Fort Atkinson, Nebraska

During its brief existence, Fort Atkinson played host to momentous events in America's westering experience, and the story of the fort adds much to the social history of the west.

But, these achievements may have diverted attention from Ft. Atkinson's significant contribution to the development of the western fur trade. Between 1819-1827, Ft. Atkinson was the gateway to the fur regions of the upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains. These were pivotal years which saw the fur trade become the dominant force for American expansion. By the 1840's, fur traders and mountain men had explored the west, opened the Mexican territories of the southwest, and shown the way for emigrants to Oregon and California. As the only government authority in the vast territory west of the Missouri, the garrison at Fort Atkinson assumed the often impossible task of regulating the fur trade and enforcing peaceful relations between traders and the Indian tribes of the region.

Who were the traders and mountain men who passed through the portals of Ft. Atkinson? Contemporary documents reveal some of their names; others may be assumed from sources relating the travels of fur trading parties along the upper Missouri route. We know that such giants of the fur trade as General William H. Ashley, Thomas Fitzpatrick, James Clyman, and Hugh Glass trod the parade ground at Ft. Atkinson.

In 1822, a party of fur traders led by Gen. William H. Ashley and Maj. Andrew Henry ascended the Missouri in keelboats, seeking to tap the fur riches of the Yellowstone country. These were the "enterprising young men" for whom Ashley had advertised in the pages of The Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser. Although the names of many of the party went unrecorded, the expedition included Jedediah Smith, David E. Jackson, Jim Bridger, and Mike Fink. It is logical to assume that the keelboats made at least a brief stop at Ft. Atkinson, which was the last outpost of civilization on the upper Missouri. When the party reached thee Yellowstone, Major Henry remained to build a fort while Ashley returned to St. Louis.

The years 1823-1824 were to be momentous ones as Ft. Atkinson played out its role as sentinel at the fur trade gateway. The second Ashley expedition passed the fort in the spring of 1823. This group included others whose names would loom large on the roll of noted mountain men: Thomas Fitzpatrick, William Sublette, James Clyman, Hiram Scott, and the legendary Hugh Glass. On June 2, 1823, the Ashley party was attacked at the Arikara village in present north-central South Dakota and was forced to retreat after suffering a number of killed and wounded. The aftermath of the attack was a punitive military expedition led from Ft. Atkinson by Col. Henry Leavenworth. After an arduous trek upriver, a combined force of soldiers and fur traders fought an indecisive skirmish with the Arikara and then made peace. As a show of U.S. military strength, the Arikara War was a pitiful failure.

The 1823 defeat by the Arikara, and a series of events which followed in the summer and fall of 1824, prompted William H. Ashley to take steps which would revolutionize the operation of the western fur trade. After two costly failures to gain an foothold on the upper Missouri Ashley sent Jedediah Smith and a party of trappers to explore the Crow country and the region along the Continental Divide. Almost a year passed before several of Smith's party, led by Thomas Fitzpatrick, stumbled into Ft. Atkinson after an exhausting journey through South Pass and down the Platte. They brought word that the mountains were rich with beaver. Responding quickly, Ashley outfitted a company of trappers and, in November 1824, struck out from Ft. Atkinson vial the Platter Valley for the Rocky Mountains.

No more would Ashley try to conduct the fur trade from fixed posts. His trappers would roam the mountains and bring the pelts to an annual rendezvous to be exchanged for St. Louis goods brought overland. The profits from the 1824/1825 hunt would make Ashley a wealthy man, and the system of free-ranging trappers would become institutionalized in the mountain fur trade. More importantly, the search for beaver would spur the exploration of the west.

While Ashley and his men pursued paltry in the remote regions of the Rocky Mountains, other traders operated in Ft. Atkinson's backyard. Manuel Lisa had established a post in the vicinity before Ft. Atkinson appeared on the scene. With Lisa's death in 1820, his Missouri Fur Company had been reorganized with Joshua Pilcher as field commander, operating from the Council Bluff. John P. Cabanne was a frequent visitor to Ft. Atkinson as proprietor of the Berhold, Chouteau and Pratte Co. post six miles below the fort.

Ft. Atkinson was also the jumping-off point for several early expeditions to the Mexican settlements of Taos and Santa Fe. As early as 1820, David Meriwether left Ft. Atkinson seeking a wagon route to Santa Fe. In the summer and fall of 1824, separate parties led by members of the Robidoux family left the Council Bluff bound for New Mexico. A large trading expedition outfitted by Berthold Pratte, and Co. at their post near Ft. Atkinson, embarked in July 1825 under the command of Sylvestre Pratte. Yet another Robidoux trading party started for the southwest in September 1825.

The Council Bluff was also the site of the Upper Missouri Indian Agency, with headquarters at Ft. Atkinson. The agency was managed by Benjamin O'Fallon and sub-agent John Dougherty. It was O'Fallon who arranged for a delegation of Mexicans to visit thee Council Bluff in September 1824, to conclude a peace treaty with the Pawnee. It was O'Fallon, too, who in company with General Henry Atkinson, negotiated treaties of peace and friendship with Indian tribes of the upper Missouri in 1825.

Between 1819-1827, Ft. Atkinson witnessed the opening of the west. Few of the fort's inhabitants could have had the vision to recognize the significance of the events played out within the shadow of its bastions. From the perspective of more than a century and a half, however, Fort Atkinson's importance to western history can hardly be overestimated.