Nicest Small Towns To Visit Near Omaha

Omaha sits within a short drive of five communities that each pull travelers out of the city for a different reason. Plattsmouth has its 45-building National Register downtown. Ashland anchors Eugene T. Mahoney State Park and the Strategic Air Command Museum. Nebraska City is the birthplace of Arbor Day. Fremont calls itself Eastern Nebraska's Antique Capital. Blair sits next to the 1820 Fort Atkinson reconstruction.

Plattsmouth

Plattsmouth sits thirty minutes south of Omaha near the confluence of the Platte and Missouri Rivers, where the Lewis and Clark expedition stopped briefly in July 1804. The Main Street Historic District covers more than 45 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, anchored around the 1892 Cass County Courthouse. The Cass County Historical Society Museum runs the local history through the railroad-junction era when Plattsmouth was a major Burlington line stop. Schilling Wildlife Management Area protects 380 acres of bottomland forest along the Missouri River for birding and short hikes.

Rhylander Park downtown holds picnic ground and hosts the bulk of the town's summer event calendar including the annual Harvest Festival. The River House Café serves old-fashioned breakfasts and lunches on Main Street, with the kind of clientele that knows the regulars by first name.

Ashland

Ashland sits forty minutes southwest of Omaha at I-80 exit 426. Silver Street downtown carries the bulk of the local commerce in a single walkable stretch with Cheri O's Coffee Shop and Ice Cream Parlor anchoring one end and Salt Creek Mercantile selling seasonal home goods and decor at the other. Eugene T. Mahoney State Park five miles north is one of the most visited state parks in Nebraska with an observation tower, aquatic center, mini golf, and a water park along the Platte River. The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum less than five minutes away houses dozens of historic military aircraft including a B-52 Stratofortress and an SR-71 Blackbird with flight simulators and interactive exhibits. Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Safari Park between Ashland and Mahoney runs a four-mile drive-through with bison, elk, and trumpeter swans visible from the car.

Nebraska City

Nebraska City sits fifty minutes south of Omaha along the Missouri River with a population of about 7,300. J. Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day here in 1872 with the first observance on April 10. His preserved mansion sits at the center of Arbor Lodge State Historical Park, expanded to 52 rooms in 1903 in Colonial Revival style after his death.

Arbor Day Farm covers 260 adjacent acres with apple orchards, a treehouse trail, and a hardwood-themed conference center built into a working tree nursery. The Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Visitor Center traces the 1803-1806 expedition through hands-on exhibits and seasonal reenactments along the river bluffs. Mayhew Cabin on 4th Corso served as a documented Underground Railroad stop before the Civil War, one of the few verified Nebraska sites.

Fremont

Fremont sits northwest of Omaha along the Platte River, with a downtown built around brick-lined streets that earned the town its Eastern Nebraska's Antique Capital nickname. Park Avenue Antiques and several other dealers cluster around the old Dodge County Courthouse Square. The Louis E. May Museum occupies an 1874 Queen Anne mansion built for Nebraska's first lieutenant governor, with original furnishings and rotating exhibits on county history.

Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area covers twenty sand-pit lakes totaling about 300 water acres just west of town for swimming, fishing, and tent camping. Woody's Airboat Tours runs flat-bottom rides through Platte River channels for fishing and wildlife viewing including bald eagles and great blue herons. The annual John C. Fremont Days each July fills downtown with re-enactors, parades, and pioneer demonstrations honoring the town's namesake explorer.

Blair

Blair sits 35 minutes north of Omaha along US-75 above the Missouri River. Fort Atkinson State Historical Park three miles east preserves a reconstruction of the first US military post established west of the Missouri in 1820, where the original garrison housed nearly a thousand soldiers as part of the Yellowstone Expedition. The park runs costumed reenactors on Living History Days throughout the warm months. DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge across the river straddles Nebraska and Iowa with the recovered steamboat Bertrand (sunk 1865, excavated 1968-1969) as the visitor center's centerpiece. Black Elk-Neihardt Park downtown honors the Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk and poet John Neihardt, whose book Black Elk Speaks (1932) brought Lakota spirituality to a wider American audience. The hilltop walking trails there offer some of the best views of the Missouri River Valley around.

Around Omaha

Each of these five towns gives Omaha a different orbit. Plattsmouth sits south for the Lewis and Clark history. Ashland heads southwest with state parks and military aviation. Nebraska City lies further south with Arbor Day and the Missouri River. Fremont sits northwest with antiques and the Platte. Blair anchors the north with its Lewis and Clark fort and the Missouri river bluffs. None is more than an hour from Omaha city limits.