From 1886 through 1894 the U.S. Army's Department of the Platte leased this site to provide marksmanship training for Fort Omaha soldiers. Each year in late summer, the range also hosted troops from other Great Plains posts for the department rifle, carbine, and revolver competition. Periodically, the Division of the Missouri matches and the army's "distinguished marksmen" matches, the latter featuring top shooters from around the nation, were held here. Maj. Guy V. Henry, Sr., a noted cavalry officer, was in charge of the range through 1889.
The target "pits" lay to the north/northwest (an area now occupied by houses) with designated firing points from 200 to 600 yards south/southeast of the pits. When the range was in use, tent camps for officers and enlisted men stood to the east overlooking the Missouri River. Soldiers and civilian spectators reached the range via a railroad below the bluff.
As nearby Fort Crook neared completion, the army in 1895 discontinued the Bellevue range. Unfortunately, new target ranges at the fort proved unsatisfactory. Ineffective backstops sometimes allowed bullets to fall on private property outside the military reservation.
]]>The Rishel family came from Pennsylvania to Sarpy County in May 1865. The locality where they settled became known as Peach Grove after a nearby post office by that name. The cemetery was established August 30, 1875, when Mary Jane Rishel Long deeded land already used as a family burial ground. Sarah Rishel was the first known burial in 1868. Frank Leslie Rishel was the last known burial in 1935. The cemetery name recalls the former residence of many interred here.
]]>In 1879, the State Legislature created the Board of Fish Commissioners, the forerunner of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. That board contracted with a privately owned firm known as the Santee Hatchery. The owners, Mr. Romine and Mr. Decker, attended to early fish propagation in the original building on this site. Three years later the board purchased the hatchery and 54 acres for $1,200.
The site was chosen because of an ample supply of spring water which still supplies the canyon ponds above this site. The fish commission replaced the original hatch house in 1889, and in 1914, when that frame structure proved inadequate, it was replaced by this structure at a cost of $4,000. Today the old hatch house serves as a museum devoted to fish culture and related activities.
The original 54-acre tract has been adjoined with 277 acres donated by the late E. F. "Pop" Schramm, Professor of Geology at the University of Nebraska.
]]>This log cabin was built about 1835 in the Missouri River floodplains. Soon after 1835 cholera occurred at lower elevations, and the cabin was moved to the upper plateau. In about 1850 it was moved to this location, where it was used as a residence until 1954.
The original cabin was built as an one-and-one-half-story structure with a dirt floor and fireplace. There was a bedroom in the attic or loft. The exterior walls were constructed of hand-hewn cottonwood logs, originally packed with mud but now sealed with grout. A kitchen and pantry were added to the east side in 1906; the basement was added and the main floor restoration was completed in 1972. The hackberry tree in the front yard has been recognized by Nebraska authorities as one of the largest of this variety in the United States.
The log cabin was furnished as a pioneer residence more than 100 years ago. It was restored to near-original condition as a memorial to the living conditions of the pioneers by the Sarpy County Historical Society.
On October 16, 1970, this property was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.
]]>Approximately thirty feet south of here in 1865 the Union Pacific Railroad laid its original track extending from the Missouri River in Omaha, south up Mud Creek to Papillion Creek, and northwesterly along West Papillion Creek. Although Chief Engineer Peter A. Dey had proposed a more direct route to reach the Elkhorn Valley, Union Pacific Vice President Dr. Thomas Durant and consulting engineer Silas Seymour instead selected the Papillion Creek alternative, adding nine miles to the line. Durant was accused of making the change to obtain additional government subsidies, but he defended the Papillion route as having gentler grades than the Dey route. When E. H. Harriman gained control of the Union Pacific in 1897 he began modernization, including construction of the Lane Cut-off following Dey's original route. The cut-off opened in 1908, relegating the Durant line to a secondary role. Between 1988 and 1994, 7.3 miles of track on the original Durant line between Gilmore and Millard were removed. Rail customers in Millard are served from the west end of the original main line at Lane Junction in west Omaha.
]]>Here is the great Platte Valley, Highway to the West. On these nearby bluffs prehistoric Indians built their homes. The Pawnee and Oto established large earthlodge villages near here. As you travel west in the valley you will follow the route of the Indians, white explorers, and the early trails to the western United States. In 1820, an exploring party under Major Stephen Long followed the Platte Valley to the Rocky Mountains, as did an 1826 expedition under General William Ashley. By 1830, the valley had become the major supply route for fur traders in the Rocky Mountains. Beginning in 1847, the Mormons on their way to Utah followed a trail along the north side of the Platte. The Oregon Trail reached the Platte 150 miles west of here and followed the south side of the river. By the late 1850's, it was estimated that 90% of all traffic which crossed the Plains followed the Platte. The famous Pony Express followed the Platte Valley, as did the first transcontinental telegraph line. By 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed and it, too, followed the valley, opening the land along the river for permanent settlement.
]]>Before the organization of Nebraska Territory in 1854, missions were established among the Indian tribes of this area. In 1850, Rev. Edward McKinney founded the first Presbyterian Church of Nebraska with five members.
He had arrived in Bellevue in 1846 to take over the work of the Indian missions. In 1853, Rev. William Hamilton replaced him as pastor. In 1856, the church body was reorganized and the construction of a permanent edifice was begun. The building was thirty by forty feet and took two years to complete. It was one of the earliest churches built in Nebraska and is the oldest surviving structure built as a church.
Additions to the building were made in 1869, and in 1904 it was enlarged to more than double its original size. The Social Hall was added in 1924. Seating only five hundred, the church became too small for the needs of the congregation. Thus after providing religious services for more than a century, it was replaced in 1958 by a new building.
It has been preserved as a symbol of our pioneer religious heritage.
]]>This building of handmade bricks was constructed in 1856 to serve as the Fontenelle Bank. During the financial Panic of 1857 the Fontenelle Bank failed as did most of the other poorly backed wildcat banks in the Nebraska Territory. In 1861 by authority of the Territorial Legislature the building was acquired by Sarpy County for use as the courthouse. In 1875 the County Seat was moved to Papillion. The city of Bellevue then utilized the building as the Town Hall for more than three quarters of a century until 1960 when a municipal building was completed. In 1961 Mrs. Harold D. LeMar purchased the building for preservation. In 1969 this rare structure was entered in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1972, with the aid of a grant for historic preservation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development the building was purchased and later restored by the City of Bellevue. In the history of Nebraska, buildings such as this have given service as the transition has been made from frontier settlements to modern communities. It has been preserved as one of the earliest public buildings in the State of Nebraska.
]]>Bellevue, gateway to the upper Missouri and the fur trade empire, is the oldest continuous settlement in Nebraska. This town was born, became important, almost died, and now in the 20th century, has been revitalized.
Fur traders dealing with the Omaha, Ponca, Oto, and Pawnee, first gave it life. Manuel Lisa probably named it for the beautiful view at the junction of the Platte and Missouri Valleys.
In 1823, an Indian Agency was established in Bellevue. Here and at the Peter Sarpy fur trading post travelers such as Prince Maximilian, Carl Bodmer, George Catlin, and John C. Fremont, were welcomed. By 1846 Bellevue was a steamboat landing and the site of an important Indian Mission. Here Francis Burt, the first territorial governor, arrived in 1854, and the first territorial newspaper, the Nebraska Palladium, was published.
When the territorial capital was located at Omaha, and the Pacific Railroad was routed to the north, Bellevue faded. In the 1940's the town was rejuvenated when thousands of military personnel, who man the Strategic Air Command center of defense for the western world, made Bellevue their home.
]]>In November 1833 Moses and Eliza Merrill, missionaries sponsored by the Baptist Missionary Union, arrived at the government Indian agency at Bellevue and opened a mission school for the Oto and Missouri Indians living in eastern Nebraska. The Merrills were the first Christian missionaries sent to Nebraska.
In September, 1835 the Merrill family relocated to a log cabin and schoolhouse the government provided on the Platte River about three miles west of here. Part of the Oto and Missouri led by Chief Iatan built a village nearby. as the mission developed, Merrill prepared a spelling book, a reader, and hymnals in the Oto language. More buildings were erected, and a blacksmith and farmer joined the staff.
The Oto were plagued by diminishing game supplies and demoralized by liquor. On April 28, 1837, Iatan was killed in an Indian feud and his successor was unable to maintain the village at the mission. Merrill died on February 6, 1840, and was buried at St. Mary, across the Missouri River from Bellevue. In 2011 only a stone fireplace/chimney remained at the mission site.
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