page_title: Tourism in Omaha
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tourism in Omaha / Attractions / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Located in Omaha, Nebraska, a 1910 postcard of the front entrance of the Burlington Station.
context_page_description: Tourism in Omaha, Nebraska, United States offers visitors history, sports, nature and cultural experiences. Its principal tourist attractions are the Henry Doorly Zoo and the College World Series. A 2003 study by a Creighton University economist estimated that the CWS added $33.8 million to the city's economy that year. With 1.1 million visitors annually, the Henry Doorly Zoo is Nebraska's most popular tourist attraction. In 2007 Omaha hosted the USA Roller Sports National Championships, along with 10,000 people who auditioned for the American Idol television show at Qwest Center Omaha.
  Research on per capita spending on leisure and hospitality situates Omaha in the same tier as the neighboring cities of Topeka, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Denver, Colorado. In 2002 the United States Conference of Mayors ranked Omaha 70th out of the top 100 cities for tourism in the United States.
context_section_description: Founded in 1854, Omaha has a rich historical legacy present throughout the city today. Tourism has always been important to the city, with famous visitors such as Rudyard Kipling and General George Crook staying there in the city's early years. The Omaha Driving Park hosted the first official performance of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1883, with eight thousand attendees. In 1898 the city hosted more than 1,000,000 visitors from across the United States at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, a world's fair that lasted for more than half the year.
  With a downtown core where the city was settled, the city's Old Market Historic District is a haven to tourists and locals alike. The Old Market is abutted with the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District as well as the Omaha Warehouses MPS, each with several notable buildings. Downtown Omaha was also home of the Jobbers Canyon Historic District, where many of the important outposts and settlements along with Oregon Trail west of Omaha were outfitted.
  60,000 to 80,000 tourists visit the Mormon Trail Center and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery in the Florence neighborhood every year. The north side of Omaha boasts a long history of peaks and lows. This area of town includes the Fort Omaha Historic District, an 1878 U.S. Army post on the western frontier, as well as several historic neighborhoods essential to the city's growth and development.
  Other notable historic attractions in Omaha include the General Crook House at Fort Omaha, Boys Town, Florence Mill, Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens, Joslyn Castle, Lewis and Clark Landing, Malcolm X Birthsite, Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and Riekes Museum, The Rose Theater, and Freedom Park, home to the USS Hazard and the USS Marlin, both World War II-era vessels.
caption: A 1910 postcard showing the front entrance of Omaha's Burlington Station.
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP Scanjet 4370", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "258", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:11:06 20:40: 4", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "640", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "413", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[0, 1, 0, 7, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}