Omaha information

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States. It is the county seat of Douglas County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 390,007. According to the 2006 census estimate, Omaha's population rose to 427,872, which includes an extra population count of approximately 8,300 people by annexing the smaller city of Elkhorn. Located on the eastern edge of Nebraska, it is on the Missouri River, about 20 miles (30 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. Omaha is the anchor of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. Council Bluffs, Iowa lies directly across the Missouri River from Omaha. The city and its suburbs formed the 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States in 2000, with an estimated population of 822,549 (2006) residing in eight counties or about 1.2 million within a 50 mile (80 km) radius.
The city grew on the Missouri River, with the first settlement extending from the Lone Tree Ferry crossing from Kanesville, Iowa in the early 1850s. The beginning of the city included the vigilante Omaha Claim Club, as well as early leaders of the Nebraska Territory, of which Omaha was the capital until 1867.
At the turn of the century Omaha was known as a "wide-open" city, meaning that anything went, particularly under the administration of Mayor "Cowboy Jim" Dahlman and political boss Tom Dennison from the late 1900s through the 1920s. After rapid increase in immigrants and the doubling of African American population between 1910 and 1920, the city's social and racial tensions erupted in the lynching of Willy Brown in 1919. Continued problems with discrimination led to the development of a strong civil rights movement. (...) more....

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