Lewis and Clark's 1804 council with the Oto and Missouria was not at Council Bluffs but 20 miles farther north, at a site Clark then suggested for a fort. In 1819 Cantonment Missouri was established by the military on the river bank, a bad choice. Next year, the first military post west of the Missouri River, Fort Atkinson was built and lasted to 1827, establishing a number of Nebraskan firsts found on various websites (my source was nebraskastudies.org.): library, school, brickyard, sawmill, grist (flour) mill, weather records, farm crops, bowling alley, white women (laundresses). Fifteen miles north of Omaha, on the east edge of Fort Calhoun is the Nebraska State Historical Park re-creating Fort Atkinson and having fine Living History weekends the first weekend of every month from May through October.
After crossing the Kerrey bridge and seeing the Mid-America Center with Borofsky's Molecule Man, I headed up to Fort Atkinson, not having been there since the Lewis and Clark celebration a few years back, though much of that was on the floodplain below the low bluff where the Missouri once ran. Except for a caretaker checking something, I had the place to myself and got hung up on all the triangles created by the bright afternoon sun.
The fort is three-sided, the fourth on the east a steep drop-off to the floodplain, the Missouri having moved four or five miles east. The approach looks southwest, the north side in shadow, the west brightly lit. The cabins at the left outside the fort square are for the blacksmith, gunsmith, carpenter, and cooper (barrel maker). It is more authentic than many sites I tracked down in my numerous vacations, which is why I like it.
The open southwest corner, above, with the gunslit windows marking each room's center, the upright posts denoting the interior walls.
Looking slightly northeast and then straight up the western side to the palisade, at the left of the palisade at a slight distance is the re-created council house of Lewis and Clark and the Native Americans. Below is a closer view.
The powder magazine sits in the middle of the parade ground, a huge flag usually flying on the pole during the summer season, and very authentically dressed soldiers firing cannons on Living History Weekends. (One explained his costume in detail, including shirttails long enough to be his underwear too.) The view is toward the southern side of the block C open toward the east, the steep, high drop-off at the trees on the left.
The craftsmen were just outside the fort, as I mentioned with the approach photo, their two cabins seen here looking northeast from the central north gate.
See what I mean about triangles? Above are views from the main entrance at the middle of the western side, the top looking south, the bottom northward.
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