Fort Atkinson (Nebraska)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fort Atkinson State Historical Park | |
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| Location | Nebraska, USA |
| Nearest city | Omaha, NE |
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| Established | 1971 |
| Governing body | Nebraska Game and Parks Commission |
Fort Atkinson was the first United States Army post to be established west of the Missouri River in the United States. Located just east of present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the fort was erected in 1819 and abandoned in 1827.
[edit] History
The site that would become Fort Atkinson was the “Council Bluff” (not to be confused with Council Bluffs, Iowa, 20 miles to the south) used for an 1804 council between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and members of the Oto and Missouria Native American tribes. William Clark recommended the high bluff overlooking the Missouri River as a suitable location to build a fort.
Fifteen years later, in 1819, President James Monroe dispatched a military expedition (the Yellowstone Expedition, led by Colonel Henry Atkinson) to establish a series of forts along the Missouri. These forts would increase American presence in the fur trade and would also counteract British influence on the northern plains. The 6th US Infantry and 1st Rifle Regiments made up the military portion of the expedition which arrived at the Council Bluff site on September 19, located near Fort Lisa and Cabanne's Trading Post, private fur trading establishments. The expedition stopped to build a camp, which they called Cantonment Missouri, for the winter along the river bottom, below the bluffs. Plans to establish more forts upstream were abandoned, and the soldiers settled in for winter. The winter of 1819-20 was very harsh; due to the massive shortfall of government contractors to provide the garrison with supplies, a massive scurvy epidemic claimed the lives of over 200 of the 1,120 soldiers on the expedition that first winter, while estimates of the civilian death is possibly as high as double the military dead since no records were kept of their losses. In the spring of 1820, the Missouri River flooded Cantonment Missouri. A permanent camp was built atop Council Bluff, and the camp was renamed Fort Atkinson at this time.
The only combat involving the fort's garrison occurred in 1823. Members of the Arikara tribe attacked a trading post along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. Soldiers from the fort attacked an Arikara village in retaliation. Although no American soldiers died in the brief skirmish, seven soldiers did drown on the way up river when their keel boat struck a log; they were the first American casualties on the Great Plains in the Indian Wars.
In 1827, the fort was abandoned. When the Mormons established Cutler's Park in the North Omaha-area in 1846, some of their nourishment for the harsh winter was provided from old provisions they found at the fort. By the 1850s, when widespread American settlement began in the area, little remained of the fort. In the 1950s, Nebraska State Historical Society archeological crews determined the locations of buildings at the Fort Atkinson site. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission gained title to the site in 1971 and slowly reconstructed the fort to its original appearance during the 1980s and 1990s. Today, Fort Atkinson is a Nebraska state historical park; living history demonstrations take place on the first weekend of each month from May to October.
[edit] Image gallery
 Outside of the powder magazine at Fort Atkinson. |
 Inside of powder magazine at Fort Atkinson. |
[edit] External links
- Fort Atkinson State Historical Park
- Friends of Fort Atkinson
- History of Fort Atkinson
- Nebraska State Historical Society - Fort Atkinson
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