GRAND ISLAND - -
Nebraska's Third
City
Your Chamber of Commerce
Your Chamber of Commerce is
a democratic organization, a voluntary association of
business and professional men and citizens banded together
for the purpose of lending their moral and financial support
to everything that is good for the community. In this
fashion they can do more collectively than any individual or
small group of citizens towards the building of this
community. No individuals efforts are lost when he supports
his Chamber of Commerce, because by so doing he is doing
community work for the good of all of the people. If this is
true, and it is, then there should be no reason why any
citizen desiring to help his community to grow and prosper
should not be an active member of the Chamber of
Commerce.
Grand Island is numbered among
the important cities at the agricultural states. It is
located in the heart of a great agricultural region in the
Platte River basin. It has an area of approximately six
square miles and a population exceeding 20,000. Its
elevation is 1864. It is within fifteen miles of the center
of the state's population and is almost in the center of the
United States.
In 1873 the St. Joseph and
Grand Island Railroad was organized here. It was completed
in 1875. In 1880 the Union Pacific built the first stretch
of its northern branch lines to St. Paul, Nebraska. In 1884,
the Burlington Railroad extended its present Billings line
to Grand Island.
Because of its geographical
location, railroad, bus and truck service, with highways and
railways pointing out from Grand Island in all directions,
it is only natural that Grand Island is an outstanding
jobbing, manufacturing, retail, livestock, and medical
center of this section of the Middle West. It does an annual
wholesale business of approximately $16,000,000, retail
business of $12,000,000 to $13,000,000, and manufacturing
business of $3,000,000.
Modern Grand Island is on its
way to being a century old. It is now eighty-six years old.
From Indian camp to stage station, from stage station to
pioneer town, the transition was swift, for in 1857, the
first settlement, hardy German families from Davenport,
Iowa, was established here. From that beginning, Grand
Island's growth has been sound and steady.
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