Union Stockyards (Omaha)

Omaha overtook Chicago as the nation's largest livestock market and meat packing industry center in 1955, a title which it held onto until 1971.

A cattle baron named Alexander Swan called for the founder of Omaha's first stockyards, William A. Paxton, to start a new facility in the early 1880s.

Working along with Herman Kountze, John A. Creighton and others, the new stockyards received the first shipment of 531 longhorn cattle from Medicine Bow, Wyoming in 1884.

It was a substantial structure, complete with amenities and apartments for traders, as well as elaborate convention rooms, in recognition both of the growing importance and Omaha's ambitions for the industry.

In 1910, 20,000 animals arrived at the Stockyards each day from farms and ranches in 20 states, including Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah and South Dakota.

[9] Cattle, hogs, sheep, buffalo, deer, horses, mules and chickens were sold on the market in early years.

During this period the Stockyards developed a reliance on several railroads to bring cattle to them, and to ship processed meat to the East.

[4][10] That year, Omaha overtook Chicago as the nation's largest livestock market and meatpacking center, a position it held until 1973.

Led by companies like IBP, the meatpacking industry started moving slaughterhouses closer to cattle feedlots in rural areas, where they hired non-union workers.

In 1996 the City of Omaha bought 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land for an office park, and condemned the rest of the facilities, except the Livestock Exchange Building, which was slated for renovation.