Escapees July-August 2024

supported by one pole, others having six and with the covering stretched in all the different styles imaginable, and scattered here and there in the greatest confusion, and you will have an Indian Village.” A soldier who was on his way to fi ght the Dakota Uprising, passed through Council Bluffs and described it as a “hardscrabble town” in the following paragraph: “The streets were lined with a curiosi ty-seeking class of humanity, among which could easily be traced the physiognomy of bipeds of almost every clime—all here to make money. The cute Yankee whittling out wooden hams to sell to Pikes Peak emigrants, the Chatham Sheet Peddler, with his stock of ‘Oht clo’s,’ ready to swear that he had them manufactured expressly for his western trade; the mock auctioneer, the jeweler with his pinchback jewelry of all kinds; horse and mule jockeys, gamblers, thieves, assassins, and the mischief knows what not, rather than what is, all congre gated in this little seven-by-nine city, stuck in a great ravine, three miles from the Missouri River…” Today, this city has become the third largest in the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan areas. This populated area has had many names in the past, such as Miller’s Hollow, Council Point and Kanesville. Finally, the settlement was named Council Bluffs in honor of the Lewis and Clark’s meeting with Otoe Indian chiefs, on August 2, 1804. This settlement grew due to its location on the Missouri River and because of Abraham Lincoln designating Council Bluffs as the eastern terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad which linked the eastern and western parts of the United States. Of course, this increased traf fi c of settlers and trade made this town what it is today, a lovely city on the Missouri River plains. Street of Generals Unlike other areas where older buildings of settlement days have been replaced with more modern structures, this town has many beautiful historic buildings. Along Third Street, known as the “Street of Generals,” are many stylish Victorian homes with French-style windows, verandas, slate roofs, gables, fi sh-scale trim, towers and leaded-glass windows.

Driving north on Interstate 29 from St. Louis, Missouri, drivers are often amazed with the road side views. Productive black bot tom land stretches from the Mis souri River to the scenic wooded Loess Hills displaying clumps of trees shading homes built on the fringes of bottom fi elds or high on the hills. Crops, such as soybeans, corn and alfalfa, proving the fertil ity of the bottom land, line fence rows along the interstate. The still waters of roadside ponds and small lakes re fl ect the blue sky and often frame fl ights of birds. A fter travelers pass exits for Hamburg, Percival, Thurman, Glenwood and those of other towns serving the agricultural communities, the outer fringes of Council Bluffs, Iowa, appear. Spread along the east bank of the Missouri River and across the river from Omaha, Nebraska, this populous city has progressed a long way from the time in 1839 when Father Pierre Jean DeSmet established a church and school, St. Joseph’s Mission, in a blockhouse on this site. In 1846, thousands of Mormons arrived. While in this area, they built 55 temporary communities, farmed as much as 15,000 acres of land and established three ferries across the Missouri River. Later, the Potawatomi Indian tribe was forced to move to a reservation in Council Bluffs. However, De Smet was horri fi edby the violence and brutality caused by the whiskey trade and tried to protect the tribe from unscrupulous traders. De Smet is also known for producing the fi rst European recorded map of this area showing a detailed Missouri River Valley system. The following is DeSmet’s description of the Potawatomi settlement: “Imagine a great number of cabins and tents, made of the bark of trees, buffalo skins, coarse cloth, rushes and sods, all a mournful and funeral aspect, of all sizes and shapes, some

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ESCAPEES Magazine July/August 2024