Council Bluffs Iowa History & Facts

Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. It is the most populous city in Southwest Iowa, as well as the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from Omaha, Nebraska. Until about 1853 Council Bluffs was known as Kanesville. Kanesville was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail. Kanesville is also the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails because there was a steam-powered boat which ferried the settlers' wagons and cattle across the Missouri River. In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad to California was connected to the existing U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs.

Council Bluffs' population was 62,799 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the state's tenth largest city. The Omaha metropolitan region of which Council Bluffs is a part, is the 58th largest in the United States, with an estimated population of 967,604 (2020).

The first Council Bluff (which is singular) was on the Nebraska side of the river at Fort Atkinson, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of the current city of Council Bluffs. It was named by Lewis and Clark for a bluff where they met the Otoe tribe on August 2, 1804.

The Iowa side of the river became an Indian Reservation in the 1830s for members of the Council of Three Fires of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi who were forced to leave the Chicago area under the Treaty of Chicago clearing the way for the city of Chicago to incorporate.

The largest group of Native Americans who moved to the area were the Pottawatomi, who were led by their chief Sauganash ("one who speaks English"), the son of the British loyalist William Caldwell, who founded Canadian communities on the south side of the Detroit River, and a Pottawatomi woman.

Seeking to avoid confrontation with the Sioux, who were natives of the Council Bluffs area, the 1,000 to 2,000 Pottawattamie initially had settled east of the Missouri River in Indian territory between Leavenworth, Kansas and St. Joseph, Missouri. When the area was bought from Ioway, Sac and Fox tribes in the Platte Purchase and part of Missouri in 1837, Sauganash and the Pottawatomi were forced to move to their assigned reservation in Council Bluffs. Sauganash's English name was Billy Caldwell, and his village was called Caldwell's Camp. The tribe were sometimes called the Bluff Indians. U.S. Army Dragoons built a small fort nearby.

In 1838–39, the missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet founded St. Joseph's Mission to minister to the Potawatomi. De Smet was appalled by the violence and brutality caused by the whiskey trade, and tried to protect the tribe from unscrupulous traders. However he had little success in persuading tribal members to convert to Christianity and resorted to secret baptisms of Indian children.

During this time, De Smet contributed to Joseph Nicollet's work in mapping the upper midwest. De Smet produced the first European-recorded, detailed map of the Council Bluffs area; it detailed the Missouri River valley system, from below the Platte River to the Big Sioux River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 43.62 square miles (112.98 km2), of which 40.97 square miles (106.11 km2) is land and 2.65 square miles (6.86 km2) is water.

Council Bluffs covers a unique topographic region originally composed of prairie and savanna in the Loess Hills with extensive wetlands and deciduous forest along the Missouri River. Excellent vistas can be had from KOIL Point at Fairmont Park, the Lincoln Monument, Kirn Park, and the Lewis and Clark Monument. Lake Manawa State Park is located at the southern edge of the city.

Famous Peoples From Council Bluffs Iowa

Max Duggan

(born March 12, 2001) is an American football quarterback for the TCU Horned Frogs. He won the Davey O'Brien, Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Awards in 2022 after leading TCU to the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship.

Duggan grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa as the youngest child of Debra Dodds and Jim Duggan (no relation to the former WWE wrestler of the same name), who had met while both were athletes at the University of South Dakota in the early 1980s. His two older siblings, Sam and Megan, were both adopted from South Korea.

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