Fort Lisa

Fort Lisa was started by famed fur trapper Manuel Lisa in North Omaha, Nebraska in 1806, may have been were Sacagawea died, and was home to several firsts in Nebraska history.

History

Although dates vary according to account, at some point in 1806-07 fur trapper Manuel Lisa established Fort Lisa for the company he and William Clark jointly owned called the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company. The famous Astor Expedition undoubtedly came by the Fort in 1811. The site was reportedly rebuilt in 1812 and became the main post of the Missouri Fur Company.

Some sources say Sacajawea died at Fort Lisa on December 20, 1812^[1].

"An 1811 journal entry made by Henry Brackenridge, a fur dealer at Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, stated that both Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living at the fort. He recorded that Sacagawea "…had become sickly and longed to revisit her native country." The following year, John Luttig, a clerk at Fort Manuel Lisa recorded in his journal on December 20, 1812, that "…the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw [the common term used to denote Shoshone Indians], died of putrid fever." He went on to say that she was "aged about 25 years. She left a fine infant girl".^[2] Documents held by Clark show that her son Baptiste had already been entrusted by Charbonneau into Clark's care for a boarding school education, at Clark's insistence (Jackson, 1962)."^[3]

The Western Engineer, piloted by Stephen Harriman Long, reached the fort in 1819 and was the first steamboat to ply the Missouri River. Aboard the ship were General Henry Atkinson and Captain Stephen Watt Kearny, both important to the future development of the American West, and both of whom later had forts in the Nebraska Territory named after them: Fort Atkinson and Fort Kearny.

George Drouillard, a member of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery, was tried for the murder of a deserter from Fort Lisa whom he mortally wounded while trying to capture him.^[4]

Details of when the Fort ceased operations are sketchy. At some point after Lisa spent the winter of 1819-20 at Fort Lisa with his third wife, he returned to St. Louis and died. Some point thereafter Fort Lisa was commanded by Joshua Pilcher^[5], with the Fort eventually closing and being replaced by Pilcher's Post.^[6]

Location

Fort Lisa was located, "at a point between five and six miles below the original Council Bluff - where Lewis and Clark had a council with the Missouri (tribe) and Otoe Indians, August 3, 1804, and now the site of the town of Fort Calhoun..."^[7] The site of Fort Lisa is located at 11808 John J Pershing Drive, next to Hummel Park and north of Florence.

The site of Fort Lisa may have influenced the positioning of several nearby historically significant sites, including Fort Atkinson, Cabanne's Trading Post and Cutler's Park.^[8]

Influence

At the time of its establishment Fort Lisa was the only trading post in the Great Plains region. This made the Fort instrumental in American relations with local tribes, as well as the early settlement of the Nebraska Territory.

According to one source, the influence of Manuel Lisa, exerted from Fort Lisa, was strong enough to hold all the Missouri river Indians firmly in alliance with the American people. Lisa is also credited with keeping tribes in the region on the side of the United States during the War of 1812.

Fort Lisa provided several firsts in American history. The first European farmer in Nebraska, Lisa himself, was here^[9]; Fort Lisa was the first American settlement set up in the recent Louisiana Purchase; the first woman of European descent in Nebraska was Lisa's second wife, and; the first steamboat to navigate Nebraska waters, the "Western Engineer", arrived at Fort Lisa on September 19, 1819.^[10]

The American Fur Company established Fort Robidoux two and one half miles south of Fort Lisa in 1822, and the proximity of both locations, along with Fort Atkinson, in turn influenced the positioning of Culter's Park, the Mormon Bridge, Fort Omaha, and Florence. These establishments led to the flow of Mormon Trail pioneers, which in turn led to the development of Kanesville, Omaha, Saratoga, and eventually all of North Omaha itself, as well as many further points in America's western expansion.

See also

• Cabanne's Trading Post
• Nebraska Territory
• Louisiana Purchase
• History of North Omaha, Nebraska
• Timeline of North Omaha, Nebraska history
• Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska

References

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