Blair, Nebraska to Morton, Minnesota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Sergeant Floyd Monument, Fort Atkinson and "Sod House on the Prairie"

In Sioux City, we visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.   It is a very modern museum with robotic mannequins to portray key figures who through their monologues reveal important facts about the expedition.  President Thomas Jefferson provides visitors with an overview by repeating his instructions for Meriweather Lewis and charging him with organizing and leading the "Corps of Discovery".  There was an extensive display of Indian artifacts and exhibits related to Indian life and relations with the American explorers.  It is well worth the time invested in this fine interpretive center.  A few miles away is a 100 foot tall obelisk marking the gravesite of Sergeant Charles Floyd, Jr. who was the only man of the "Corps of Discovery" to die during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

http://www.siouxcitylcic.com/

Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Lewis and Clark

Sergeant Floyd Obelisk

Later in the day, we stopped to visit Fort Atkinson which was the first American military fort on the Missouri River and pre-dated Fort Leavenworth.  Fort Atkinson which stands at Council Bluffs which once formed the western banks of the Missouri River.  Today the river is well over a mile to the east of the site of the first American fort on the Missouri River.  Construction on the fort began 200 years ago.  At one time, the fort was manned by 1/4 of the US Army which was stationed there to protect the fur trade and early settlers from the numerous Indian tribes which inhabited the surrounding plains.  The US Army abandoned the fort in 1827 when Fort Leavenworth was established further south on the Missouri River.  The fort was recreated over the past 30 years and is located in a State Park.  It is a truly amazing reproduction and site of historical re-enactments.

http://www.fortatkinsononline.org/

Fort Atkinson

We also made a brief stop at the "Sod House on the Prairie" near Sanborn, Minnesota.  There two sod houses re-create pioneer life on the American prairies during the 1880s.  

The McCone family has constructed replicas of sod and wooden houses which provided shelter to early settlers on the American prairies.  A "sod dugout" and "sod house" are the most interesting structures.  They were built using native prairie grass sod using techniques in practice on the plains during the late 19th Century.  The walls are two feet thick.  The interior walls of the "sod house" were finished in white chinking similar to that used to fill the gaps between logs in log cabins.  Most amazing was the furniture and objects of daily life found in each of the structures.  It was well worth the slight detour to get a better appreciation of what life might have been like for early settlers on the plains.  Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) lived nearby.  

Sod House

Sod House Interior