Durham Museum

  The Durham Museum which covers the history of Omaha, Nebraska is housed in a gorgeous art-deco Union Pacific Railway Station built in 1931. When passenger trains stopped running in 1971 the railroad donated the building to the city. The building itself is worth seeing even if you don’t go to the museum.

   Omaha was founded after the US government made treaties with the Omaha tribe in 1854. The city was a stopping and supply point for settlers and prospectors heading west. As the rail system expanded it became a meatpacking and processing center with  acres of stockyards and a reputation as an “open town” of gambling, drinking, prostitution and general lawlessness. The museum does not gloss over any of it’s turbulent history which makes it an interesting place to visit.

 

  Very well done exhibits trace the city’s history with displays on Native American life, the immigrants who came to work in the meat packing industry, local businesses and inventions, and the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.

       

  The museum is accessible.

  RVs can be parked on the street in front of the museum. Museum  41.25189, -95.92771