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The Great Flood of 1881 was along the Missouri River between April 1, 1881, and April 27, 1881. The flood began around Pierre, South Dakota and struck areas down river in Yankton, South Dakota, Omaha, Nebraska, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Nebraska City, Nebraska, Kansas City, Missouri, and farther south. This was the first detailed reporting of Missouri River flooding, and caused millions of dollars in damage.
Snowfall in the winter of 1880-1881 was unusually heavy, and March 1881 remained extraordinarily cold until its last week. Melting snow in the Dakotas, north of Nebraska, poured water into the Missouri River.
John Hilger, an early resident of Pierre, South Dakota said, "When the snow started to disappear, it left in a hurry. The river rose very rapidly, the ice gorged a short distance below town, turning the water into the bottoms and flooded the town with from four to six feet of water. Those who were not so fortunate as to possess two story houses were obliged to retreat to higher ground. My dugout was filled with women and children and I was obliged to seek quarters elsewhere because of the lack of room."
Downtown Omaha was flooded up to 9th Street, and Council Bluffs was flooded the same. The river remained at a high level for several weeks and during the height of flooding was reported to have been 5 miles (8.0 km) wide. Omaha's entire shipping industry was damaged, with industrial, trade, and docking buildings severely damaged or destroyed. Losses were said to be "in the millions". [1] [2]
Omaha had only two deaths during the flood. A small one-man skiff was used by three Union Pacific workers who attempted to cross a break in a temporary dam when the river's current pushed it into the main channel. Two men jumped from the boat and drowned immediately. [3]
The Omaha Bee covered the flood each day from April 2 through April 13.
After the flood in the area south of Council Bluffs, the Missouri River had looped itself in a hairpin bend, leaving an old channel filled with quiet water. The body of water left stranded by the river's change, covering about 400 acres (160 ha), later became Lake Manawa, a popular recreation area in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. [4]
As the river rose, people attempted to save the lowlands of Iowa along the Missouri River. By April 9, the steamboat ferry Lizzie Campbell had difficulty in landing passengers at Nebraska City in deep water. Passengers were unloaded only by cart.
By April 11, all of the Iowan lowlands were under water.
By the middle of May, the river had risen to the highest point in the history of Nebraska City and Fremont County, Iowa and its course was changed considerably when the waters finally fell to normal. [5] [ better source needed ]
On the morning of April 1, word was received from Yankton, South Dakota that the Missouri River rose thirty-five feet, killing several people and destroying the lowlands in that area. The railroads received warnings from points north and advised people in the area to leave the river bottoms. They moved their rolling stock and equipment to higher lands throughout the area.
In the afternoon of April 6, a temporary dam around riverfront businesses in Omaha burst. During this period the Omaha Smelting Works and Union Pacific Shops almost completely submerged. The following morning floodwaters crested at 23.5 feet (7.2 m), which was two feet higher than ever recorded on the river. The Missouri had also reached a width of 5 miles (8.0 km), effectively covering all the lowlands around Omaha and Council Bluffs.
On the morning of April 9, the North Western Railroad levee bounding Council Bluffs against the river broke and water spread over the west and south sections of the city. An anonymous man rode a horse through the south part of the city to warn residents when the levee gave way. Rescue shelters were placed throughout the area, with "any building that was suitable was thrown open to the refugees." [4]
After that event, from Ninth Street in Council Bluffs west to Omaha and from Carter Lake south beyond the Union Pacific Shops looked like "a sea" dotted with houses and outbuildings like islands. Boats and large sections of wooden sidewalks were pressed into service, with the operators earning from $15 to $20(equivalent to about $610 in 2022) per day. [4]
On April 12, water started receding, with railroads clearing up and repairing tracks immediately. Families returned to their homes to begin cleaning out water. However, on April 22, the river stage increased at one foot per hour, causing people again to move to higher land. This time when the river broke its banks, the water spread to Eighth Street and Broadway in Council Bluffs. Houses, trees, and livestock floated downriver. [4]
By April 25, the Union Pacific Shops remained flooded as the river rose another two inches. A riverfront packinghouse and the Willow Springs Distilling Company were flooded, along with many smaller riverside businesses. 1,600 workers were unemployed at this point. In Council Bluffs 600 people were homeless, with more than a half of the city inundated with water. During the previous several weeks, the Elkhorn River valley was flooded, with the entire town of Waterloo, Nebraska abandoned due to flooding. [6]
On April 27, the river began to recede and families returned to their homes. General Grenville M. Dodge, the chief engineer in charge of the construction of the Union Pacific, had employees ride through the flooded areas to rescue cattle. The river dropped 10 inches (250 mm) on the 27th. [7]
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. It is the most populous city in Southwest Iowa, as well as the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from Omaha, Nebraska. Until about 1853 Council Bluffs was known as Kanesville. Kanesville was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail. Kanesville is also the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails because there was a steam-powered boat which ferried the settlers' wagons and cattle across the Missouri River. In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad to California was connected to the existing U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs.
Interstate 29 (I-29) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern United States. I-29 runs from Kansas City, Missouri, at a junction with I-35 and I-70, to the Canada–US border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba Provincial Trunk Highway 75 (PTH 75), which continues on to Winnipeg. The road follows the course of three major rivers, all of which form the borders of US states. The southern portion of I-29 closely parallels the Missouri River from Kansas City northward to Sioux City, Iowa, where it crosses and then parallels the Big Sioux River. For the northern third of the highway, it closely follows the Red River of the North. The major cities that I-29 connects to includes Council Bluffs, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Fargo, North Dakota; and Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Yankton is a city in and the county seat of Yankton County, South Dakota, United States.
The Loess Hills are a formation of wind-deposited loess soil in the westernmost parts of Iowa and Missouri, and the easternmost parts of Nebraska and Kansas, along the Missouri River.
Gavins Point Dam is a 1.9 mi (3 km) long embankment rolled-earth and chalk-fill dam which spans the Missouri River and impounds Lewis and Clark Lake. The dam joins Cedar County, Nebraska with Yankton County, South Dakota a distance of 811.1 river miles (1,305 km) upstream of St. Louis, Missouri, where the river joins the Mississippi River. The dam and hydroelectric power plant were constructed as the Gavins Point Project from 1952 to 1957 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan. The dam is located approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) west or upstream of Yankton, South Dakota.
Lewis and Clark Lake is a 31,400 acre (130 km²) reservoir located on the border of the U.S. states of Nebraska and South Dakota on the Missouri River. The lake is approximately 25 miles (40 km) in length with over 90 miles (140 km) of shoreline and a maximum water depth of 45 feet (14 m). The lake is impounded by Gavins Point Dam and is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District.
The Missouri National Recreational River is a National Recreational River located on the border between Nebraska and South Dakota. The designation was first applied in 1978 to a 59-mile section of the Missouri River between Gavins Point Dam and Ponca State Park. In 1991, an additional 39-mile section between Fort Randall Dam and Niobrara, Nebraska, was added to the designation. These two stretches of the Missouri River are the only parts of the river between Montana and the mouth of the Missouri that remain undammed or unchannelized. The last 20 miles of the Niobrara River and 6 miles of Verdigre Creek were also added in 1991.
The Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge is a rail truss bridge across the Missouri River between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska.
In the US state of Iowa, Interstate 29 (I-29) is a north–south Interstate Highway which closely parallels the Missouri River. I-29 enters Iowa from Missouri near Hamburg and heads to the north-northwest through the Omaha–Council Bluffs and the Sioux City areas. It exits the state by crossing the Big Sioux River into South Dakota. For its entire distance through the state, it runs on the flat land between the Missouri River and the Loess Hills.
The Lone Tree Ferry, later known as the Council Bluffs and Nebraska Ferry Company, was the crossing of the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, US, that was established in 1850 by William D. Brown. Brown was the first pioneer to see the potential for a city on the site, and the landing became a popular gathering site for the first settlers of the Nebraska Territory. Named after a solitary tree on the Nebraska bank of the river, the Lone Tree Ferry became central to the founding and development of the City of Omaha.
Transportation in Omaha, Nebraska, includes most major modes, such as pedestrian, bicycle, automobile, bus, train and airplane. While early transportation consisted of ferries, stagecoaches, steamboats, street railroads, and railroads, the city's transportation systems have evolved to include the Interstate Highway System, parklike boulevards and a variety of bicycle and pedestrian trails. The historic head of several important emigrant trails and the First transcontinental railroad, its center as a national transportation hub earned Omaha the nickname "Gate City of the West" as early as the 1860s.
The geography of Omaha, Nebraska is characterized by its riverfront position alongside the Missouri River. The city's geography, with its proximity to the river was a factor in making Omaha the "Gateway of the West" from which thousands of settlers traveled into the American West during the 19th century. Environmental issues include more than one hundred years of industrial smelting along the riverfront along with the continuous impact of suburban sprawl on the city's west side. The city's climate is temperate.
The Missouri River Activities Conference is a high school athletic and activities conference whose members are located in either the Sioux City Metropolitan Area or the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area, both located along the Missouri River on the border of western Iowa.
The Illinois Central Missouri River Bridge, also known as the IC Bridge or the East Omaha Bridge, is a rail through truss double swing bridge across the Missouri River connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa, with Omaha, Nebraska. It is owned by the Canadian National Railway and is closed to all traffic. At 521 feet long, the second version of the bridge was the longest swing bridge in the world from when it was completed in 1903 through 1915. In 1975 it was regarded as the third longest swing bridge.
The 2011 flooding event on the Missouri River in the United States was triggered by record snowfall in Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming along with near-record spring rainfall in central and eastern Montana. All six major dams along the Missouri River released record amounts of water to prevent overflow which led to flooding threatening several towns and cities along the river from Montana to Missouri; in particular Bismarck, North Dakota; Pierre, South Dakota; Dakota Dunes, South Dakota; South Sioux City, Nebraska, Sioux City, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Saint Joseph, Missouri; Kansas City, Missouri; Jefferson City, Missouri, and St. Louis, Missouri. Many smaller towns were also at risk, suffering the same fate as the larger cities if not worse. According to the National Weather Service, in the second half of the month of May 2011, almost a year's worth of rain fell over the upper Missouri River basin. Extremely heavy rainfall in conjunction with an estimated 212 percent of normal snowpack in the Rocky Mountains contributed to this flooding event.
Lake Manawa is a lake located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the United States. It was formed from a Missouri River flood in 1881. It is the closest lake to Omaha, Nebraska and surrounding metro area which allows motor boating, water skiing, and wakeboarding. Lake Area: 1.158 square miles (3.00 km2)
Green Island, 10.5 square miles of land in northwestern Cedar County, Nebraska bordering the Missouri River across from Yankton, SD, was home to Strahmburg a former town on the island. Green Island and Strahmburg have had their names used interchangeably over the years because, in part, the post office in Strahmburg was officially designated as Green Island. Supposedly Green Island acquired its name came the color of its lush vegetation. Though called an island, it was physically connected to Nebraska by a swampy, low-lying area along its southern edge. Both were destroyed by the Great Flood of 1881 on the Missouri. Their history is better understood knowing the braided, meandering, flood-prone history of the Missouri River in that area. Completion of Gavins Point Dam in 1957, 5 miles upriver from the former location of Strahmburg, greatly reduced the risk of floods on the river. Today the Missouri National Recreational River, 59-miles between Gavins Point Dam and Ponca State Park, has restrictions on commercial development. Early maps indicate the presence of numerous islands some of which, like Green Island, no longer exist.
Lake Yankton, also called Cottonwood Lake, is an artificial lake that was originally part of the main channel of the Missouri River on the border of the U.S. States of Nebraska and South Dakota, near Yankton, South Dakota. The lake has an approximate surface area of 250 acres (100 ha) and has a maximum depth of 18 feet (5.5 m). The lake is located immediately downstream (east) of Gavins Point Dam and Lewis and Clark Lake, located just north of the current location of the main channel of the Missouri River.
The Midwestern United States experienced major floods in the spring of 2019, primarily along the Missouri River and its tributaries in Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas. The Mississippi River also saw flooding, although starting later and ending earlier. The 2019 January-to-May period was the wettest on record for the U.S., with multiple severe weather outbreaks through May in the Midwest, High Plains, and South exacerbating the flooding and causing additional damage. Throughout late May and early June, rain in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri caused every site on the Mississippi River to record a top-five crest. At least three people in Iowa and Nebraska died.
