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is a city in and the county seat of Hall County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 42,940 at the 2000 census.
Grand Island is home to the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center (NLETC) which is the sole agency responsible for training law enforcement officers throughout the state, as well as the Southern Power District serving southern Nebraska.
Grand Island has been given the All-American City Award three times (1955, 1967, and 1981-82) by the National Civic League.
Grand Island is the principal city of the Grand Island Micropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Hall, Merrick, and Howard counties.
In 1857, thirty-five German settlers left Davenport, Iowa, and headed west to Nebraska to start a new settlement on an island known by French traders as La Grande Isle. Grand Island, which is formed by the Wood River and the North Platte River, is the largest inland island in the world. The settlers located here in part because the railroad, which needed to refuel every 150 miles, would stop. The settlers reached their destination on July 4 1857, and by September had built housing using local timber.
Over the next 9 years, the settlers had to overcome many hardships, including blizzards and conflicts with Native Americans. A fire set by a prospector who hated Germans destroyed the first settlement in 1859.
In 1872 the city was incorporated. In 1886, construction of the Union Pacific Railroad reached the area, bringing increased trade and business. The settlement was moved north of the Platte River, which is the present location of the town. While no longer an island, they kept the name. Population and industry began to grow.
In about 1890, sugar beets were introduced as a crop in Nebraska. The first sugar beet processing factory in the United States was built in the southwest part of Grand Island.