Editing Gretna, Nebraska (section)

==History==
[[File:Meat Market, Gretna NB.jpg|thumb|left|Meat Market in Gretna, circa 1895]]

Gretna started shortly after the [[Burlington Railroad]] built a short line between [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]] and [[Ashland, Nebraska|Ashland]] in the summer of 1886.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.casde.unl.edu/history/counties/sarpy/gretna/ |title=Gretna, Sarpy County |publisher=University of Nebraska |work=Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies |access-date=August 23, 2014}}</ref> Advent of the village of Gretna on this new laid rail line was the cue for the exit of the nearby trading post of Forest City, which had existed since 1856. In its day, Forest City, located 2.5 miles southwest of where Gretna now stands, was a flourishing and busy place, but it was doomed by the railroad which passed it by. The only markers that exist today to show the site of old Forest City is the cemetery (Holy Sepulchre) which is located a little to the east of what was the center of activity in the settlement and the 1886 homestead originally owned by the Schnack Family and located on Schnack Acres at 234th St. Names that were prominent in the beginnings of Forest City were the families of Adolph Schnack, William Langdon, John Thomas and John Conner.

The Lincoln Land Company, recognizing the potential of the site, surveyed and [[plat]]ted the town site of Gretna in 1887. The village was incorporated by July 10, 1889. The name suggests Scotland's [[Gretna Green]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Exploring Nebraska Highways: Trip Trivia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjRdGsXE_joC&pg=PA17|year=2007|publisher=Exploring America's Highway|isbn=978-0-9744358-7-9|page=17}}</ref> the ancestral county of some of the earliest settlers.