Union Stockyards (Omaha) - History

History

The first meat packer in Omaha preceded the founding of the Stockyards. James E. Boyd, an Irish-born politician important to early Omaha and Nebraska, got his start in the state after opening Boyd's Packing House in the downtown area. 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. Initially, the Union Stockyards operated as a feeding station for stock on their way to eastern markets like the Union Stock Yards in Chicago. The first livestock exchange was located in a farmhouse on the site. The Union Stock Yards originally covered over 260 acres (1.1 km2) of land, with pens covering nearly 200 acres (0.8 km2). They were located between South 36th Street on the west to South 27th Street on the east; L Street on the north to Q Street on the south.

The second exchange building was constructed in 1885 by J. E. Riley and designed by Mendelssohn and Fisher. 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. The "Big Four" meat packers established during this period were Armour, Wilson, Cudahy, and Swift.