Saunders County

The courthouse behind this marker replaced the county's first, a two-story wood-frame building finished on the same high site in 1874. Voters approved $85,000 in bonds twice in 1903 after procedural errors voided the first election, and that December the Omaha firm of Fisher & Lawrie, George L. Fisher and the Scottish-born Harry Lawrie, won the design. Lincoln contractor Charles Olson bid $78,825. Cornerstone ceremonies came in June 1904, and county offices moved in on February 13, 1905, before the building was finished. It joined the National Register on January 10, 1990.

What the plaque says

Saunders County Saunders County was originally Oto Indian territory, and a large earthlodge village under Chief Itan was located here during the early historic period. Later, the Pawnee established villages in the area and in 1855 held peace conferences with General John M. Thayer. The Ox-Bow Trail, the primary route from Nebraska City to Fort Kearny in 1856-1859, passed through this area. Pioneers first settled here in 1856 and 1857. The county's organization was approved in 1867 and the county seat located at Ashland. Wahoo was surveyed three years later and became the county seat in 1873. The origin of the name "Wahoo" is uncertain, but it is probably derived from an Oto word. In 1883 Swedish settlers in Wahoo established a school which eventually became Luther Junior College. When Luther merged with Midland College in Fremont, the Wahoo campus was sold. In 1965 it became the site of John F. Kennedy College. Among Wahoo's prominent native sons are artist Clarence W. Anderson, geneticist and Nobel Prize winner George Beadle, baseball player "Wahoo Sam" Crawford, composer Howard Hanson and motion picture producer Darryl F. Zanuck. Wahoo Lions Club Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum — 21 mi
  Two hangar-sized halls beside I-80 near Ashland holding the bombers and reconnaissance planes of the command that ran America's nuclear force from Offutt, south of Omaha, from 1948 to 1992.

More markers nearby

• Atlas D Missile Site A-1 — 7.4 mi
• Atlas D Missile Site A-1 — 9.6 mi
• The Yutan Oto Indian Village — 12 mi
• The Armour and Company Icehouse — 12 mi