October 2024 • Nebraskaland 33
electric lights came on. Visitors were awed by the fair's
extensive use of outdoor incandescent lighting, with 14,000
light bulbs powered by a half-dozen steam generators.
Historian Amanda Johnson has argued that electric lighting
was as important to the Omaha fair as the Ferris wheel was to
Chicago's Columbian Exposition. Both drew visitors and were
seen as symbols of modernity and technological prowess.
Even the fair's pretentious name sent a message. Boosters
promoted it as a coming-of-age event not only for Omaha —
now a regional hub city and no longer a frontier town — but
also for the entire region west of the Mississippi River. And
since the fair took place during the Spanish-American War, it
coincided with America's emergence as a rising international
power.
The fair's "Indian Congress," meanwhile, was meant to
represent the nation's past. (It was a "congress" in the sense
of a large gathering of multiple tribes, rather than a political
body.) The Indian Wars were all but over, and the tribes were
restricted to reservations. Most Americans assumed the
Native population would continue its long decline, with the
remainder assimilated. When President William McKinley
visited the fair on Oct. 12, the Omaha Bee commented that he
led a nation that was "just commencing to play its great part
upon the stage of the universe," and that he was "rendered
honor by a thousand representatives of a passing civilization
that was in its way great." Among the Native leaders greeting
McKinley was the famous Apache warrior Geronimo.
In the end, Native peoples and cultures proved far more
resilient. The fairgrounds, on the other hand, were temporary
by design. Made of plaster and lath, the fancy white buildings
were torn down within a few years, and the former Grand
Court became today's Kountz Park.
N
Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society's website at
history.nebraska.gov.
"Indian Day" parade, Aug. 4, 1898. NSHS RG1739-0-3
Vendors sold souvenir 3D stereoview cards of the
Exposition. "Shooting the Chutes" was a popular ride
on the Midway. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
