50 Nebraskaland • November 2019
y 1870 the cattle industry in western Nebraska was
booming. Thousands of head of Texas cattle came
either to meet the railroad for transportation to
Chicago markets or to be driven farther north to meet
the demands of military posts and Indian reservations.
During this decade large ranches grazed cattle on huge
tracts of government land. The high-quality grasses
produced high-quality beef, and demand for this Nebraska
product grew. By 1880 ranchers clamored for a stockyard in
Omaha. They were tired of their animals losing weight by
traveling the extra 500 miles from Omaha to Chicago. Lost
weight meant lost profi ts.
In 1883 Wyoming rancher Alexander Swan came to Omaha
to encourage local entrepreneurs to establish a stockyard.
The location was perfect. Omaha was surrounded by plenty
of grass and corn, and the Missouri River provided both
ample water and a swift moving stream to haul waste away
– a stark contrast to the slow-moving Chicago River that
regularly backed up with rank sewage, creating an immense
health hazard.
Swan assembled a group of investors and acquired land
in what would become South Omaha. What began with a
single farm exploded into a huge enterprise. By the end of the
decade South Omaha was established as a major meat center,
and by 1956 Omaha was the largest meat producing city in
the world.
For something this big, very few pictures survive of its
birth. Here are a few that do survive.
It is hard to imagine the speed of the stockyard's progress.
It began with the Frank Drexel farm (top right). The farm
encompassed 10 acres of land; the farmhouse, marked with
the arrow, served as the fi rst exchange building.
Things moved at a breakneck pace. In 1886 developers
erected the elegant Stockyard Exchange Building. Between
1885 and 1887 four major meat packers – G. H. Hammond
(1885), Fowler Brothers (1886), Armour-Cudahy and Swift
(both 1887) – established major plants adjacent to the
stockyards.
B
The Birth of the South
By John E. Carter, History Nebraska
Grading the land ca. 1887. History Nebraska RG1085-77-1
