Today N. P. Dodge Memorial Park might appear simply to be land set aside in Omaha, Nebraska for ball fields, water sports, and camping, but the area has a deeper history. About two months after their journey began, Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery made camp at this site.

The explorers knew that this had formerly been the land of the Oto tribe, and they were hoping to make friendly contact with Native Americans, as established in their charter. On August 3, 1804, the Corps met with the leaders of the Oto and Missouria tribes and exchanged gifts. The expedition members named the area “Council Bluff” to commemorate their first meeting with Native Americans.

The Corps of Discovery’s journey further opened up the west to homesteaders like Sylvanus and Julia Dodge. In 1855, they crossed the Missouri River about where Dodge Park stands today, but made their home sixty miles west of the site, across the Elkhorn River. The Dodge family donated 146 acres to the city of Omaha in 1930, and the park was named after Nathan Phillips Dodge, son of Sylvanus, who helped his brother develop land in the Missouri River Valley and formed a real estate business that still thrives today.

The Park suffered damage from the Missouri River flooding that occurred in the summer of 2011, but fully recovered and rebuilt by the following summer.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Jennifer Oelschlager