The Union Pacific's old passenger depot had been empty ever since a new depot opened in April 1918. The railroad allowed the old depot to be used as a canteen, and the Red Cross welcomed its first soldiers with small care packages on August 12. Nine units of ten workers were scheduled to stand ready to serve troops from 8:30 am unitl 10:05 pm daily. The canteen served troops as they headed to war in Europe and as they returned home after the war. According to the final report on August 8, 1919, the Grand Island canteen had served 57,890 service men at a cost of $3,429,37 to the local Red Cross chapter.
]]>Due to financial hardships, the former 80-acre Hall County fairground was sold in 1932. In April 1953 area farmers, ranchers, and civic leaders founded two organizations to establish a new permanent home for the Hall County Fair and to build a Thoroughbred horse racetrack in Central Nebraska.
The Hall County Agricultural Society included representatives from every district in the county, providing leadership and structure for fair operations. The Hall County Livestock Improvement Association was incorporated by thirty businessmen and farmers, who secured 80 acres of land from Gus and Emma Fonner and began raising funds to construct a 5/8-mile horse racetrack, paddock, grandstand, barns, and livestock exhibition building. Fonner Park's first agricultural cultural show, the Old Reliable Hereford Show, was held on February 2, 1954.
Since April 29, 1954, Fonner Park has been home to Central Nebraska's only Thoroughbred racetrack and the Hall County Fair. In 2010, Fonner Park became the new permanent home of the Nebraska State Fair.
]]>Grand Island's "Lucky Ten" families were announced in April 1935. The 20 adults and 34 children shared communal buildings including showers, restrooms, laundry, a canning house, and a roadside market to sell produce grown on the 160-acre site. Each family received a four-room cottage, small barn, chicken house, 7-acre tract, 2 cows, 100 hens, 300 chicks, and seed. Individual farmsteads, valued at $2,500, had 15-year payment plans. Unique to Grand Island was a 1936 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that District 28 school could not refuse the admit the 24 school-age farmstead children. The Grand Island Farmstead Cooperative Association was dissolved in March 1939.
]]>Owners and tenants were given 30 days to vacate their property by April 25, 1942. The government retained barns and outbuildings for tool buildings, machine sheds, and warehouses. Property owners could move their houses with government approval.
The evacuation order affected both homes and livelihoods. While some farmers found land elsewhere to rent or buy, others felt they had no choice but to sell all their livestock and equipment. Two weeks after being served, one farmer advertised a "Hit by a Bomb Plant" farm sale.
]]>In 1942 flood waters washed out the dam, draining the lake. One of the final community celebrations on the lake that year was a two-day July 4th event with boating, fishing, picnicking, dancing, fireworks, speeches from military and government officials, and vaudeville acts from Chicago. Sand Krog was razed in 1959 to make room for U.S. Highway 281. In 1968 Hall County assumed ownership of the property and created a county park with a paved road that winds along the rim of the former lake.
]]>Seven tornadoes struck Grand Island and surrounding areas on the night of June 3, 1980. They were part of a supercell thunderstorm complex that produced eighteen tornadoes from Nebraska to West Virginia.
The complex approached Grand Island from the north during the early evening. It moved slowly south-southeast through the city at around eight miles per hour. All seven tornadoes struck within a three-hour period. One reached F4 intensity, leaving a six-mile path of destruction more than a half-mile wide. Two other tornadoes were rated F3.
The storm killed five people and injured about 200. It destroyed hundreds of homes and many businesses. Total damage was estimated at over $200 million. The event was also unusual for producing three tornadoes that rotated clockwise. This is rare in the northern hemisphere, where over 99 percent of tornadoes rotate counter-clockwise.
The disaster inspired a book and a made-for-television movie entitled ‘Night of the Twisters’, as well as tornado and engineering research. The debris from the devastation was collected here, creating a park for the people of Grand Island.
]]>The first settlers of Hall County, Nebraska, nearly all of whom were German immigrants, arrived on July 5, 1857. They platted Grand Island City and established farms. The O.K. Store of Henry A. Koenig and Fred Wiebe, located near the Mormon Trail, was opened near this site in 1862. It was the first store in the settlement and it also served as the first telegraph station. During the Indian uprising of 1864 and 1865 many Platte Valley settlers fled but the Grand Island settlers remained. They fortified the O.K. Store with a sod stockade which sheltered 68 men and 100 women. To give shelter to 35 more persons, William Stolley built "Fort Independence" about two miles west. On August 22, 1865, General S. R. Curtis and his troops visited "Fort O.K." Impressed by the settlers' preparations for defense Curtis left a six-pounder cannon, which is still preserved in Hall County. Because of the fortifications "Fort O.K." and Grand Island escaped Indian attacks. In 1858, a short distance northeast of this marker, the first post office for Grand Island was located in John D. Schuller's cabin, which now stands on the county museum grounds.
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