Lyons, NE

Lyons is a Burt County city in the Logan Valley, where the 2020 census counted 824 residents. Its fertile soil drew settlers in 1866, and the railroad's arrival after 1881 gave the town a commercial route through the valley. U.S. Highway 77 now runs through Lyons, south of the Omaha Indian Reservation and west of the Missouri River. The city is also the home of the Center for Rural Affairs, which moved here from Walthill in 2004 and gives Lyons a lasting role in rural policy and farm-country organizing.

Lyons has turned its Main Street into a place for local storytelling. The Storefront Theater grew from concern about vacant storefronts and memories of the old movie theater; its facade folds down over the sidewalk to create an outdoor screen. More than 200 people attended the first event in 2015, and the project received a national public-art award in 2016. Lyons therefore joins a railroad town, a working agricultural valley, a rural-policy organization, and a piece of mechanical theater that brings neighbors back to Main Street.