Boys Town lies about 10 km west of downtown Omaha and is still a functioning residential community for troubled and abandoned youth — the same mission Father Edward Flanagan started in 1917. The grounds are open to visitors and include the Hall of History, a museum covering the campus's century of operation and Flanagan's remarkable story.
The 1938 MGM film starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney made Boys Town internationally famous and brought in so much donation money that the organisation published a statement clarifying it was no longer in financial difficulty. The small chapel where Flanagan is buried is open to the public. The statue of a boy carrying a younger child, with the inscription "He ain't heavy, Father, he's m'brother," is the image most people associate with the campus.