Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Web Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Ancestry.com Use
      • Land Records
      • Print Resources
      • About Denmark
      • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Pott. Co.
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WW II Dead
    • The Roster >
      • Roster-AB
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-DEF
      • Roster-GHI
      • Roster-JKL
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-PQR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
    • Members' Homes >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other Iowa Counties
      • Other States
    • Member's Deaths >
      • War with Japan
      • The Atlantic
      • Mediterranean Theater
      • European Theater
      • Stateside Deaths
      • Post-Service Deaths
    • Roster Usage
    • Roster Background
    • Roster Links
    • Roster Photos
    • Roster Outliers
  • World Wars
    • My WW II Dead Project
    • WW I >
      • Iowa In WW I
    • WW II Data
    • WW II - Links
    • WW II - At Home
    • WW II - Civilian Victims
    • WW II - Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
  • WW II - Japan
    • Japan Ascendant
    • Naval War with Japan
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomon Islands
      • Solomons Sea War
      • New Guinea
      • Bismarck & Admiralty Is.
    • North & Central Pacific >
      • Alaska - North Pacific
      • Gilbert & Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Towards the Philippines
      • Pacific Communications Zone
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
      • SW Pacific Finale
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • Flying the Hump
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • China - 1941-45
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Japan Vanquished
  • WW II - Germany
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • North Africa & Sicily >
        • Morocco & Algeria
        • Tunisia
        • Sicily
      • Italian Mainland >
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino - the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • The MTO Sea War
      • The MTO Air War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • Normandy after D-Day
      • France Liberated >
        • Normandy Breakout
        • Northern France
        • Southern France
        • The Allies Stall
      • Arnhem & Antwerp >
        • Arnhem - Market Garden
        • Antwerp
      • Rhineland 1944
      • Lorraine & Alsace >
        • Lorraine Campaign
        • Alsace Campaign
      • Ardennes/Bulge Overview >
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
      • Rhineland 1945 >
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Central Germany
      • The ETO Air War
      • The ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Reources
  • Family
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
Picture
Picture
Pott. Co.
bigpigeon.us webpage Pott. Co. > Early History, updated by RAC 11 Mar 2020.
Under development 11 March 2020.
This webarea will focus on the Pottawattamie County vicinity, while sometimes expanding to nearby states.
  • The Missouri River.
  • Native Americans before European influence.
  • The Colonial Period - Spain and France, 1673-1803.
  • The Corps of Discovery, 1804-1806.
  • Early Outposts, 1807-1837.
  • The Potawatomi Years, 1835-1846.
  • The Mormon Years, 1846-1853.
In the 1700s, the  stone age culture in the Missouri River valley was transformed by two major events.  
The introduction of European trade goods.
French America in 1763
French America in 1763

The introduction of horses.
Horse Dispersal
Horse Dispersal from Spanish Mexico

By 1820, most Plains Indians had been using European trade goods for a century, tribes to the east from the French via the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and western tribes from the Spanish from settlements such as Santa Fe.

For the following sixty years, white settlement surged west through the Plains Indians lands. Both the Plains Indians, and Indians from east of the Mississippi were confined to reservations.

Subsequently much land originally allocated for reservations was aquired by white settlers.
Great Plains Culture Area

Native American Land Cession in Iowa

By 1832, the allied Sauk and Meskwaki tribes occupied much of eastern Iowa. Their resistance to American settlement led to the 1832 Black Hawk War, and the resulting Black Hawk Purchases.

Additional land cessions followed, and by 1851 the United States government had acquired title to all Iowa land.
Indian Land Cessions in Iowa
Indian Land Cessions in Iowa
Part 3 - Early Europeans in the Pottawattamie County Area
Thomas Jefferson's 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France included the Missouri River basin, shown on the accompanying map.

At the time, the Missouri River offered a promising avenue into the riches of the northern Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. It also potentially offered a feasible route to the Pacific Ocean.
The Missouri River Basin
The Missouri River Basin
the Corps of Discovery - 1804 - 1806


Part 5
From the 1820s to 1846, Bellevue was 
The Bellevue Agency - 1833
The Bellevue Agency - 1833
Pre-1837 Area History Outline (with an 1860s map)
Don't confuse the city of Council Bluffs with the historic Council Bluffs area, which I view as starting at the mouth of the Platte River and extending north to Ft. Calhoun.
​
This is my draft list of pre-1837 historical sites along the Missouri River in the Council Bluffs area from south to north:
Bellevue - trading post, Indian agency & mission.
Traders Point - satellite of Bellevue trading post on east side of river run for many years by Francis Guittar.
Hart's Bluff - east side of river in today's NW Council Bluffs Big Lake.
Cabanne's Post - trading post near today's Florence.
Ft. Lisa - trading post run by Manuel Lisa.
Engineer Cantonment - occupied 1819-20 by the Stephen H. Long party.
Ft. Atkinson - SE of today's Ft. Calhoun, one of the largest US military posts from 1819-1826; today a living history museum.
Council Bluffs site: site of 1804 council between the Lewis and Clark party and Indians; exact location unknown but near Ft. Atkinson.

​
Council Bluffs Area - 1860s
Council Bluffs Area - 1860s
Sources for Big Pigeon's Early Area History webpage:​
  • ​The Horse Dispersal from Spanish Mexico map is taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang.
  • The Great Plains Cultural Area map is taken from http://www.ya-native.com/Culture_GreatPlains/index.html, which has an excellent overview of Plains Indian culture.
  • https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/1839_Burr_Wall_Map_of_the_United_States_%28only_example_of_Jedediah_Smith%27s_map%29_-_Geographicus_-_UnitedStates-burr-1839.jpg - a large file that shows the 1839 Burr Wall Map of the United States.
  • The Council Bluffs Area - 1860s map is excerpted from a map held by the Library of Congress, available at https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:gmd:gmd419:g4191:g4191p:rr005880/full/pct:25/0/default.jpg.
Some items to include in this webarea:
1804-06 - Corps of Discovery
1807-12 Manuel Lisa in the upper Missouri
1810-12 - The Astorians change the course of Western history.
1812-20 - Manuel Lisa in the Council Bluffs area.
1819-27 - Fort Atkinson.
1819-20 -  Engineer Cantonment and the Long Expedition.
1822-40 - Cabanne's Trading Post.
1822 - ? - Bellevue and Traders Point
1830-38 - George Catlin on the Missouri.
1833 - Prince Max and Karl Bodmer on the Missouri.
Also:
Hart's Bluff 
Bring in Peter Sarpy, Fontennelle family, & other local figures..


​
Proudly powered by Weebly