Note 233 — TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1832, 1833, AND 1834 (continued 5)

For Boyer River, see our volume xiv, p. 221, note 174.

This fort at Council Bluffs was not on the site of the Iowa town of that name, but some miles higher up the river, on the Nebraska bank, near the village now known as Fort Calhoun, in Washington County. The name was first applied to the bluffs by Lewis and Clark, who held here (1804) an important council with chiefs of neighboring tribes. The United States post was built by a detachment under Colonel Henry Atkinson, when embarked on the famous Yellowstone expedition of 1819. The means of transportation proving inadequate, the troops never reached the Yellowstone, but formed at this point Camp Missouri, where during the winter of 1819-20 much sickness prevailed. The fort was finally christened Atkinson, for its founder, and was so known to the government. The local name was Fort Calhoun—whether in honor of the then secretary of war, or for a soldier who was the first to be here buried, is disputed. On the building of Fort Leavenworth, the troops were removed thither. See note 204, ante, p. 253.—Ed.