, that tour will begin at 2 00 p. M. , or trustees may have a Board Meeting at its 00 p. M. And were those of you with tickets at 3 00 p. M. Thank you very much for attending. Lady hale, thank you very much. [applause] you are watching American History tv. 48 hours of American History tv programming on cspan3. Follow us on twitter for a schedule of upcoming programs and to keep up with the latest history news. Welcome to omaha on American History tv. Founded in 1854 by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, iowa this city on the banks of the Missouri River became a terminus for the Transcontinental Railroad, helping spur the towns growth in its early days. With a population over 400,000 today omaha is nebraskas largest cities. With the help of our cox Cable Partners, we will explore the history of this midwestern city. Coming up, here about omahas military history. The air force base was once a home to the Strategic Air command during the cold war. The might and strength of the air command and control the atomic weapons at that time, the bombers, was moved to omaha and makes omaha a natural a national site, and i guess on the National Psyche of the cold war. Leader here how the stockyards help them take control of the market. Though the stockyards are not there any longer, they created a population boom. South omaha was basically the stockyards. It was incorporated in 18 it 84 in 1884. It was called the magic city, because people thought it bloomed overnight. First though, we will look at the Union Railroad station. It tells the story of the once thriving Railroad Industry in omaha. We are standing in the main waiting room of Union Station here in a mock omaha, nebraska. It was the second station built by Union Pacific. The architect, Gilbert Stanley underwood, wanted to make a statement about what the railroad was. To him, it was strength, masculine, impermanence. That is what he wanted this building to embody. Omaha really started out as a frontier town, typical frontier town. Actually, the citizens from Council Bluffs decided they wanted to found a city on this side of the river. Everybody knew that there was going to be a Transcontinental Railroad area they just did not know where. They came through and said, we have a better chance of having this railroad if we have a city on the other side of the railroad if we already have this built. Delta bluffs did not think that omaha would get bigger then Council Bluffs. That was the founding city. Union pacific is one of the premier Railroad Companies of america. It was founded in 1862 with the Pacific Railroad act signed by abraham lincoln. It permitted several Railroad Companies to make Union Pacific and they were charged to build the railroad. They started here and they met up in utah. And that is really what propels us even farther. We become that point of moving west. A gateway to the west. This facility came about, the second Union Station to help the rail travel, all of the passengers coming through omaha. So, they needed a new, modern station. It was a brandnew, art deco building, different style. The first one was neoclassical. Art deco was in vogue in 1931. They decided to raise the old one to the ground, build a new one and showed the nation that omaha is the height of architecture. The height of rail travel was during world war ii, 1936. That brought 64 trains, coming and going. It was just a home of activity. What you would have seen was people coming and going and then dead silence. You would witness the next influx of people coming and going and you would have these great moms of activity and then dead calm, and then it would pick up again. That would be the norm for a typical afternoon at Union Station. We preserve the great hall as it would have been in 1931. Inches are what you would have benches are what you would have set on. The ticket window is the original ticket window. The layout is the same, the artwork, the window, all of that is original to the building. It has been kept in its original state and we have restored it to what it would look like some people can see the grandeur of the station that was built. So, they would first go to the ticket counter, purchased their ticket for where they were going and they would put their bags at the counter. The red caps were ushers helping people to an from the train, taking bags, making sure that people got where they need to go. And after you purchase your ticket, you had time usually to enjoy the amenities of the station. Union pacific made sure that there was a lot new. They had a restaurant. There was a sitdown restaurant that had table linens, china and then they had more of an all a card lunch counter for people to do a little bit of a meal. For people who wanted a quick suite treats, sweet treat they could go to the counter. We still have those, the best malts and down. There you could get your sweet treat. There was a uso canteen that took up pretty much the whole fourth floor, which is our Administrative Offices today that was set aside for servicemen and women coming to the station. If you were waiting to catch a cab somewhere, as a traveler they took care of you and made sure you could get everything that you needed at the station. Right now we are on the lower level. And where we are standing is what passengers would have walked through to get on their train. You would have baggage cars, porters, passengers running to and from, so there would be really cramped coat cramped quarters. This was open. It was closed in the 1990s. This overhang would have been your only protection from the cold or the heat or the rain and that would have let you get on the train or travel down the concourse. Here on track one, we have three passenger cars and those allow people to walk through, get an idea of what it was like to travel on the railroad, see what these sleeping conditions were like. We are inside the southern pacific lounge car. This was the 1960s, mid 1950s. This is the type of car you would have come to to get some recreation while you were writing on the train. There are benches and chairs, things like that, just to give people an idea of what it would have been like traveling on the train and then the older visitors, sometimes they have memories of writing on trains. Its really one of those touch points where theres an opportunity for conversations between generations. This car was a pullman sleeper car and the would have been open seating on this car. These lowser berths actually fold. This becomes the lower bunk. The porter would come along with a key, open it and that becomes your upper birth, and it would have had a curtain across and some did not have the restraints like a net, so you would not feel like you would fall out. This was a lower price point than some of the others that are more of the individual rooms in the rest of the car. This also had a public bathroom. You had in on one side, women on the other. Its a little bit of cramped quarters, but it was the way to travel back in the day. This is still in the pullman car, but these are the individual cabins you would have been able to purchase instead of sitting out in the public area. These were little more expensive. You still have the berths that would have folded out to keep unp review could individually called the porter with the little button on the wall. Say you wanted to have your shoes shined. You could put them in the locker call the porter, and he would use this door, pop it open, pull your shoes out, get them polished, and put them back and he would never have to disturb you. It was very luxurious in that way that you can have things done without being disturbed. They ranged to have amtrak take the Passenger Service from the other railroads. Theyve been losing money due to the rise of the automobile and the rise of the plane as ways to travel faster, farther, more independently. So, that started to decline after world war ii. They could do their own thing. So, with that, with the amtrak legislation, all of the passengers stopped and the last train came out of Union Station at 2 00 a. M. And that was the end of an era. The station was closed. For the last 40 years it never closed its doors. It was a 24 hour operation. They did not even have a lock. They had to call a locksmith. They had never needed to close the doors. It was an end of that era, and that is when omaha banded together to make sure that the building was not lost, its legacy was not destroyed. And that is where the museum comes into place comes into play. Union pacific is still a huge railroad, and they do a lot freight back and forth. They are one of the Largest Companies in omaha. The Passengers Service may have ended, but their service to the community is still going strong. When you walk into the building, it is definitely inspiring. I love to look up and see this building. I think for visitors, we hope that they leave with an appreciation of not only what Union Pacific did for this community, but also the history and the people who built omaha over the years. All weekend, American History tv is joining with our Cox CommunicationsCable Partners to bring you the history of omaha, nebraska. We continue now with our look at the history of omaha. This is American History tv on cspan3. The Union Station operated and so 1971. The last train left out of here on may 2, and then sat vacant for two years and Union Pacific gifted it to the city to become a museum. We made the station our home. This exhibit focuses on omaha livestock. A very important industry for omaha as a city and eventually for omaha as a whole area Cattle Marketing centers are strategically located. These holding pens have handed more than 100 million cattle and here is our livestock trade, right on schedule, Early Morning arrival. The livestock industry begins as a fattening station basically. A place for cattle to get said, a feeding station to get fed a feeding station, before they are sent to a stockyard to get slaughtered. They started what we call the union stockyards. And that became this industry here. We have eight omaha city leaders to purchase just shy of 2000 acres of land and devoted 250 of those acres to the livestock pens and Exchange Building things like that. They started off in 1884. Omaha had the railroad and we definitely wanted to have the stockyards start here and utilize that going through to quickly move cattle and animals to slaughterhouses like chicago, for example. But having our own here proved very profitable. By the turn of the century, we had 26,000 people in the city of south are omaha south omaha had 29,000 people and this was only four miles from omaha. They grew together, and omaha annexed the city of south omaha and it was all one city at that point. It was called porkopolis. By the 1950s the stockyards employed triggered 52 400 people and would three to 52 ford are people. We had all kinds of industry associated with the stockyards that literally seem to bloom overnight. So that is the magic city. We had a lot of immigrants groups coming german, irish czech, pole everyone was coming here to work. It was a good living. You had everything you needed. They made sure that there were amenities and south omaha, and pretty much, you would work in the stockyards in some capacity. We had about 20,000 animals a day at the height. Each different type of animal, hogs cattle, sheep, they are the only ones that were processing meat. They were built in the 1890s and they were becoming out updates. Then the industry takes a different turn. The stockyards are unfortunately, not there. The only piece that is still prevalent is the it was pretty much a mini city when it was conceived. It had everything from barbershops to ballrooms. It was a onestop shop for south omaha and premuch anything you needed to do at the Stockyard Exchange would have been there. It is now a retail space and there are still proms in the ballroom for a local hospital. That is pretty much the only thing that is left in south omaha. The beef industry is still going strong. We have companies that ship meat to it from around the world. You still want to get an omaha steak. Things like that are still very prevalent. All weekend long, American History tv is featuring omaha nebraska. The martin bomber plant just outside omaha produced the b29 bombers the enola gay and boxcar. Those two planes dropped atomic bombs on hiroshima and not a sake during nagasaki during world war ii. Cspan cities tour staff recently visited many sites exploring omahas rich is free. Learn more all weekend here on American History tv. Port omaha was established in the 1870s. It was established all of the indian wars in this region were directed from here and it would have been instrumental in even little bighorn, toward the end of that. The cheyenne outbreak. I am at the general william crook house museum. It was named for general crook. The house is named after him because he was the first general who lived in the home. He started in 18s heavenly he started in 1870 and finished in 1889. The house is celebrating its 136 anniversary this year. When they deemed it was going to be a permanent for, part of the world was they would start to build the homes the buildings would be brick rather than wooden structures. This was the first brick structure built on the fort, and after that they were built along the same type of victorian italianate style. One of the things the fort is known for is Standing Bear during the Standing Bear trial he was held here at the fort. Hugh Standing Bear was from a small trial, north of where we are now. They had been there for generations. During a treaty that the americans actually more with these sioux, their homeland was given away by mistake and they were forced to move to oklahoma. And the original promise was, if you like it, we know you will like it, but if you like it, you go down there, that if you dont like it, you can come back, of course. They got down there and hated it. It was hot. The land was foreign to what they reuse to. They said, we want to go back. They said, you cant. Eventually the whole tribe made it to oklahoma indian territory of the time, what is oklahoma now. Many died along the way. In fact, one of Standing Bears daughters died. Shortly after they were there, his son passed away and it was his sons dying wish that he the buried in the land of his father, so his father with a small group traveled mostly by night on foot, made all the way up to north of where we are now in fort omaha to the reservations north of where we are now and it was there that they were finally caught by the army and the army demanded that theyd be sent back to oklahoma, and this is where general crook enters the picture. General crook served in the civil war. He was captured just before the end of the war. He really made his fame in the indian wars. He fought against iran amount, he fought against crazy horse at the velvet rosebud. Over time, he actually started his career in the pacific northwest, so he fought over several decades. And over time, he became sympathetic to the native americans and started to ensure as much as possible the treaties made were actually honored. He was interested in native american culture. He was interested in their history, their religion. Over time, i think he became interested in them and did not think of them as less than human, as his contemporaries did. I know it sounds ridiculous. I think he saw they had families who love their children, love their husbands and wives, and he felt that they were treated very poorly. He wanted to do what they could to make sure they were treated honorably. He took them to oklahoma with no delay. He felt that this was an injustice. He recruited a friend of his working for the omaha herald at the time and said, this is the story, told the story and said, i want you to rally support and i want you to sue me. The end result was, a trial was held to determine whether he would move back to oklahoma. What happened was, the 14th amendment had been passed not 2,too, too long before this. They had a couple lawyers webster and poppleton, to be Standing Bear for a lawyer. And they said they would use the 14th amendment. Native americans as strange as it sounds to us, were not considered persons under the law. They had to get the idea that native americans were persons and had certain rights, that the upshot of the trial was, the judge decided that he was a person under the law and had certain rights and could not be moved. The irony, of course, if this had held true for native americans all over the country all of these people on reservations would have been able to go back where they came from. There would have been mass chaos, so done the limited the ruling to Standing Bear and his 20 or so followers. They use the weapons that were available to them. They had never been a warlike people anyway. And the only really i think the reason it worked was because they use the white mans own weapons against him. They used the rule of law against him. If the white man word to refute their own law, it would have been almost is selfinflicted is selfinflicted