The Sarpy County Museum is located at 2402 Clay St in Bellevue, Nebraska. The museum holds a collection of artifacts and historical resources, covering the history of Sarpy County, Nebraska, including Bellevue, Gretna, La Vista, Papillion, and Springfield. [1] The museum includes the history of fur traders and missionaries, period rooms, early agricultural pursuits, and a scale model of Fort Crook, which later became Offutt Air Force Base. [2]
The Sarpy County Historical Society was formed during the Great Depression. Later, during the 1960s, a “storefront museum” was formed, having a few shelves of artifacts on display. During the late 1970s, the museum’s current building was built. The museum chronicles the history of the county from its origins as a fur trading post to the present day.
The period room exhibits depict the lifestyles of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The scale model of Fort Crook displays what the fort looked like prior to creation of the Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant and the Strategic Air Command. The Fort later became Offutt Air Force Base.
The museum has many historically and culturally significant documents from Sarpy County. Its collections include church histories, newspapers, and photographs. Related to genealogy it holds school, naturalization, and marriage records. Also at the museum are early correspondence between County officials and leading citizens.
Tours of historical sites of Sarpy County are available hosted by the museum. There are four sites available, including the Omaha and Southern Railroad Depot, the Old Presbyterian Church, the Old Log Cabin, the Moses Merrill Mission and the Fontenelle Bank. The first site is an 1869 Omaha and Southern Railroad Depot, which is located on the museum’s property. The Old Presbyterian Church built in 1856, still in service today, featuring stained glass windows and 1800s oak pews. This is the oldest church in Bellevue still intact. The Log Cabin built in the 1830s hosted the first twins born in Nebraska Territory. The Fontenelle Bank is the first and the oldest commercial public building in Nebraska history, still includes the original walk-in vault, an 1870 Accountant’s Desk, and more. [3]
Sarpy County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 190,604, making it the third-most populous county in Nebraska. Its county seat is Papillion.
Bellevue is a suburban city in Sarpy County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, with a population of 64,176 at the 2020 census, making it the third largest city in Nebraska, behind Omaha and Lincoln, plus, the second largest city named "Bellevue," behind Bellevue, Washington.
Offutt Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base south of Omaha, adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing of the Air Combat Command (ACC), the latter serving as the host unit.
The Omaha metropolitan area, officially known as the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), is an urbanized region in Nebraska and Iowa in the American Midwest, centered on the city of Omaha, Nebraska. The region consists of eight counties, and extends over a large area on both sides of the Missouri River. Covering 4,407 square miles (11,410 km2) and with a population of 994,604 (2020), the Omaha metropolitan area is the most populous in both Nebraska and Iowa, and is the 58th most populous MSA in the United States. The 2003 revision to metropolitan area definitions was accompanied by the creation of micropolitan areas and Combined Statistical Areas. Fremont, in Dodge County, Nebraska, was designated a micropolitan area. The Omaha–Council Bluffs–Fremont Combined Statistical Area has a population of 1,058,125 . Approximately 1.5 million people reside within the Greater Omaha area, within a 50 mi (80 km) radius of Downtown Omaha.
Nebraska's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Nebraska that encompasses the core of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It includes all of Douglas County, which includes Omaha, as well as the suburban areas of the western part of Sarpy County. It has been represented in the United States House of Representatives since 2017 by Don Bacon, a member of the Republican Party. In the 2020 presidential election, it was one of nine districts to vote for Joe Biden while being won or held by a Republican.
Cabanne's Trading Post was established in 1822 by the American Fur Company as Fort Robidoux near present-day Dodge Park in North Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was named for the influential fur trapper Joseph Robidoux. Soon after it was opened, the post was called the French Company or Cabanné's Post, for the ancestry and name of its operator, Jean Pierre Cabanné, who was born and raised among the French community of St. Louis, Missouri.
Metropolitan Community College is a public community college in Omaha, Nebraska. It has multiple campuses throughout the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area.
First Lieutenant Jarvis Jenness Offutt was an American aviator from Omaha, Nebraska, who died in World War I. Offutt Air Force Base is named in his honor.
Florence is a neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska, United States on the city's north end and originally one of the oldest cities in Nebraska. It was incorporated by the Nebraska Territorial Legislature on March 10, 1857. The site of Winter Quarters for Mormon migrants traveling west, it has the oldest cemetery for people of European descent and oldest standing gristmill in Nebraska. Florence was the site of an illegal territorial legislature in 1858. Given the high concentration of National Register of Historic Places in the neighborhood, it is regarded as "the historic front door to Omaha as well as the state."
Fontenelle's Post, first known as Pilcher's Post, and the site of the later city of Bellevue, was built in 1822 in the Nebraska Territory by Joshua Pilcher, then president of the Missouri Fur Company. Located on the west side of the Missouri River, it developed as one of the first European-American settlements in Nebraska. The Post served as a center for trading with local Omaha, Otoe, Missouri, and Pawnee tribes.
Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era United States Army supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by Metropolitan Community College. A Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve unit, along with an Army Reserve unit occupy the periphery of the 82.5 acres (33.4 ha) fort. The government deeded all but four parcels of the land to Metropolitan Community College in 1974.
The history of Omaha, Nebraska, began before the settlement of the city, with speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa staking land across the Missouri River illegally as early as the 1840s. When it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs to Omaha. A treaty with the Omaha Tribe allowed the creation of the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha City was founded on July 4, 1854. With early settlement came claim jumpers and squatters, and the formation of a vigilante law group called the Omaha Claim Club, which was one of many claim clubs across the Midwest. During this period many of the city's founding fathers received lots in Scriptown, which was made possible by the actions of the Omaha Claim Club. The club's violent actions were challenged successfully in a case ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Baker v. Morton, which led to the end of the organization.
The neighborhoods of Omaha are a diverse collection of community areas and specific enclaves. They are spread throughout the Omaha metro area, and are all on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River.
Logan Fontenelle, also known as Shon-ga-ska, was a trader of Omaha and French ancestry, who served for years as an interpreter to the US Indian agent at the Bellevue Agency in Nebraska. He was especially important during the United States negotiations with Omaha leaders in 1853–1854 about ceding land to the United States prior to settlement on a reservation. His mother was a daughter of Big Elk, the principal chief, and his father was a respected French-American fur trader.
The Moses Merrill Mission, also known as the Oto Mission, was located about eight miles west of Bellevue, Nebraska. It was built and occupied by Moses and Eliza Wilcox Merrill, the first missionaries resident in Nebraska. The first building was part of facilities built in 1835 when the United States Government removed the Otoe about eight miles southwest of Bellevue. Merrill's goal was to convert the local Otoe tribe to Christianity; he had learned the language and translated the Bible and some hymns into Otoe.
Fontenelle Forest is a 1,400-acre (6 km2) forest, located in Bellevue, Nebraska. Its visitor features include hiking trails, a nature center, children's camps, a gift shop, and picnic facilities. The forest is listed as a National Natural Landmark and a National Historic District. The forest includes hardwood deciduous forest, extensive floodplain, loess hills, and marshlands.
Tourism in Omaha, Nebraska, United States offers visitors history, sports, nature and cultural experiences. Its principal tourist attractions are the Henry Doorly Zoo and the College World Series (CWS). A 2003 study by a Creighton University economist estimated that the CWS added $33.8 million to the city's economy that year. With 1.1 million visitors annually, the Henry Doorly Zoo is Nebraska's most popular tourist attraction. In 2007 Omaha hosted the USA Roller Sports National Championships, along with 10,000 people who auditioned for the American Idol television show at Qwest Center Omaha.
Peter Abadie Sarpy (1805–1865) was the French-American owner and operator of several fur trading posts, essential to the development of the Nebraska Territory, and a thriving ferry business. A prominent businessman, he helped lay out the towns of Bellevue and Decatur, Nebraska. Nebraska's legislature named Sarpy County after him in honor of his service to the state.
13th Street is a two-way street that runs south-north in Omaha, Nebraska. Historically significant areas along the street include Squatter's Row, Little Italy, Little Bohemia, and Mount Vernon Gardens.
French people have been present in the U.S. state of Nebraska since before it achieved statehood in 1867. The area was originally claimed by France in 1682 as part of La Louisiane, the extent of which was largely defined by the watershed of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Over the following centuries, explorers of French ethnicity, many of them French-Canadian, trapped, hunted, and established settlements and trading posts across much of the northern Great Plains including the territory that would eventually become Nebraska, even in the period after France formally ceded its North American claims to Spain. During the 19th century, fur trading gave way to settlements and farming across the state, and French colonists and French-American migrants continued to operate businesses and build towns in Nebraska. Many of their descendants continue to live in the state.