Early History of Omaha

"It requires but little, if any, stretch of the imagination to regard Omaha as a cesspool of iniquity, for it is given up to lawlessness and is overrun with a horde of fugitives from justice and dangerous men of all kinds who carry things with a high hand and a loose rein. If you want to find a rogue's rookery, go to Omaha."  Taken from a Kansas City newspaper

"Hast ever been in Omaha, where rolls the dark Missouri down;

And four strong horses scarce can draw an empty wagon through town? 

Where sand is blown from ever mound to fill the eyes and ears and throat;

Where all the steamers are aground and all the shanties are afloat? 

Where whiskey shops the livelong night are vending out their poison juice; 

Where men are often very tight, and women deemed a trifle loose? 

Where taverns have an anxious guest for every corner, shelf and crack; 

With half the people going west, and all the others going back?

Where theaters are all the run, and bloody scalpers come to trade; 

Where everything is overdone and everybody underpaid? 

If not, take heed to what I say: You'll find it just as I have found it; 

And if it lies upon your way, for God's sake, reader, go around it!" 

Poem from 1869 Harper's Magazine

This is a review of "A Dirty Wicked Town", a great book about Omaha in the 1800s. Omaha was far from a top ten city as recently named and described in a few post below by Richard Weston.
Another book on early Omaha that I would recommend is, "Historic Photos of Omaha" containing excellent photos of Omaha from the 1850s through the 1960s.