Bellevue Log Cabin

The dates on the plaque rest on tradition. The 1970 National Register nomination calls the 1835 building and the cholera move local lore, adds that the second move, about 1850, was said to have been made by Indians, and notes that the first owner known from deed records was the Presbyterian Mission, under an 1854 treaty. It judged the cabin probably built as one room and one story, with a central fireplace and a stair to the attic, its logs later hidden under clapboards. If the 1835 date is right, it said, the cabin is perhaps Nebraska's oldest building.

What the plaque says

Bellevue Log Cabin This log cabin was built about 1835 in the Missouri River floodplains. Soon after 1835 cholera occurred at lower elevations, and the cabin was moved to the upper plateau. In about 1850 it was moved to this location, where it was used as a residence until 1954. The original cabin was built as a one-and-one half-story structure with a dirt floor and fireplace. There was a bedroom in the attic or loft. The exterior walls were constructed of hand-hewn cottonwood logs, originally packed with mud but now sealed with grout. A kitchen and pantry were added to the east side in 1906; the basement was added and the main floor restoration was completed in 1972. The hackberry tree in the front yard has been recognized by Nebraska authorities as one of the largest of this variety in the United States. The log cabin was furnished as a pioneer residence more than 100 years ago. It was restored to near- original condition as a memorial to the living conditions of the pioneers by the Sarpy County Historical Society. On October 16, 1970, this property was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Durham Museum (Omaha Union Station) — 7.8 mi
  Omaha's 1931 Union Station, Gilbert Stanley Underwood's Art Deco depot for the Union Pacific, closed to trains in 1971 and kept as a city museum with its waiting room intact.
• Joslyn Art Museum — 8.7 mi
  Omaha's free art museum, a 1931 Art Deco memorial with two modern pavilions, and the keeper of Karl Bodmer's watercolors from the upper Missouri in 1833 and 1834.
• Malcolm X Birthsite — 11 mi
  The North Omaha lot where Malcolm Little was born in May 1925 and his family was driven out by the Klan, saved by Rowena Moore and now planned as a cultural center.
• Winter Quarters and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery — 14 mi
  The Latter-day Saint camp of 1846 to 1848 on Omaha land in what is now Florence, where hundreds died the first winter, and the cemetery and trail center beside it.

More markers nearby

• Bellevue — steps away
• First Presbyterian Church — steps away
• Fontenelle Bank - County Courthouse — 0.3 mi
• Bellevue Rifle Range — 0.9 mi