City: Omaha, NE

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (800) 625-1400, (402) 498-1140

Description: Boys Town, Nebraska, isn’t just a tourist attraction; it’s a self-sustaining community that has its own zip code, along with a fire department, schools, police department, and churches. Founded in 1936 by Father Edward Flanagan, Boys Town is Nebraska’s only National Historic Landmark District. It’s also the headquarters for Boys Town Nebraska/Iowa, an organization dedicated to helping and caring for at-risk children and their families.Most visitors start at the official welcome center, where self-guided audio tours and maps are available for free and a list of scheduled tours and events is also available. The Hall of History, housed in what used to be the Boys Town dining hall, tells the story of the organization and includes exhibits on its programs, mission, and artifacts from the movie Boys Town, which earned Spencer Tracy an Oscar for Best Actor. Guided tours of the Hall run year round.The Father Flanagan house was where the Boys Town founder lived and its furnishings reflect late 1920s decor, replicating what it may have looked like when Flanagan lived there. A desk that residents of Boys Town made for Flanagan still sits in the study, and is made of more than 250,000 pieces of inlaid wood. The gothic Dowd Memorial Chapel sits at the center of Boys Town, and its Indiana Bedford interior and exterior play host to year-round mass that is especially popular during the holiday season.Another religious structure, the Chambers Protestant Chapel, is made of terra cotta tiles designed by Boys Town residents, as well as stained-glass windows and cast bronze gargoyles. The two church structures are linked by a three-acre Garden of the Bible, which is maintained by Boys Town youth and includes more than 150 varieties of plants all mentioned in the Bible. The garden is a popular destination for picnic lunches.