Fillmore County Museum in Fairmont

will be OPEN Wedneday afternoons from 2-4 pm

throughout the Summer!

Historical

65 years later, fallen airmen still remembered: As NBC's Mike Leonard reports, Milligan, Neb., will never mentioned in the same breath as Normandy or Iwo Jima, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be mentioned at all. On NBC's Today Show.

Historical Marker Retouched... see article

Nebraska History

DVD's of Early Fairmont Pictures

On Sale $12.00 Each

postage & handling extra

( $5 goes to the Fillmore County Museum)

For more information, call (402) 268-3341 or e-mail: fairmont@galaxycable.net

Nebraska Memories

Many historical pictures of Fairmont included just click on the site and browse for Fairmont.

Fillmore County Museum

The Fillmore County Museum, located at 600 6th Ave., was originally the Fairmont Creamery Office. Dr. Ashby purchased the building in 1907 and used the space as a doctor's office until the 1960s. In the early 1980s, the building and some original contents were donated by the Ashby family to the Fillmore County Historical Society for a museum. Since opening in the summer of 1986, an average of 1,000 visitors a year have toured the museum. A large medical display, World War II articles from the Fairmont AirBase and several old wedding dresses are some of the special features. In the old drug store building you can see an iron collection, 2,500 pitchers, country school, soda fountain and much more. The museum is open by appointment. For more information, call (402) 268-6081, (402)-268-3831or (402) 268-2031.

Visit Fillmore County information: www.visitfillmorecounty.org/Museums/index.html

Rootsweb

Fairmont Army Airfield

After the Japanese attack on U. S. Navel and Air Forces in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941, the U. S. War Department needed bases for training military personnel. A 1,980 acre tract of agricultural land was selected for an Army airfield. It was located between the rural Nebrsaka towns of Fairmont and Geneva. Two other airfields were also constructed near Bruning and harvard.

Within ninety days, from September to December, 1942, construction crews, working around the clock, turned the landscape into runways, hangers, barracks, the largest hospital in Nebraska , and other support building to house and train over 3,000 airmen. Another 600 civilian personnel were hired to work at the base. The official name for the base was The Fairmont Army Airfield.

Over the next three years bomber and support crews went through their final preparations and training before being deployed overseas either to Europe or to the Pacific. Units stationed at the airbase during those years included: the 451st Heavy Bombardment Group, the 485th, the 504th, the 16th (training in B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Superfortess heavy bombers,). Throughout the U. S. there were 345 major airfields and 438 auxillary airfields built to train over 600,000 airmen. There were 11 major airfields constructed in Nebraska up to 1943.

The Fairmont Army Airfield housed and trained airmen from all over the country and the surrounding towns quickly became magnets for the men and the civilian population welcomed them with open arms. The men were given home cooked meals, taken to local church services, a threater to attend, a USO was opened, apartments were rented, and dances were held. Everyone knew that their stay would be a short one and then they would be gone.

In September, 1944, Lt. Colonel Paul Tibbets came to the Fairmont Army Airfield and picked several crews and their support personnel for a secret mission. They were put on a train at night, sent to a special training area in the western U. S., and then were shipped to an island in the Pacific, called Tinian, for more secret training. Tibbets later commanded a B-29 heavy bomber, called the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan a few days later. Japan surrendered and World War II was over.

After Japan's surrender in August, 1945, the Fairmont Army Airfield was deactivated. Buildings were dismantled, surplus materials were given to local schools and communities, auctions were held, and the land slowly converted back to pre-war status. Only four hangers, the water tower (recently painted in WWII colors), runways, taxiways, cement foundations, and a few brick and cement structures remain. Now a state airfield, the former base is still used by crop dusters, local \civilian pilots, and as storage for corn in the hangers.

In 2003, the airfield was chosen as a National Historic Site. IT is hoped that the area can be preserved and some of its contents rebuilt for future generations to see and remembered.

Army Air Fields in Nebraska

Wikipedia Fairmont Army Airfield

Susan Kreifels Airfield of Dreams

Strains on Rural Housing

Fairmont Creamery

Fairmont Foods began as the Fairmont Creamery in Fairmont, Nebraska, in 1884. The creamery was a pioneer in milk can pickup and was one of the first creameries to give farmers their own hand cream-separators in its early years. The business grew rapidly and moved to Omaha in 1904. In 1929 it was incorporated and began to diversify its product lines to include frozen foods, cheese, and poultry products. By 1948 the company name was changed to Fairmont Foods, a direct reflection of the corporation's diversification. At one time it was a Fortune 500 company and it earned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1959.

Photo of Historical Marker

History of Fairmont Air Field

Historical Markers

Andreas History of Fillmore County Nebraska

Area Cemeteries
Fairmont Cemetery and Catholic Cemeter. Records. AlphaCemetery Records Contact : wmarget@galaxycable.net

METZ MORTUARY DEATH RECORDS

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY

Fillmore County Nebrsaka Rootsweb

Horton Cemetery

Civil war veterans

Visit Fillmore County Information