Omaha, Nebraska

City with a 2006 population of 427,872; largest city in Nebraska. County seat of Douglas County. Originally settled by Native Americans who named the site Umonhon, meaning "Dwellers on the bluff." The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through what is now Omaha in 1804. The Mormons built a town called Cutler's Park in the area in 1846 during their westward exodus to Utah. In 1854 the Omaha Tribe ceded the land on which the current city is built to the United States, which made white settlement legal. The city began to be settled in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act formed the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha was made the territorial capital. The capital was moved to Lincoln upon statehood in 1867.

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.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is considered to be a world-class facility.

Website: www.ci.omaha.ne.us/