Memorials Caring for those who have lived a life of service for our country and communities has been part of Grand Island's identity since the Nebraska Soldiers and Sailors Home was built in 1887. The 7-acre Grand Island Veterans Cemetery was expanded into a Nebraska Veterans Cemetery, and Veterans Park is seeing improvements as well including the pictured sculpture.
Walking tours Get off the Interstate to see America! Walking tours allow you to engage with your environment, not just zip by it. Grand Island Tourism's guided and digital tours allow you to step back in time and learn about the people who built our city around the transcontinental railroad in the mid-to-late 1800s. Call the Grand Island Tourism office at 308-382-4400 for information on guided tours.
Mormon Trail site Wagon trains traveled through Grand Island and Hall County during the mid-1800s. The pictured sculpture and an information display mark the Townsley-Murdock Trail Site, part of the Mormon Trail. This 2.4-acre prairie on the northwest corner of Guenther and Alda roads that has never been plowed. Wagon ruts (swales) are visible on the site if you look closely.
1 2 3 Notable historic markers Stolley Park 2103 W. Stolley Park Rd. A historic home & monuments Martin brothers Platte River Rd. & Alda Rd. A captivating prairie story
O.K. Store & Corral 700 E. Stolley Park Rd. Marking the original town
A short history of Grand Island
P rior to 1700 , approximately 60,000 Pawnee lived throughout what would become the central United States, although disease from Europe soon decimated their numbers. In 1803, the United States bought the land that would become Nebraska from the French — who had claimed it in 1682 — as part of the Louisiana Purchase. From 1840-1870, wagon trains followed the Great Platte River Road through the prairie that would become Grand Island. In 1842, La Grand Isle, the island in the Platte River for which the city is named, was estimated to be 70 miles long with an average width of 1.75 miles. The Nebraska Territory was established in 1854, extending northwest from Kansas up to the Canadian border. Grand Island City was founded in 1857 by 36 German settlers from Iowa. They built cabins out of the few available trees on the prairie. The city was a business venture, speculating the railroad would come through within a few years. The bank supporting the
venture was bankrupted by a financial crisis later that year. However, most of the settlers stayed. Later that year, the Pawnee ceded their remaining land to the government. In 1862, The O.K. Store opened as the first business in Grand Island City and included a post office, stagecoach barn, stockyard, hotel, and a garden. In 1866, the Union Pacific Railroad platted a new Grand Island a few miles west of the original settlement. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed , going through Grand Island and largely bringing a halt to wagon trains. A few years later, the Burlington Railroad also arrived. The city of Grand Island was booming in the 1880s with more than 100 brick buildings and 7,500 residents by 1890. Learn more about the history of the area at Stuhr Museum ( StuhrMuseum.org ), where a living history town and extensive collections share Grand Island's story.
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