24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Ralston, NE

Ralston is a city in Douglas County, Nebraska, an Omaha suburb that is completely surrounded by the city of Omaha on three sides and by La Vista in Sarpy County on the south, yet has kept its independence for more than a century.

Before the town existed, Omaha newspaper founder Dr. George L. Miller built a 17-room stone mansion on his 630-acre 'Deerfield' estate here, planting some 40,000 walnut, catalpa and oak trees he obtained from Arbor Day founder J. Sterling Morton.

An 1892 attempt to drill for oil or minerals in Ralston accidentally struck artesian water at 1,440 feet, creating the 47-acre Seymour Lake, where the Cudahy company harvested ice shipped out by rail.

The Ralston townsite was formally established on May 23, 1907, when Miller's land was sold to the Ralston Investment Company, and Ralston was incorporated as a village on June 24, 1912.

On Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913, a tornado tore through downtown Ralston, killing ten residents and destroying much of the young village.

On December 7, 1934, Ralston became one of the first cities in the United States to declare municipal bankruptcy; a year later its officials publicly burned $240,000 in retired bonds, and the city rebuilt its tax base by giving away 678 building lots starting in 1936.

In 1967 Mayor Wendell Kronberg negotiated a 'gentlemen's agreement' under which Omaha promised not to annex Ralston, an arrangement commemorated by a non-annexation plaque on City Hall.

The 2020 census counted 6,494 people in Ralston, packed into just 1.6 square miles — a density of about 4,090 people per square mile, among the highest of any Nebraska city — living in 2,858 households.

Ralston's Liberty First Credit Union Arena, opened in 2012 as the Ralston Arena, is home to the Omaha Lancers junior hockey team and the Omaha Beef indoor football team, and hosts the Douglas County Fair.

Ralston's 1900 granary, once slated for demolition, was renovated in 2023 into a business and entertainment center, and the surrounding HINGE district was named an official Nebraska Creative District in 2024.