What is the history of Council Bluffs, Iowa?
in downtown Council Bluffs The city was named for the 1804 meeting of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with the Otoe tribe that took place near present-day Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska. The area east of Bellevue, Nebraska was later known as Council Bluffs. The present city of Council Bluffs was first settled by Billy Caldwell’s Pottawatomi during the 1830s after they were removed from what became Chicago. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet operated a mission among the Potawatomi for a time and Fort Croghan was built to control liquor traffic on the Missouri. During the late-1840s the town became ‘Kanesville’ (named for Thomas L. Kane), the main outfitting point for the Mormon emigration to Utah. The Mormon Battalion began their march to Utah from here, plural marriage was first openly practiced, and Brigham Young was introduced as the second leader of the Mormon Church. The community was transformed by the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the majority of Mormons left for Utah by 1852. The town was rena
