Omaha: The Beef Capital Where Buffett Still Lives
Omaha's most famous resident could live anywhere and chose to stay. Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest people, still lives in the house he bought in 1958, still runs Berkshire Hathaway from a modest office downtown, still eats at the same local restaurants. The Buffett mystique - the idea that you can be a billionaire and still be normal, still be Omaha - shapes how the city sees itself. The city of 490,000 sits on the Missouri River where the Great Plains begin, the eastern terminus of the Mormon Trail, the stockyard center that processed the beef that made fortunes. The stockyards closed decades ago; the financial and insurance industries that replaced them keep Omaha prosperous without the smell.
The Buffett
Warren Buffett could headquarter Berkshire Hathaway anywhere - New York, where the financial industry concentrates; Silicon Valley, where tech money flows. He chose Omaha because it's home, because the distance from Wall Street allows clearer thinking, because the values he espouses (modesty, patience, long-term thinking) align with Midwestern culture. The Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting each May draws 40,000 investors to Omaha, the 'Woodstock of Capitalism.' Buffett's presence gives Omaha outsized financial significance; his philanthropy (the Buffett Foundation, gifts to the Gates Foundation) shows what Omaha money can do. Buffett is Omaha's greatest advertisement.
The Beef
The South Omaha stockyards processed cattle from the Great Plains for nearly a century - the animals arriving by rail, the meatpacking plants converting them to product, the smell covering the city when the wind blew wrong. The stockyards closed in 1999, the industry having shifted to plants closer to cattle country. The meatpacking heritage survives in the steakhouses: Gorat's (Buffett's favorite), the Drover, the old-school joints where beef is the obvious choice. Omaha steak the brand (shipped nationwide) trades on the reputation the stockyards built. The beef heritage is past tense now; the taste lingers.
The Baseball
The College World Series has been held in Omaha since 1950 - the NCAA Division I baseball championship, eight teams competing for two weeks each June. The tournament brings baseball culture to a city that lacks professional teams (the Triple-A Storm Chasers don't quite count). TD Ameritrade Park, built in 2011, provides the modern stadium; the enthusiasm of college crowds provides the atmosphere. The CWS is Omaha's annual moment of national attention, the event that puts the city on TV for reasons other than weather disasters. Baseball in June is what Omaha does.
The River
The Missouri River marks Omaha's eastern border, Council Bluffs across in Iowa. The river was the starting point for the Mormon Trail, the Union Pacific Railroad, the westward expansion that made Omaha a gateway. The riverfront has been redeveloped (the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge connects Nebraska and Iowa), but Omaha's relationship with the river is uneasy - floods threaten, the course shifts, the connection to the water is less intimate than in cities that embrace their rivers. The Missouri is fact more than feature, the reason Omaha is here without being the reason people stay.
Visiting Omaha
Omaha is served by Eppley Airfield (OMA). The Old Market district provides dining, galleries, and nightlife in brick warehouses. The Henry Doorly Zoo is genuinely excellent - the indoor jungle and desert domes are impressive. The Durham Museum, in the former Union Station, covers regional history. For Buffett pilgrimage, drive past his house in Dundee (don't bother him), visit the Berkshire headquarters (just a building), eat at Gorat's (cash only, straightforward steaks). The CWS runs mid-June; book ahead. The weather is extreme: hot summers, cold winters, Midwest weather. Omaha rewards visitors who appreciate understatement.
From the Air
Located at 41.26°N, 95.94°W on the Missouri River at the eastern edge of the Great Plains. From altitude, Omaha appears as urban development along the river - Council Bluffs visible across in Iowa, the suburbs extending into Nebraska prairie. The stockyards that once defined the city are gone; the financial district that replaced them is less visible. What appears from altitude as Nebraska's largest city is where Warren Buffett chose to stay - where beef built the original fortunes, where the College World Series draws baseball, and where Midwestern modesty persists despite the billions.