Omaha and Douglas County: A Panoramic History

Dust jacket notes: "The destiny of a city is not always apparent from the first. Unlike the settings of neighboring Missouri River communities in the 1850s - towns such as Florence and the aptly named Bellevue - that of the city that would become Nebraska's most important was, to say the least, unpromising, its shoreline composed of mud flats, swales, and marshes. And yet, a great city flourished here. Within a few months of its founding, the Reverend Reuben Gaylord would prophesy, 'I see unmistakable evidence of energy and enterprise in this place that gives promise of progress...[there is] a spirit on the part of its inhabitants that will cause it to increase and develop very rapidly.' This spirit transformed Omaha, in an incredibly short period of time, from a rough, crude outpost to the 'Crossroads of the Nation' - and one of America's major cities....In this long-awaited book, the fruit of a lifetime's absorbtion in the history of Omaha and Douglas County, Dorothy Dustin will