The Calamus Valley

The explorer the plaque names was a Highlander. James Mackay was born about 1759 in County Sutherland, on Scotland's north coast, came to Canada as a teenager and traded furs as far as the Mandan villages before moving to Spanish Louisiana, where he was a Spanish subject by 1793. For the Missouri Company he built Fort Charles near the Umóⁿhoⁿ (Omaha) village and spent the summer and fall of 1796 exploring inland. His map of the Missouri went west with Lewis and Clark. He later sat in the Missouri legislature and died in March 1822.

What the plaque says

The Calamus Valley The source of the Calamus River is spring-fed Moon Lake, 60 miles northwest of here. The river was named after a common marsh plant eaten by muskrats. Archeological evidence indicates that prehistoric Indians camped in the valley as early as 3,000 years ago. During historic times it was the hunting ground of the Pawnee, Sioux, and Omaha. The first European to visit the region was explorer James Mackay in 1796. Mackay struck the Calamus near its source and followed it downstream to its confluence with the Loup River. The coming of settlers to the valley in the 1870s sparked occasional conflict with Indians. The last skirmish, the "Battle of the Blowout," occurred just north of here in 1876. Sergeant William Dougherty of the 23rd Infantry and one Indian were killed in the fight. Lieutenant Charles Heyl and Corporals Patrick Leonard and Jeptha Lytton received Congressional Medals of Honor for bravery. These soldiers were from Fort Hartsuff, located on the Loup River 15 miles to the southeast. The fort's active period (1874-1881) marked the beginning of the modern era of settlement and development in the Calamus Valley. Bureau of Reclamation Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park — 12 mi
  A small infantry post of 1874 in the North Loup valley, built of local lime concrete on the raiding road between Lakota and Pawnee country, and kept nearly whole by eighty years of farming.

More markers nearby

• The North Loup Project — steps away
• Railroad Turntable, 1887-1983 — 5.2 mi
• Garfield County — 5.4 mi
• The Pebble Creek Fight — 5.7 mi