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Grand Island, the seat of Hall County and Nebraska's fourth-largest city, takes its name from a Platte River island once known to French traders as "La Grande Isle." German immigrant families from Davenport, Iowa established the original settlement on July 4, 1857, and the city was incorporated in 1872 after the Union Pacific Railroad platted a station nearby. Grand Island has won the National Civic League's All-America City Award four times (1955, 1967, 1981, and 1982), is home to Hornady Manufacturing and the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center, and has hosted the Nebraska State Fair since it relocated from Lincoln in 2010. The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, with more than 140,000 artifacts, sits just outside the city. On June 3, 1980, a devastating supercell thunderstorm spawned seven tornadoes in and around Grand Island in a single night.
County seat and Nebraska's fourth-largest city, named for a Platte River island; home to the Nebraska State Fair, Hornady Manufacturing, and the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer.