DeSoto Townsite

The power station the plaque names is the Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, begun in 1966 and commissioned on August 9, 1973. Its single Combustion Engineering reactor produced 484 megawatts, the smallest rated capacity among North America's operating commercial reactors. In June 2011 the Missouri rose around it, and at 1:30 a.m. on June 26 a small earth mover punctured the water-filled berm, which collapsed and let floodwater surround key buildings. The plant stayed in cold shutdown until late 2013. It shut down for good on October 24, 2016.

What the plaque says

DeSoto Townsite The town of DeSoto was platted on this site in 1854 and incorporated in 1855. Steamboating on the Missouri was then in its heyday. DeSoto provided a landing for passengers and goods. A number of boats sank nearby, notably the Cora and Bertrand. Ambitious citizens advanced plans to make DeSoto a "gateway to the West"-first by operating a ferry in 1857 and later by promoting a railroad to connect DeSoto with Fremont. A track was laid as far as present Blair. By 1857 DeSoto had grown to several hundred. Fifteen businesses flourished, including hotels, saloons, stores, newspapers, banks. The town was county seat from 1858 to 1866. Its decline began in 1859 with a great exodus of residents to the Colorado gold fields. Following the Panic of 1857 its three banks closed. The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, after buying the DeSoto line's franchise, chose to cross the river three miles north of DeSoto and in 1869 established Blair. DeSoto's hopes for growth were blasted. Its citizens left for other communities, a number to become figures of prominence in judicial, political, and financial circles in Nebraska. Today the Fort Calhoun Power Station is in the area where once flowed the Missouri River. Omaha Public Power District Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 5.2 mi
  The first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri, a garrison town of more than a thousand people on Council Bluff from 1820 to 1827, rebuilt on its own foundations.
• 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.
• Malcolm X Birthsite — 16 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.
• Joslyn Art Museum — 19 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.

More markers nearby

• Steamboat Bertrand — 2.6 mi
• Lewis and Clark Campsites: August 3 and 4, 1804 — 3.1 mi
• Congregational Church of Blair — 3.5 mi
• Fort Atkinson — 4.8 mi