Hall County Historical Society

10/18/2025

We had another great cemetery tour with our newest group of junior HCHS members this morning. We are so proud to share our community history with our future community leaders. The Walnut DC Diplomats are an amazing group of curious, insightful, and considerate young adults.

10/10/2025

Walnut Middle School is kicking off their 100th Anniversary celebration this Sunday with an Open House from 2-4 pm. We could not be prouder of our HCHS Junior Members, the Walnut DC Diplomats, who have helped created a unique "Museum Experience" that will showcase their research on the history of Walnut since the school first opened it's doors as a 16-room junior high in 1925.

10/09/2025

Join us this Sunday at 2 pm as one of our favorite presenters, Dr. Nathan Tye of UNK History Department, returns to Burlington Station to share the Cather connection to Hall County.

October 12, 2025 | The Cathers of Hall County
Willa Cather is intimately bound up with Webster County. Yet, the wider Cather family thrived in other communities, including Grand Island. George and Frances Cather were the first Cathers to arrive in Webster County, but off and on between 1898 and 1964 their children lived in Grand Island. They attended Grand Island College and built lives in the city. Among them was Grosvenor P. Cather, a Grand Island College dropout, whose life and death on the battlefields of France inspired his famous cousin’s 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, One of Ours. Dr. Nathan Tye, from University of Nebraska-Kearney, will explore the lives of the Hall County Cathers and their place within Willa Cather’s life and work.

Voices of the Past programs are free to HCHS members and $5 for non-members.

10/09/2025

Check out this amazing TikTok created by about our historical markers at the former Cornhusker Ordnance Plant.

180 likes, 27 comments. “The story of the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant near Grand Island, Nebraska. Back in 1942, life in central Nebraska was quiet. Just farms, families, and open land as far as you could see. Then everything changed almost overnight. That February, Senator George Norris announced t...

10/08/2025

We are excited to have two amazing facilitators for Bygone Book Club this month. Join us this Saturday at Grand Island Public Library as Jean Lukesh and Ronnie O’Brien lead the discussion on Sea of Grass.

Bygone Book Club meets this Saturday, October 11th at 11:30 AM! This historical fiction novel is inspired by the long sweep of Indigenous history in the grasslands, as well as the real people and events that were shaped by the land, animals, and plants of the Central Plains.

10/05/2025

Thank you KSNB Local4 for asking us for some history on Harvest of Harmony. We hope everyone had fun at the parade!

Dating back to 1938, thousands will line the streets of Grand Island on Saturday for the 83rd "Harvest of Harmony" parade.

09/27/2025

Thank you to everyone who came to the Henry Fonda Film Festival at The Grand Theatre. Thank you also to our amazing volunteers:

The Hargis House of Grand Island
The Crosby Crew
Heritage Bank
HCHS and Friends

09/27/2025

The curtain goes up at 5pm for the last film of the Henry Fonda Film Festival The Grand Theatre. We hope to see you there!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/27/2025

We had a fun night at The Grand Theatre. We hope you join us tomorrow for 3 more iconic Henry Fonda films.

10am Fort Apache
1pm How The West Was Won
5pm Battle of the Bulge

09/26/2025

Popcorn is popping and we are getting ready for the curtain to go up at 5pm for Spencer’s Mountain, the first film of the Henry Fonda Film Festival at The Grand Theatre.

Yours, Mine & Ours starts at 8pm.

We hope to see you soon!

09/25/2025

Tomorrow night at 8 pm at The Grand Theatre. We hope to see you there!

Navy officer Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda) is struggling to raise his 10 children in the wake of his wife's death. Frank soon begins dating Helen North (Luci...