Fort Atkinson, Nebraska (CoD July 30-August 3, 1804)

It was at this site on August 3, that Lewis & Clark had their first formal meeting with the Indians. Members of the Oto and Missouri tribes attended the council and Lewis gave a speech telling the Indians of the Louisiana Purchase and that their lands were now governed by a new “Great white father in Washington”. To impress the Indians, the Americans were in full dress uniform and presented them with presents and demonstrated firearms, including their new air gun. If you look closely at the first photo, you can see tourists trying to help in these negotiations.
The site of this council would become the home to Fort Atkinson, which was built in 1820. 1100 troops of the Sixth Regiment were stationed here as a deterrent to hostile Indians and the British traders that might wander down from Canada. Photo 2 is taken inside the fort, which is built in a rectangular shape.
We camped across the river from the fort, in Iowa’s Wilson Island State Park. Although only 1.8 air miles separated us from the fort, it took about 30 miles by car to drive there. The SP is beautiful, with open fields and shady groves of cottonwood trees. We got one of the best sites in the park, with 300 yards of grassy fields leading down to the river on one side and a forest of mixed trees on the other side. Behind us is about a mile of wilderness. See photo three. We can see other campers if we walk to the front of our RV.
Wilson Island State Park is a few miles north of Omaha, Nebraska, where the Platte River joins the Missouri River. As we drove through Omaha, I remembered Lois R, a Cocoa High School class mate, talking about her grandmother living in Kearney Nebraska, about 200 miles up the Platte Rive from here. What a long way from Cocoa Florida!