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Welcome to Fairmont, Nebraska!

Area Attractions

Fillmore County Museum in Fairmont will be OPENby appointment only throughout the Fall and Winter Months.

Other County Events and Festivals

 

"Old Settlers Picnic"

136th July 13-15, 2012

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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

Activities
One of the biggest assets in Fairmont is our children and the community works to provide many fun learning experiences for them. Besides activities offered by the school, soccer, basketball and summer baseball are also offered. Some of the special events include an Easter egg hunt and summer reading program at the library. Fairmont has three parks--all with playgrounds. Two parks have shelters and tables for picnicking. The largest park has a public swimming pool and tennis, volleyball and basketball courts. For more information on Fairmont's activities, call (402) 268-3341.

Community Club
The Community Club meets the third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Legion Club. Anyone interested can attend.

Fillmore County Museum OPEN By Appointment this fall and winter
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) 759-0597, (402) 268-2031 or (402)-268-3831.

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

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.

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.

 

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

FARMER & SONS FUNERAL HOME

METZ MORTUARY DEATH RECORDS

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY

Fillmore County Nebrsaka Rootsweb

Web site: visitfillmorecounty.org/Genealogy/index.html

Fairmont at Christmas
You won't want to miss Fairmont during the Christmas season. The season begins with the lighting of the City Park on the Sunday following  Thanksgiving. The park is decorated by the Fairmont community. After the official lighting program, everyone enjoys a free pancake supper. Christmas music rings throughout the downtown area. Homes and businesses are aglow with lights. Santa comes to Fairmont on the Saturday before Christmas to visit with the children and collect their Christmas lists. A fun-filled afternoon is enjoyed by the children before Santa's arrival. The Library has Christmas crafts and gingerbread house activities.  Fairmont is a community that has the Christmas spirit all year, a community where neighbors really do care.