records, a Nebraska label co-founded by Oberst's brother; 311 and Mannheim Steamroller are also from Omaha.

Which corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss sandwich was reputedly invented at a poker game at Omaha's Blackstone Hotel?

Grocer Reuben Kulakofsky gets the credit locally; the city marks Reuben Sandwich Day on 14 March, though a New York deli also claims it.

The Top 40 radio format was invented in the early 1950s at which Omaha station?

Todd Storz built his weekly playlist from how often records were played on jukeboxes, then bought more stations to spread the format.

Which 1953 Swanson invention began as a Thanksgiving turkey meal in an airline-style tray?

Gerry Thomas coined the name; cake mix, Raisin Bran and centre-pivot irrigation are other Omaha inventions.

Skinner's, the first brand of which breakfast cereal, was introduced in 1926 by an Omaha company?

Skinner Manufacturing kept sole ownership of the name for 17 years until Kellogg's and Post launched their own versions.

Nebraska Consolidated Mills of Omaha made the first cake mixes sold under which brand?

The mills sold the business to Procter & Gamble in 1957 and later became Conagra Brands, which bought the brand back in 2018.

Which notorious energy company traces one of its main predecessors, InterNorth, to Omaha in 1930?

Kenneth Lay moved the merged company to Houston in 1987; its 2001 collapse remains the largest US bankruptcy caused by fraud.

Mutual of Omaha sponsored which long-running TV wildlife programme from 1963?

Hosted by Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler, it stayed on air for more than 20 years; the insurer itself was founded in 1909.

Who starred in the 1938 film that made Father Flanagan's Boys Town near Omaha famous?

The performance won him the Academy Award for Best Actor; the village itself is a National Historic Landmark and a separate municipality.

Boys Town was established on 12 December of which year?

The village is an enclave within Omaha with its own post office, fire station and a research hospital known for hearing research.

Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha was the Cold War headquarters of which organisation?

The base is now home to US Strategic Command; the Enola Gay and Bockscar were built at the Martin bomber plant there.

Which president held a strategy session in the bunker at Offutt Air Force Base on 11 September 2001?

He arrived via Barksdale in Louisiana after leaving a Sarasota elementary school, before returning to Washington.

Offutt Air Force Base was originally called what?

It was renamed in 1924 for Jarvis Offutt, a locally born First World War pilot.

The D-Day beach code-named Omaha was probably named by General Omar Bradley after what?

The Utah beach name came the same way, from a soldier from Provo; the corps commanders were actually from Virginia and Louisiana.

Creighton University in Omaha was founded in 1878 by which religious order?

It began with 120 students and seven teachers, funded by Mary Lucretia Creighton's will in memory of her husband Edward.

The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, opened in 2008, links Omaha to which Iowa city?

Locals call it 'Bob the Bridge'; the former senator secured the federal money for it.

Omaha's Old Market district was created in the 1980s by converting what kind of buildings?

The district is on the National Register of Historic Places and sits beside the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District.

The Durham Museum occupies Omaha's former Union Station, a 1931 landmark built in which architectural style?

Designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, it was Union Pacific's first Art Deco station and is clad in cream glazed terracotta.

The name of Omaha's civic society, the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, is derived how?

The name was reportedly coined on an 1895 train trip to buy Mardi Gras floats from New Orleans, when everything 'seemed to be going backwards'.

Which 634-foot building, completed in 2002, overtook Woodmen Tower as Nebraska's tallest?

It overtook the 1969 Woodmen Tower and held the title until a 677-foot insurance headquarters was set to surpass it in 2026.

In 1919, during the Red Summer, an Omaha mob burned which building while lynching Will Brown?

The mob caused more than $1 million in damage; Omaha's NAACP chapter, founded in 1912, was the first west of the Mississippi.

Which South Omaha immigrant neighbourhood was destroyed by a 1909 riot that drove its people from the city?

Sheelytown was Polish and Little Italy grew up around the Union Pacific shops; the Greek community never returned.

Roughly what was Omaha's population at the 2020 census?

That made it the 42nd-largest US city by 2025 estimates; the metro area holds about a million.

Omaha's airport and a Nebraska cancer institute are both named for which Omahan?

The University of Nebraska Medical Center's Eppley Institute is one of 66 NCI-designated cancer centers.

Which company, founded by the Simon family in 1917, sells beef by mail nationwide from Nebraska's largest city?

The Simon family had fled religious persecution in Latvia in 1898 and came to Omaha for its meatpacking boom.

The Omaha Lancers, who hold a league-record seven Clark Cups, play which sport?

The Storm Chasers are the city's baseball team, at Werner Park; the UNO Mavericks play at Baxter Arena.

Before Nebraska legalised casinos in 2020, Omaha gamblers crossed into which state?

Nebraska voters approved racetrack casinos in 2020; in the 1950s Omaha reportedly had more illicit gambling than any city in the nation.

Which show gave its first official performance in Omaha in 1883 before 8,000 people?

Rudyard Kipling and General George Crook were among the city's famous early visitors.

Which composer wrote his 'New World' Symphony after visiting Omaha's Czech community in 1893?

Omaha's German brewers such as Storz, Metz and Krug also kept many bands busy in their beer gardens.

Which Omaha record label gave rise to the 'Omaha Sound' in the late 1990s?

The Faint, Cursive and Tilly and the Wall were among the scene's bands.

In what year did Omaha's Union Stockyards overtake Chicago's as the US meat-packing center?

That legacy lives on in steakhouses such as Gorat's and the mail-order firm Omaha Steaks.

The Omaha Supernovas, inaugural 2024 champions, play which professional sport?

Their 9,656 average home crowd was the highest for any pro volleyball team in the world.

Which NBA franchise split its home games between Kansas City and Omaha from 1972 to 1978?

The team later moved solely to Kansas City and then to Sacramento in 1985.