Falls City Nebraska

City · Richardson County · County seat · Population 4,133 (2020 census) · ZIP 68355 · Founded 1857 · Peak population 6,203 (1950)

About Falls City

Falls City is the seat of Richardson County, a city of 4,133 near the Big Nemaha River in the southeastern corner of Nebraska, where US 73 and US 159 meet NE 8, about 4 miles north of the Kansas line and 9 miles west of the Missouri River at Rulo. It has the Richardson County Courthouse, Community Medical Center, Falls City Public Schools and Sacred Heart, and a downtown on Stone Street that is on the National Register.

History

The town is named for the falls of the Nemaha, a rock ledge about 4 feet high on the river; a History Nebraska marker tells of an earlier settlement, Falls Mills, near the falls that moved north after floods. Falls City was founded in the summer of 1857 by free-state leader James Lane with John and J. E. Burbank and Isaac L. Hamby, as a base on the "Lane Trail" for antislavery emigrants bound for Kansas, and it was a station on the Underground Railroad. The Broadaxe, started in 1857, became today's Falls City Journal. The town was incorporated by territorial act on January 13, 1860, and won the county seat from Salem in an election that year.

The Atchison & Nebraska Railroad, later part of the Burlington, arrived in 1871 and the Missouri Pacific in 1882, and Falls City became a Missouri Pacific division point in 1909 and a poultry-packing and dairy center. Nebraska's first producing oil well was drilled west of town in 1939. The Classical Revival courthouse, designed by William F. Gernandt, was completed in 1925 after the earlier one burned in 1919. The population peaked at 6,203 in 1950. Braniff Flight 250 crashed near Falls City in August 1966, killing all 42 aboard. Governors John H. Morehead, Arthur J. Weaver and Dave Heineman and illustrator John Philip Falter came from Falls City.

Things to see

Richardson County Courthouse, 1700 Stone St. (1925; National Register), with the Richardson County Military History Museum on the first floor (weekdays) and the county veterans memorial at its southeast corner · the Falls City Commercial Historic District on Stone St. from 15th to 19th Sts. (National Register), including the 1892–93 Gehling's Theatre building · the John Philip Falter Museum, 1622 Stone St., with Falter's 129 Saturday Evening Post covers (May–August, by appointment, 402-450-3724) · the Richardson County Historical Museum, 1401 Chase St., in an 1888 house (April–October afternoons, 402-245-4407) · the Falls City Library & Arts Center, 1400 Stone St., with the Stalder Art Gallery · the Grand Weaver Hotel, 1800 Stone St. (1924) · the Nemaha River Falls marker by the Aquatic Center on Bill Schock Blvd. · the Gov. Arthur J. Weaver House, 1906 Fulton St. (National Register; private) · Stanton Lake Park on W. 25th St., with a fishing lake, campground with hookups, disc golf and dog runs, beside the Itha Krumme Memorial Arboretum · Falls City Country Club, 64870 706 Trl. (9 holes, public) · Brenner Field, home of the Hot Air Balloon Festival in June · Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 1820 Fulton St.