Lewis & Clark
In 1804, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their crew set out from St. Louis up the Missouri River to explore the new Louisiana Purchase. They passed through the area that is now western Iowa, documenting their journey along the way. The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition can be viewed online. The Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail passes through the region, as does the Lewis & Clark Bicycle Trail.
Rivers and footpaths were the first streets and highways in southwest Iowa. While we do not have a lot of written or mapped documentation of early land routes, we know that waterways were commonly traveled. The 1837 Ioway Map, shown above, is one of the earliest maps that includes our region, including the Missouri and Nishnabotna (both indigenous words). General Land Office survey show some of the pre-European-settlement routes.
While Lewis & Clark are the most well-known explorers in the area, many others traversed the region.
- Stephen Long and the Yellowstone Expedition also explored the Missouri River. They stayed at Engineer Cantonment near Harrison County for several months, where they studied and documented the local biology and geology.
- Charles Larpenteur was an early fur trader who settled near Little Sioux in Harrison County. His journals are now a biographical memoir, Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri.
- Stephen Kearny traveled from Council Bluffs to Minnesota via the Little Sioux and Boyer River valleys in Harrison County.
- Prince Maximilian of Wied-Nuwied and painter Karl Bodmer traveled up the Missouri River in this area, documenting their trip in Journey to Inner North America in the Years 1832 to 1834.
- John E. Weaver, one of the most well-known experts on tallgrass prairies, spent time studying in this area. One of his papers, Native Grassland of Southwestern Iowa, focuses specifically on local prairies.
The National Park Service’s Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail Auto Tour Route traverses our region. A few notable sites include the Nishnabotna rock cut crossing near Macedonia and the Grand Encampment near Council Bluffs. Many communities, especially in the Loess Hills, were initially settled by Mormons. Dugouts can still be seen in some locations.
Southwest Iowa was an important area in the fight for abolition of slavery. The Underground Railroad included several “stations” in Mills and Pottawattamie counties. Although just across the county line and officially outside our region, the Todd House and Antislavery Historic District in Tabor and the Hitchcock House near Lewis are excellent sites to visit to learn about this abolitionist history. The Underground Railroad routes crossed through Mills and Pottawattamie between these two important sites.