Loess Hills - Human History

Human History

The Loess Hills have a rich archaeological heritage. The hills around Glenwood, in Mills County, were inhabited by the Glenwood Culture, an eastern extension of the Nebraska Phase of the Woodland period. The Glenwood Culture lived in the area from roughly 900 A.D. to 1300 A.D. and built hundreds of earth lodges in the region, farming the rich valley bottoms and cultivating native plants from the surrounding hills. An earth lodge replica has been reconstructed in Glenwood Lake Park, and the Mills County Museum, also located at the park, houses an excellent collection of artifacts collected by renowned amateur archeologist Paul Rowe.

The city of Council Bluffs, Iowa (originally "Kanesville") derives its name from the hills based on the Lewis and Clark first formal meeting ("council") with Native Americans in 1804 (although the meeting with the Oto and Missouria tribe actually took place on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River at Fort Atkinson (Nebraska)). Sgt. Charles Floyd, the only fatality of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is buried on a bluff in the Loess Hills in what is now Sioux City, Iowa.

In 1853, Mormon elder Charles B. Thompson split off from the main wagon train to Utah. He initially led 50 to 60 Mormon families to Kanesville. Thompson and a few other men then chose an area called Monona ("peaceful valley"), where they founded the town of Preparation, named for "School of Preparation for the Life Beyond." Realizing the valley's wealth as a farming region, Thompson used his newspaper to report a message "from a spirit" directing the Mormon people to turn over all deeds and possessions to Thompson, who changed his name to "Father Ephraim". In 1856, the people asked for the return of their property; Thompson refused and they decided to lynch him. Thompson escaped the mob by hiding in an attic in Onawa. He then fled Iowa.

On August 12, 1859, Abraham Lincoln ascended the hills at Cemetery Hill at Fairview Cemetery in Council Bluffs while being briefed on possible locations for the First Transcontinental Railroad.