| Nebraska (Washington County), Blair — 420 — Brewster Cemetery |
| | Founded in 1870 by Israel Swihart, the cemetery was named for his wife, Mary Brewster Swihart. Those buried here include three civil war veterans, and several children who succumbed to the harsh conditions of life on the Great Plains. The cemetery is also the eternal resting place for persons unknown, whose grave markers have been ravaged by time and elements. It serves as a memorial to the sturdy pioneers who lived and died while making a home on the Nebraska prairie. — Map (db m7817) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Blair — 177 — Congregational Church of Blair |
| | Religous institutions have played an important role in the history of Nebraska. During the frontier period, churches fulfilled both the spiritual and social needs of the early inhabitants. The Congregational Church was one of Nebraska's pioneer denominations. The Reverend Reuben Gaylord brought Congregationalism to Washington County in 1856 and the Church operated an early institution of higher learning, the "Nebraska University" at Fontenelle, 1858-1872.
The Congregational Church of Blair . . . — Map (db m7841) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Blair — 217 — Cuming City Cemetery and Nature Preserve |
| | Traditionally known as the Cuming City Cemetery, this eleven-acre tract of land was set aside in 1976 primarily as a preserve for native vegetation. Never plowed, this prairie looks much like it did to the Indians and to the first white men who settled Nebraska in the 1850's. Grasses such as big and little bluestem, Indian Grass, and side-oats grama still grow here. Now owned by the Dana College, the site was acquired with the assistance of The Nature Conservancy and the Cuming City Cemetery . . . — Map (db m7793) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Blair — 119 — 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 . . . — Map (db m7837) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Blair — 342 — Lewis and Clark Campsites — August 3 and 4, 1804 |
| | On August 3 Lewis and Clark held a council with the Oto and Missouria Indians at a site they named "Council Bluff," near present Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. It was the first of many councils they would hold on their journey to the Pacific Ocean. Following the council, the explorers moved upriver, camping south of today's community of Blair. Besides describing the council, Clark's journal notes the merits of "Council Bluff" as a location for "a Trading establishment & fortification." In 1819 the . . . — Map (db m7794) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Fort Calhoun — 117 — 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 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 . . . — Map (db m7769) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Fort Calhoun — 2 — 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 . . . — Map (db m7890) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Fort Calhoun — 341 — Lewis and Clark Campsite — July 30 - August 2, 1804 |
| | On July 30 the explorers arrived at the bluff where Fort Atkinson would be built less than two decades later. Clark wrote, "The Situation of this place which we Call Council Bluff which is handsom ellevated a Spot well Calculated... for a fort to Command the Countrey and river the low bottom above high water & well Situated under the Command of the Hill for Houses to trade with the Natives." Four days later the Oto Indians, who lived in a village along the Platte River, came to the Lewis . . . — Map (db m7887) |
| Nebraska (Washington County), Fort Calhoun — The Death of Marshal Suverkrubbe |
| | About 3 a.m. on December 5, 1932, Fort Calhoun marshal Albert Suverkrubbe was shot while trying to apprehend two men fleeing Kruse's Red and White Grocery at 106 S. Fourteenth Street. Suverkrubbe died from his wounds nine days later, leaving his wife, Frances, and two young sons. He was the only Washington County law enforcement officer to lose his life in the line of duty during the county's first 152 years (1855-2007). He made the ultimate sacrifice to keep the city safe. — Map (db m7767) |
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