June 3, 2003

184 Years of Lost American History is Emerging from Local Missouri River Soil

Some very important historical events occurred on and near our local lower Missouri River stretch of the river. We have excellent historical accounts and details, but the event's exact location along the river is still in question. This story is about how local Nebraska historians and archaeologists recently solved a mystery regarding the long-lost location of the "Engineer Cantonment", established 184 years ago several miles down river from what is now Fort Atkinson, near Fort Calhoun Nebraska.

The Inception

After the War of 1812, Americans feared British competition in the fur trade and negative influence over the powerful tribes of the interior. British traders of the Hudson's Bay Company had for many years been a dominant force in the Louisiana Territory and continued to be so 
despite the American acquisition of the area in 1802. Britain had successfully used its influence with the Indians for many years to harass, inhibit, and actively war upon the upstart Americans.

	Colonel Henry M. Atkinson led the 1819 Yellowstone Expedition militia up the Missouri River to an area called 'Council Bluff' near Fort Calhoun Neb.

In 1818, to counter the British influence, President James Monroe proposed to dispatch a military expedition into the heart of the area via the Missouri River. 

The Missouri enterprise (commonly referred to as the Yellowstone Expedition) was formed under the leadership of Colonel Henry M. Atkinson. The Expedition's orders mandate the construction of a series of forts and establish a military presence in the lands acquired through the 
Louisiana Purchase. 

The U.S. government would build three forts, two would guard against the British. Fort Snelling, at present-day St. Paul, Minnesota, was to guard the northern Mississippi River. The second was to be near 'Council Bluffs' and was designed to protect the Missouri River. The western-most fort was to be placed at the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, along the present-day North Dakota-Montana border.

The Expedition

At the time, Col. Atkinson was commander of the Sixth infantry stationed at Plattsburgh, New York on the Canadian border. In 1819, Col. Atkinson received orders to rendezvous his troops to the south and encamp with the crack Rifle Regiment by the Missouri River near St. Louis. 
The Sixth infantry hastily traveled the 2,700-miles by land and water down to St. Louis. At that time, in 1819, Captain Stephen Watts Kearny was assigned duty with Atkinson's Yellowstone expedition. In addition to establishing a military presence, the expedition would be chartered 
to perform science and engineering functions. 

In conjunction with this event, Major Stephen Harriman Long was ordered to carefully select and lead a crew of notable specialists in zoology, geology, cartography, journalism, art and botany. They were to travel along with the Yellowstone Expedition. This was the first scientific expedition of 'Army Engineers' to be funded by the U.S. government chartered with mapping, studying, documenting and exploring the vast area of uncharted land to be traveled between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

Major Long then planned and had constructed, an experimental steamboat, which was christened the Western Engineer. This steamboat would be used to transport the task force of scientists,

	The Western Engineer was the first steamboat to successfully venture up the Missouri River to the Omaha-Council Bluffs area.

naturalists, and artists as far west as possible during exploration of the frontier. The steamboat was uniquely designed, much different than others of it's day, to navigate the expected narrow, shallow, snag-littered channels of the Missouri River and it's tributary rivers. 

It contained a particularly strong engine to provide increased power against swift currents. Another novel feature was a paddlewheel built into the stern to reduce the danger of damage from snags. 

The boat had a 75-by-13-foot hull with the weight of the machinery carefully distributed to permit increased maneuverability in shallow channels. To protect the vessel from Indian attack, Long installed a bulletproof pilothouse, mounted a cannon on the bow, placed howitzers along the side, and armed the crew with rifles and sabers. 

In all, the Western Engineer, known as "Long's Dragon" because is was decorated as a serpent in order to detract or scare any hostile frontier natives, was anything but a typical steamboat of its day. The hull drew only 19 inches of water compared to the five or six feet of most steamboats of that era. But its basic design (shallow draft, rear paddlewheel, narrow beam, amidships engine) became the prototype for western river steam vessels. 

Major Stephen H. Long's Western Engineer would be the first steamboat to reach what would become Nebraska, and it was able to do so only because it could float in only 19 inches of water.

The Ascent 

In 1819 the Yellowstone Expedition's militia began it's ascent up the Missouri River from St. Louis in modern equipped steamboats. Col. Atkinson led a force of 1,126 rifle men upriver and Major Stephen H. Long led the scientific party of 'Army Engineers'. Atkinson's party suffered through a variety of problems, which included an inefficient and corrupt steamboat captain. Two steamboats never reached the river, a third was unable to survive the snags, sandbars and currents of the river and was eventually abandoned. The last two cold not advance through the treacherous obstacles and were stopped just below the mouth of the Kansas River.

After several days and many miles, the vessels were Col. Atkinson's troops had to resort back to using keelboats, similar to those used by Lewis and Clark a few years earlier, powered mainly by men rowing, poling or towing upriver with ropes. 

The Arrival

Meanwhile, the scientific and exploration party under the command of Major Stephen Long in the sternwheeler Western Explorer, succeeded in reaching a location some five miles below the

	Major Stephen Harriman Long, led the scientific party of 'Army Engineers' traveling with the 1819 Yellowstone Expedition.

'Council Bluff' (near present-day Fort Atkinson) where Lewis and Clark met with Otoe native tribe representatives some 5 years earlier. This was the first successful ascent of the Missouri under steam power.

Atkinson was lucky to reach 'Council Bluff' encampment before the beginning of winter. His troops arrived at on September 19, 1819 at the site that was recommended by William Clark.

In his journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: "The situation of our last camp, Council Bluff appears to be a very proper place for a trading establishment and fortification." The actual site chosen for the encampment lay along the 'river bottom a mile or so north of the actual bluff'.

The Expedition had succeeded in reaching the site designated for the first of the Missouri River forts, but congressional economy measures and difficulties in supplying such far-flung outposts prevented the completion of the expedition and the force was halted there. 

Winter of 1819

Approaching winter impelled the 1,120 men of the expedition to bend all their energies to construction of the first post. The parties spent the 1819 winter in two camps, Atkinson's troops in "Cantonment Missouri" near 'Council Bluffs' (near Fort Atkinson) and Major Long's men 
established the "Engineer Cantonment" five miles down the river near the western riverbank. Once the winter encampment was established, Major Long departed in order to return to Washington where new orders were awaiting. 

Cantonment Missouri had a short and unhappy existence. Severe winter conditions contributed to a shortage of supplies which had tragic consequences, for during that winter, Col. Atkinson witnessed some 160 of his men die of scurvy and fevers. Many more were hospitalized from 
the debilitating effects of the simple lack of vitamin C in their diet. 

The following spring of 1820, record high waters on the Missouri flooded Cantonment Missouri and forced the troops to move atop the 'Council Bluff' location to establish what became Fort Atkinson.

The Search for the location of "Engineer Cantonment"

For 100 years, archeologists and historians have searched for the "Engineer Cantonment", the camp where scientists of the Long expedition wintered before heading west in springtime of 1820, along the Platte River and onward to the Rocky Mountains. 184 years later, this last May 
of 2003, an announcement was made by Nebraska archeologists that the elusive encampment location may have been discovered.

In 1819 a 20 year-old naturalist and an artist with Long's scientific expedition by the name of Titian Ramsey Peale made a painting of the Engineer's winter encampment with detailed bluffs, or

	Titian Ramsey Peale's 1819 painting of Long's 'Engineer Cantonment' showing the detail of the bluffs just to the north of Omaha.

rolling hills in the background. There are several small dwellings situated at the base 
of a shallow valley or hollow descending between a ridge two prominent uneven peaks. 

Using a copy of the Peale's painting as a reference, archeologists hiked the Nebraska river flood plain late last fall north of Omaha somewhere between Missouri River mile markers 629 and 623 taking pictures and observing the Nebraska bluffs. Aided by an absence of leaves on the distant trees, they were able to locate and observe an astonishingly close match between the painting's bluffs horizon and a particular section of hilltops. 

If the site proves to be the actual 1819 winter campsite of the Long expedition, it would be the earliest Euro-American historical site discovered in Nebraska.

Archeologists are not disclosing the excavation's exact location because of security concerns. There are those who would rob the area and disturb 184 years of history for profit. The site is located on private property. Initial selective digging down to depths of 3 feet have yielded some awesome astonishing artifacts, including a detailed clay pipe typical of the period, contribute to positive site identification. 

Rob Bozell, associate director and chief archeologist for the Nebraska State Historical Society said the site will be excavated only to the extent that it is proved authentic. Then the site would be preserved, he said, making it a good candidate for placement on the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.