Present-day Ponca, Nebraska, is near the first village built by the Ponca in the early 1600s after they separated from the Omaha and became their own tribe. Like the Omaha, they lived in semi-permanent earth lodge villages, planted corn, and hunted bison part of the year. Oral tradition states that the Ponca created a buffalo effigy mound in the vicinity of the village, using it for ceremonial purposes to ensure a bountiful hunt. The Ponca eventually abandoned the village due to the deaths of many children and youth from epidemic diseases. The tribe began calling it the Tiny (or Narrow) Graves Village. The Ponca moved to the Black Hills before settling in the Niobrara River Valley. They returned periodically to the old village, giving it other names such as “Where the Ioway Farmed.” It is said that the tribe continued to stop at the village on their way to the buffalo hunt and continued practicing their ceremonies at the buffalo effigy. This long history of tribal connections makes this area a valuable historical and cultural landscape for the Ponca people.
]]>This region was first inhabited by prehistoric Indians. When French traders and trappers explored the river in the early 1700's, the Ioway Indians occupied this area. Later explorers, such as Lewis and Clark, also traveled the Missouri. White settlement began in the late 1850's when the Omaha and Ponca, the last Indian inhabitants of the area, sold their land. Ponca, the Dixon County seat, was located in 1856 along the Aowa Valley at the confluence of the South and Aowa Creeks. Hundreds of steamboats on the Missouri and a wagon road from the Platte River to Niobrara made the area accessible to settlement. In 1934, Ponca State Park became part of the State park system. Ponca Legion Post 117 was instrumental in the community effort to donate the land to the state. The original 160 acre donation has grown to nearly 1200 acres. The park's rugged terrain was formed by glacial action during the Pleistocene period. Today, this area provides a refuge of wooded hills, high river bluffs, and a commanding view of three states. Ponca State Park is operated by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
]]>Ponca, one of northeast Nebraska's earliest communities, was platted in 1856 by Frank West and laid out by Dr. Solomon B. Stough. The town was named for the Ponca Indian tribe that inhabited the area when the first white settlers arrived. The location provided an abundant supply of wood and water. Originally part of Dakota County, Ponca was named as the seat of government when Dixon County was organized by the Territorial Legislature in 1858. The first county business was conducted in the Frank Ricker and Brothers general store. Water power from the Aowa Creek basin contributed significantly to the early growth of the community, which boasted flour and saw mills by 1861. Development slowed during the Civil War and the grasshopper plagues of the 1870's. The 1876 completion of the Covington, Columbus and Black Hills Railroad, the county's first, marked the beginning of a new era of economic growth. During the 1890's Ponca sported one of the finest one mile thoroughbred racetracks in the Midwest. In 1934 the Civilian Conservation Corps began the development of the original 220-acre site of Ponca State Park on the banks of the Missouri River. This park has become one of Nebraska's finest outdoor recreation areas.
]]>The men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition saw many natural curiosities during their trek to the Pacific Ocean. On August 24 Captain Clark described "a blue Clay Bluff of 180 or 190 feet high. . . . Those Bluffs appear to have been laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot for a man to bear his hand in the earth at any debth." The bluff came to be known as the Ionia Volcano. Not until about 1900 did scientists learn that the heat was generated by the oxidation of shale. The bluff has since eroded into the Missouri River.
On August 25, from their camp due north of here, Lewis and Clark left the expedition briefly to view a conical hill, which according to Indian legend was "a place of Deavels...they are in human form with remarkable large heads and about 18 inches high." This hill, called Spirit Mound today, is located about eight miles north of Vermillion, South Dakota.
]]>On August 24, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, traveling up the Missouri River, passed a bluff about 180 to 190 feet high. Clark wrote that it appeared to have been on fire and was still very hot. He also detected signs of coal and what looked like cobalt. Later fur traders frequently noticed dense smoke and fire in this region. In 1839, J. N. Nicollet attempted to prove that these phenomena were not of volcanic origin. Nicollet theorized that the decomposition of beds of iron pyrites in contact with water resulted in a heat capable of igniting other combustible materials.
Unaware of this explanation, early settlers continued to fear the "Ionia volcano," which took its name from the once flourishing town of Ionia, located northeast of present-day Newcastle. An earthquake in 1877 aroused new fears of an impending volcanic eruption. In 1878, the Missouri River undermined the bluffs and a large section of the "volcano" fell into the river. The same flood nearly destroyed the town of Ionia. "Volcano" stories died out soon after the Ionia post office was discontinued in 1907.
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