Fast facts about Waco, Nebraska:
It was founded in 1877 when the railroad laid its tracks through the area.
The railroad’s president's niece, Sarah Chapin, owned 160 acres of land along the railroad right-of-way and offered 10 acres for a town site if it could be named for her hometown of Waco, Texas.
In the 1930s, “John Dillinger-style gangsters” allegedly “descended on the village, robbed the local bank, took the owner of the Midwest Hamburger Shop hostage, and left him tied up several miles outside of town.” There is an Alexander Payne movie dying to be made from this one incident alone.
Today, Waco remains a strong ag town positioned along the main line of the BNSF Railway, which, coincidentally, is now wholly owned by Warren Buffett of Omaha.
Today, the leading business in town is Even Temp, Inc., makers of corn-burning and pellet stoves. Corn stoves burn more “evenly” throughout the day and need less tending than a wood stove, though they tend to burn hotter. Fascinating! True to the non-promotional nature of most Nebraskans, Even Temp, Inc. doesn’t even have a website. Git ‘R Dun.
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