Fifteen years later, in 1819, President James Monroe dispatched a military expedition to establish a series of forts along the Missouri. These forts were to support the American fur trade and counteract British influence on the northern plains. The 6th US Infantry and 1st Rifle Regiments made up the military portion of the expedition, which arrived at the Council Bluff site on September 19. Their establishment of Fort Atkinson made it the first major American fort west of the Missouri River. It was located near Fort Lisa and Cabanne's Trading Post, private fur trading establishments operated by major traders who were based in St. Louis, Missouri. The expedition stopped to build Cantonment Missouri, a winter camp along the river bottom below the bluffs. Abandoning plans to establish more forts upstream, the soldiers settled in for winter. The winter of 1819–20 was very harsh; a shortfall of government contractors left the garrison without sufficient supplies. The soldiers suffered widespread scurvy, which claimed the lives of over 200 of the 1,120 men that first winter. Estimates of the civilian deaths is possibly as high as double the military dead; no records were kept of their losses. In the spring of 1820, the Missouri River flooded Cantonment Missouri. The soldiers built a permanent camp atop Council Bluff, and renamed it Fort Atkinson. Originally, the fort was to be named "Fort Calhoun" in honor of the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, but its first commander was honored. During the 1820s, soldiers took meteorological observations as research for the government. The garrison was involved in combat only in 1823. Members of the Arikara tribe attacked a trading party led by William H. Ashley along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. Soldiers from the fort retaliated by attacking the Arikara villages. Although no American soldiers died in the brief skirmish, seven soldiers drowned on the way upriver when their keelboat struck a log. They were counted as the first United States' casualties in the Indian Wars on the Great Plains. In 1827, the Army abandoned the fort at Council Bluff and reassigned its personnel to other locations, primarily Fort Leavenworth.
Re-activation of Fort Atkinson
When the Mormons established Cutler's Park in the North Omaha area in 1846, some of their food for the harsh winter was provided from old provisions they found at the fort. By the 1850s, when widespread European-American settlement began in the area, little remained of the fort. In the 1950s, Nebraska State Historical Societyarcheological crews determined the locations of buildings at the Fort Atkinson site. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission gained title to the site in 1963. During the 1980s and 1990s, it reconstructed the fort. Today, Fort Atkinson is a Nebraska state historical park, which includes a military museum. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Living history demonstrations take place on the first weekend of each month from May to October. In addition to people demonstrating craft work and the duties of the Indian agent, military re-enactors interpret the activities of the Sixth Regiment of United States Infantry and First Regiment of United States Riflemen.
