Fort Atkinson

The town here grew up beside the abandoned fort. John Goss Sr. claimed the ground in the summer of 1854, when the old post's stone magazine was still standing, and a town company including A. J. Poppleton and Hadley D. Johnson had E. H. Clark survey and plat Fort Calhoun in March 1855. Clark's hewn-log hotel, 24 by 48 feet, opened the next spring, and a 16 by 20 foot courthouse went up by subscription in 1856. The county seat went to DeSoto in 1858, came back by vote in 1866 and left for Blair in 1869.

What the plaque says

Fort Atkinson Civilization came to the west bank of the Missouri with establishment of Fort Atkinson in 1820 about a half mile southeast of here. Named after its founder, General Henry Atkinson, this western-most Fort protected the frontier's developing commerce. Established as a temporary camp in 1819, Fort Atkinson was the largest and strongest outpost above St. Louis. The permanent post went up a year later on the site of Lewis and Clark's Council with the Oto and Missouri Indians. From Fort Atkinson troops under the command of Col. Henry Leavenworth moved up the Missouri River in 1823 to punish the Arikara Indians after an attack on William H. Ashley's fur trading party. Members of the garrison ascended the river in 1825 on a mission of peace, participating in a series of treaties with the Indians. This spearhead of white civilization was abandoned in 1827. But in seven years Fort Atkinson had brought the first school, the first white family life, a library, a sawmill, a brickyard, a grist mill, and large-scale agriculture to the west bank of the Missouri. Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 0.6 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 — 9.0 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 — 12 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 — 14 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

• Fort Calhoun Schools at Washington Square — 0.2 mi
• The Death of Marshal Suverkrubbe — 0.3 mi
• Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 30-August 2, 1804 — 0.6 mi
• Fort Atkinson — 0.7 mi