Trans-Mississippi Exposition

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Night view of the Grand Court. Photograph by Frank Rinehart, 1898.

The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was a world's fair held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 1 to November 1 of 1898. Its goal was to showcase the development of the entire West, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast. The Indian Congress was held concurrently.

It featured ornate grounds that were created to highlight the economic, cultural and artistic achievements of the individuals who lived in the Midwest. All of the buildings, which housed over 5000 exhibits, were built as temporary structures.^[1]

[edit] Timeline

1895 Decision to hold Exposition made.^[2]
1897 East Omaha, near the now-dry Florence Lake, was the preferred site for the Exposition early in the year.^[3] 400 acres surrounding the tract that became Miller Park was considered the strongest contender towards the middle of the year. However, both sites ended up losing out to a site in North Omaha later in the year when Omaha businessman Herman Kountze donated land to the city to become a park after the Expo.
August 31, 1898 Declared "Cody Day" in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody, whose Wild West Show returned to North Omaha, where it was founded, for this event.^[4]
1899 The Expo is followed by the Great American Exposition in summer 1899.^[5]

[edit] Commemoration

The Post Office Department issued a series of nine postage stamps to mark the Exposition, each depicting a Western scene. Now known as the Trans-Mississippi Issue and considered among the finest stamps produced by the US, they are highly prized by collectors; a complete unused set is worth about US$5,000.

A monument to the exposition was placed in Omaha's Kountze Park, the former site of the exposition, during a Centennial celebration of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in 1998.