About Omaha

Whether it’s your first or 50th time visiting Omaha, it won’t take long for you to discover we’re about a lot more than cows and cornfields. A quintessential Midwestern city, Omaha offers the amenities of a metropolitan area with the friendliness of a town. Omaha is also a city of invention and history with a thriving, vibrant arts, sports and entertainment scene…plus more.

Here are a few interesting facts about Omaha.:

• Omaha is the 42nd-largest city and 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States (2010  Census). The city boasts a population of over 415,000, with more than 1.2 million residents within a 50-mile radius.
• Omaha has been home to the College World Series, which moved into downtown and TD Ameritrade Park in 2011, since 1950.
• Omaha boasts The Henry Doorly Zoo, voted the No. 1 zoo and aquarium by TripAdvisor.com. The zoo has America’s largest indoor rain forest and world’s largest indoor desert in the Desert Dome, as well as the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit, the Kingdoms of the Night.
• Omaha is an arts mecca, highlighted by the Durham Museum, a converted Union Pacific train station that houses the city’s most comprehensive historical information and archives; the Omaha Children’s Museum, which holds some of the country’s most technologically innovative and interactive learning displays for children; Joslyn Art Museum, built in 1931 and consists of 20 galleries with 19th and 20th century art from Europe and America; and the Holland Performing Arts Center,  which is home to some of the biggest acts in the music and theater and the Omaha Symphony.
• Civil rights champion and minister Malcolm X called Omaha home.
• Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska in 1917.
• Omaha is home for five Fortune 500 company headquarters: ConAgra Foods, Union Pacific Corporation, Mutual of Omaha, Peter Kiewit and Sons, Inc., and Berkshire Hathaway.
• Omaha’s Borsheims (owned by Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway) is the largest jewelry store in the nation.
• Nebraska Furniture Mart located in Omaha is the largest furniture store in the nation.
• Gerald Rudolph Ford, the 38th President of the United States, was born in Omaha on July 14, 1913. Ford served from 1974 to 1977 following the resignation of Richard Nixon.
• Omaha is also home to four Fortune 1000 headquarters: TD Ameritrade, West Corporation,  Valmont Industries and Werner Enterprises.
• Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt, Sideways,  The Descendants) was born and raised in Omaha.

For more information about Omaha, check out www.visitomaha.com.