FORT CALHOUN, Neb. (AP) - It was young America’s largest military post and the nation’s first fort west of the Missouri River.
It operated the first school, farm, sawmill, hospital and library in what decades later would be Nebraska, the Omaha World-Herald (https://bit.ly/1LYOBKP ) reported.
Years earlier, the Lewis and Clark expedition’s historic first meeting with American Indians was held on its bluff.
Fort Atkinson today is a state historical park under siege, but reinforcements are steaming to the rescue.
Plagued by low visitation despite its rich history and scenic location overlooking the Missouri River Valley north of Omaha, the park is poised to pull itself up by its bootstraps under a new tactical plan taking shape.
With enough vision, commitment, money and luck, Fort Atkinson State Historical Park could be the Fort Robinson State Park - or Carhenge, at least - of eastern Nebraska, said Julie Ashton, executive director of the Washington County Historical Association in Fort Calhoun.
“Fort Atkinson is like a dinosaur discovered in somebody’s basement,” she said. “We need to bring it up, dust it off and charge admission to come see it.”
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission got the attention of Ashton and others in this town of 900 when it closed the park for seven months in 2013 and 2014.
“That’s when it was first apparent to us that Game and Parks can’t do this alone,” Ashton said. “We needed to step up as a community and partner with the commission to keep these parks going.”
Fort Atkinson was one of 24 state recreation areas and state historical parks targeted for temporarily shuttering as the commission reassigned employees and resources in an effort to reduce more than $30 million in backlogged maintenance jobs and other projects.
As recently as two years ago, Fort Atkinson was losing more than $150,000 a year. It had nearly $500,000 in deferred maintenance needs. Its annual visitation is about 25,000, despite being just a dozen miles north of Omaha, the state’s largest city.
To compare, Fort Robinson - the crown jewel state park in remote northwest Nebraska - had more than 410,000 visitations last year. Carhenge, the wacky automobile display near Alliance in the Nebraska Panhandle, attracts more than twice the number of annual visitors as Fort Atkinson.
“That’s just wrong!” Ashton said in mock indignation at Carhenge’s visitations.
Michelle Stryker, planning and programming chief for the Game and Parks Commission, said Fort Atkinson can rebound with the right community and state partnerships and funding. The commission’s parks division wants to act quickly, she said.
The soon-to-be rolled out tactical plan is a one- to five-year undertaking that addresses several major goals and how to achieve them. Among them:
- Create a partnership between Game and Parks, City of Fort Calhoun, Friends of Fort Atkinson, Fort Atkinson Foundation, Washington County Historical Association, Nebraska Tourism Commission and others.
- Raise awareness and visitation by 25 percent by 2017. There are 1.3 million people living within 60 miles of the park. The area’s demographics skew toward higher-than-average income and education levels, which correlate to an above-average interest in historical events and parks.
- Change displays and programming by 2016. More than half of the displays were built in the 1970s. Additions and improvements during the past 15 years haven’t resonated with visitors. More technologically advanced displays will be considered. Successful programs will be expanded.
- Focus activities on the Harold W. Andersen Visitor Center as the hub of activity at the park.
- Create two big events for 2016 and examine niche marketing.
- Capitalize on distinctive messages to promote the site, such as its significance on the Lewis and Clark Trail, the fort’s role as the gateway to the fur trade and how it became a jumping off point for several early expeditions to Mexican settlements in the Southwest. Two big promotional opportunities loom: Nebraska’s 150th anniversary of statehood in 2017 and Fort Atkinson’s 200th anniversary in 2019-20.
- Strive to make Fort Atkinson a sustainable park within the state system.
Stryker presented the plan to agency commissioners in July, saying the park doesn’t have a lot of opportunities for new development.
“It’s about what exists there now,” she said.
Commissioner Mick Jensen of Blair said he liked what he heard.
Initially established by the Army as Cantonment Missouri in 1819, the fort was built at the site recommended by Capt. William Clark in 1804.
Fort Atkinson served as a hub for the frontiersmen of the fur trade. Its soldiers - many were veterans of the War of 1812 - drilled, patrolled, farmed and kept the peace with Indians.
The sprawling military reservation covered thousands of acres. From its perch above the river, the fort’s boundaries stretched seven miles north, west and south. At its peak, it housed a quarter of the standing Army.
After the Army abandoned the garrison in 1827, even the Missouri River left the site, shifting away from the base of the bluff. The river now flows three miles east of the park. Only remnant brick and masonry remained at the fort ruins when the first settlers arrived in Nebraska Territory in 1854.
During Nebraska’s first century, the community of Fort Calhoun grew over the site, and farming operations erased most traces of the historic fort - except for the musket balls, uniform buttons, coins and other artifacts that surfaced with each spring plowing and after rainstorms, Ashton said.
Beginning in the mid-1950s, archaeological crews from the Nebraska State Historical Society determined the exact locations of the fort’s walls, gates and outbuildings. Game and Parks established the state historical park in 1963 and developed the site over several decades, with the dogged assistance of the county historical association.
Nebraska has nine state historical parks. They preserve pieces of the state’s heritage and explain who Nebraskans are as a society, said Bob Hanover, a Game and Parks assistant division administrator who oversees the historical parks.
The plan under way for Fort Atkinson isn’t intended to be a list of definitive projects or programs, Hanover said. Rather, it creates opportunities for the commission to flexibly partner with the county historical association and others to consider all options.
Hanover said there is great interest within the community for the park.
“They’re passionate about the fort,” he said. “We’re lucky to have them on our side.”
Last year, 16 of the top 20 tourist attractions in Nebraska were state parks and recreation areas. They recorded nearly 9.7 million visits, according to the Nebraska Tourism Commission.
State historical parks lag in the listing, but Fort Atkinson trails only Buffalo Bill Ranch and Fort Kearny - both near Interstate 80 in west-central Nebraska - in state historical park attendance. Entry permits required at these sites are part of the revenue mix from parks that makes up 30 percent of Game and Parks’ total operating budget.
Much of the outpost was reconstructed in the 1970s through the 1990s. Interpretive work continues, and living-history demonstrations are scheduled periodically during the summer.
The park attracted upward of 65,000 people from across the nation in 2004, the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark’s council with Otoe and Missouria Indians. The Lewis and Clark visitation surge faded, however.
Ashton said she hopes new plans for the future of the 157-acre park capitalize on its Lewis and Clark heritage. She envisions an annual event marking the expedition’s August meeting with the Indians. She imagines a Lewis and Clark-themed recreational vehicle park and campground. No camping or other lodging currently is available at the park.
Ashton’s wish list goes on: A concessionaire. A chuck wagon dinner. A post playhouse featuring community and college performers.
“This is what the fort lacks,” she said. “We’re in this together. We’re a small community. The one thing we have to drive tourism is history.”
___
Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.