Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Pigeon Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - 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
  • Family
    • Photos - Recent
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • PottCo
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Pott. Co. History
    • 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
  • WWII Home
    • Big Pigeon and WWII
  • WWII Roster
    • Roster Records >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-K
      • Roster-L
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
    • Roster Appendices >
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Residences >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other SW Iowa Counties
      • Other Iowa Counties
      • StatesBorderingIowa
      • Other States
    • Roster Fatalities >
      • War with Japan
      • Battle of the Atlantic
      • Mediterranean Theater
      • European Theater
      • Stateside Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
      • Awards for Valor
      • Roster Demographics
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Roster Photos >
      • Roster Photos - Contents
      • Photos of Individuals
      • Land War with Japan
      • Air War with Japan
      • Sea War with Japan
      • Land War with Germany
      • Air War with Germany
      • Sea War with Germany
      • Stateside
      • Memorials
      • Cemeteries
    • Roster Outliers >
      • Pott. Co. Discrepancies
    • About the Roster >
      • Roster Planning
      • Members Not in St. Paul's
    • Roster Attic >
      • Recent Roster Additions
      • Roster Additions Log
  • WWII US
    • WWII Operations
    • WWII Overview
    • WWII Commanders
    • WWII Web Sources >
      • Web Sources - Personnel
      • Web Sources - Japan
      • Web Sources - Germany
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces >
      • High Level Organization
      • Infantry Organization >
        • Infantry Equipment
      • Ground Forces - Japan
      • Ground Forces - The MTO
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • World War I >
      • Iowa In World War I
  • Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • 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 >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is., Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea, Papua
      • NE New Guinea, Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is., New Georgia
      • Solomon Is., Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
    • US Naval War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • The Pacific Base Areas
  • Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • MTO Overview >
        • MTO Background
      • North Africa >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
      • Italy >
        • Sicily
        • Italy Leaves the Axis
        • 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
      • MTO Air War
      • MTO Sea War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • ETO Overview >
        • ETO Background
      • ETO Orders of Battle >
        • ETO Unit Subordination
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • ETO, 6 June 1944
        • Normandy, June 1944
        • ETO, 30 June 1944
        • Normandy, July 1944
        • After D-Day
      • Liberation >
        • Operation Cobra
        • ETO, 1 August 1944
        • Brittany
        • Normandy
        • Northern France & Belgium
        • ETO, 25 August 1944
        • Southern France
      • War of Attrition >
        • ETO, 15 September 1944
        • Netherlands 1944
        • Rhineland 1944 >
          • V Corps at the West Wall
          • Aachen
          • Hürtgen Forest
          • Operation Queen
          • Queen/Hürtgen
          • Last 1944 Offensives
        • Lorraine/Alsace 1944 >
          • Lorraine/Third Army
          • Lorraine/Seventh Army
          • Alsace/Seventh Army
        • ETO, 15 December 1944
      • Ardennes/The Bulge >
        • Before the Bulge
        • The Bulge Begins
        • The Bulge Grows
        • Ardennes, 25 December 1944
        • The Bulge Contained
        • The Bulge Eliminated
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
        • Ardennes/Bulge Overview
      • Alsace 1945 >
        • Alsace, Nordwind
        • Alsace, Colmar Pocket
      • Siegfried Line 1945 >
        • ETO, 26 January 1945
        • Operation Blackcock
        • First US Effort
        • Roer River Dams
        • VIII Corps to Prüm
        • XII Corps to Bitburg
        • XX Corps to Trier
      • To the Rhine >
        • ETO, 1 March 1945
        • Ops. Veritable & Grenade
        • Operation Lumberjack
        • Operation Undertone
        • Patton's Probing Attacks
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Beyond the Rhine
        • ETO, 4 April 1945
        • Central Germany
        • Southern Germany
        • Germany Surrenders
      • ETO Air War
      • ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
Pigeon Creek Valley in Distance
View over the Pigeon Valley
Pigeon Home
bigpigeon.us webpage PottCo © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen© 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 9 Jan 2023
Big Pigeon's PottCo module contains aspects of the history of Pottawattamie County's Pigeon Creek and Avoca areas.
Links to Big Pigeon's PottCo submodules​:
  • Pottawattamie Area Early History - fragmentary information about the  pre-settlement period.
  • Pigeon - mostly Boomer and Hazel Dell Township history.
  • Avoca - Avoca, Iowa and Vicinity history.
  • LDS History - some aspects of Mormon history related to the Pottawattamie County area.
  • A House Divided - more LDS history with a minor connection to the Big Pigeon area.
  • PottCo Addendum - not specific to the Big Pigeon or the Avoca areas.
  • More History - no content at this time. ​
Pottawattamie County Maps
Pottawattamie County Index Map
Pottawattamie County Index Map
Pottawattamie County Road Map
Pottawattamie County Road Map
Early Pottawattamie Area Residents
Before the Pottawattamie area was opened for general settlement in 1853, it temporarily housed two groups:
  • As a consequence of the 1833 Chicago Treaty, The Prairie Potawatomi bands of Native Americans, (with some Ojibawa and Ottawa) left the greater Chicago area beginning in 1835, briefly stopped in the Platte area of northwest Missouri, and came north to southwest Iowa in 1837 and 1838.
  • Faced with increasing hostility from the general population, most Latter Day Saints Church members (known familiarly as Mormons) abandoned the Nauvoo, Illinois area in early 1846 and began crossing southern Iowa. While preparing for the arduous journey to Utah, they lived in the Pottawattamie area. (Initially many stayed in Winter Quarters, now Florence, Nebraska.)
Iowa and Nearby Counties
Iowa and Nearby Counties
Both groups began leaving the Pottawattamie area in 1847:
  • The Prairie Potawatomi to their new reservation in Kansas near Topeka. Most were gone by the end of 1848.
  • The Mormons across the plains and over the mountains to the Salt Lake area. The last company of Pottawattamie area Mormons left for Utah in the Spring of 1853.
Pottawattamie Area Political Organization
  • 24 Feb 1847 - Pottawattamie County created. The accompanying map shows the 1847 boundaries.
  • 21 Sep 1848 - Pottawattamie County fully organized.
  • 15 Jan 1851 - Pottawattamie County reduced to current boundaries by creation of nearby counties.
  • 18 Aug 1851 - adjoining Mills County fully organized.
  • 7 Mar 1853 - adjoining counties of Cass, Harrison, and Shelby fully organized.
  • 15 Aug 1853 - adjoining Montgomery County fully organized.
  • 1847 & 1876 - Attempts to split off twelve townships in eastern Pottawattamie County into a new county fail.
  • 1877 - Missouri River changes course creating an oxbow lake from the previous Saratoga Bend. Today's Carter Lake, on west side of Missouri River, remains part of Pottawattamie County.
Original Pottawattamie County
Original Extent of Pottawattamie County
13 Feb 1849 - The US Supreme Court disallowed Missouri's claim to the southermost 10 miles of Iowa. (See the dashed line on the above map.)
Pottawattamie County Railroads and Post Offices
Council Bluffs became a major railroad center, with the first railroad arriving in 1867. Until 1970, the US Postal system remained closely integrated with the railroad system.
  • The accompanying map shows the Pottawattamie County railroads and post offices in December 1897.  
  • This map shows distances between post offices. The Sources section has a link to the all-Iowa map.
  • Most post offices not on a railroad were located in a country store or farm home and had a short lifetime.
1897 Pottawattamie County Railroads and Post Offices
1897 Pottawattamie County Railroads and Post Offices
Sources for Big Pigeon's PottCo webpage
  • The webpage header photo, Pigeon Creek Valley in Distance, shows a view from Hitchcock County Park in the loess hills of Pottawattamie County, is courtesy of midwestwanderer.com.
  • The Counties - Iowa and Surrounding Area map is courtesy of the Page County, Iowa rootsweb site and was found at http://sites.rootsweb.com/~iapage/gifiles/ia-co.jpg.
  • The Original Extent of Pottawattamie County map is courtesy of https://www.mapofus.org/Iowa/.
  • The 1897 Pottawattamie County Railroads and Post Offices map is excerpted from the Iowa map at the Boston Public Library's webpage https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:cj82kk91g.
  • https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/IA_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm#Individual_County_Chronologies gives organization history for each Iowa county.
Proudly powered by Weebly