Many explorers and traders visited this spot before 1800. Nearby, in 1795, trader James Mackay built a short-lived trading post for Spanish St. Louis traders, naming it Fort Charles in honor of the king of Spain.
The Lewis and Clark expedition visited the village August 13, 1804, but the Omaha people were away on an extended buffalo hunt. The explorers stayed near the site for a week and held a conference with three chiefs of the Oto tribe who had come to make peace with the absent Omaha. By then the village was in decline. In 1800, smallpox killed an estimated 400 residents, including the famous Chief Blackbird. Afterward the village played a diminished role in the struggle for control of the Missouri Valley and the Plains beyond. It was abandoned in 1845.
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