Fort Atkinson

The troops were meant to come up by steam. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun encouraged the contractor James Johnson to use steamboats, then new on the Missouri. Five were assembled and three reached Fort Belle Fontaine near St. Louis: the Expedition, the Johnson and the Jefferson. The Jefferson foundered near Cote Sans Dessein, the river's first steamboat wreck; the Johnson's engines failed short of the Kaw; low water stranded the Expedition at Cow Island. Keelboats carried the men on. Johnson sank into cost overruns and legal trouble, and with the Panic of 1819 Congress restricted further funding.

What the plaque says

Fort Atkinson From 1820 to 1827, the nation's largest and most westerly military post occupied this site, the earlier scene of Lewis and Clark's Council Bluff. In late 1819, troops under Colonel Henry Atkinson established Cantonment Missouri along the river near here. In 1820, a permanent post was built here on the bluffs and named Fort Atkinson. The post's population of over 1000 included military personnel of the elite Rifle Regiment and Sixth Infantry, some of their families, and other civilians. The Sixth U.S. Infantry occupied Fort Atkinson when it was abandoned in 1827. The fortification consisted of a rectangular arrangement of one-story barracks fashioned of horizontal logs. The structures faced inward upon an enclosed parade ground with loopholes on the exterior walls. Four entrances were located near the center of the four walls. Cannons were mounted in the bastions at the northwest and southeast corners. A massively-built powder magazine occupied the center of the enclosed area. Outside the fortification were located a large council house for negotiating with the Indians, a gristmill, a schoolhouse, sawmill and other buildings. A brick kiln produced thousands of bricks. Fort Atkinson represents an important early step in opening the West. Fort Atkinson Foundation Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 0.2 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 — 8.5 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 — 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.
• 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

• Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 30-August 2, 1804 — 0.2 mi
• Fort Calhoun Schools at Washington Square — 0.5 mi
• The Death of Marshal Suverkrubbe — 0.7 mi
• Fort Atkinson — 0.7 mi