The natural history of eastern Nebraska has been an evolution from ice ages to tallgrass prairies and diverse woodlands. The landscape was shaped by glaciers, which created the Missouri River valley, while wind-blown glacial silt formed the nearby bluffs, Loess Hills to the east, and Sandhills to the west. Historically, the unchanneled river created a dynamic ecosystem of floodplains, islands, sandbars, and backwater wetlands that are now managed and protected for conservation. The region continues to host abundant wildlife, native prairie plants, a legacy of iconic cottonwood trees, and a rich diversity of birds.
The UMÓⁿHOⁿ (Omaha) people arrived in eastern Nebraska in the early 1700s after migrating from the Ohio River Valley. By 1735, they had established villages in the lands around what is now Decatur. As the first tribe on the Northern Plains to adopt equestrian culture, they became a powerful nation by the late 1700s, largely controlling the fur trade on the Upper Missouri. In 1853, the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs visited the Omaha to negotiate the purchase of 300,000 acres of their land. A treaty was signed in 1854, and in 1856 the Omaha relocated to their current reservation in Thurston County, north of Decatur.
Among the first non-Native people to visit the area were Captains Lewis & Clark and their “Corps of Discovery,” which came through the area in 1804 and 1806 to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Today, the history of that voyage is preserved in their journals, along the Lewis & Clark Scenic Byway, and at Lewis & Clark State Park across the river from Decatur in Iowa.
The origins of the Village of Decatur date back to a first settler in 1837, Silas Wood. Wood settled at the mouth of a creek still bearing his name, which now runs along Decatur’s northern border with the Omaha reservation.
In 1841, Stephen Decatur Bross arrived from the East via Bellevue (the only settlement in Nebraska older than Decatur), living among the Native people. Dropping his surname, Decatur claimed to be a nephew and namesake of a naval hero of the War of 1812, coming to be known among locals as “Commodore Decatur.”
In 1854, following the Kansas-Nebraska Act that opened Nebraska Territory to settlement, traders Peter Sarpy and Clement Lambert, together with Omaha interpreter Henry Fontenelle, built log houses at the mouth of Wood Creek to transact business with the Omaha in the interest of the American Fur Company. “Commodore Decatur” became a clerk at the trading post, and settled on a farm called Decatur Springs, with a fount of pure water that supplied the town for another century.
Decatur was incorporated in 1856 under the name “The Decatur Townsite & Ferry Company.” In 1857, the town was laid out and surveyed. Following dissolution of the short-lived ferry company, the town was renamed Decatur Village. The first election was held on January 14, 1858, with Silas Leaming elected mayor. Letters patent for the town, signed by President Lincoln, were granted on May 1, 1862.
The establishment of Decatur held the hope that it would become a railroad town, as the transcontinental railroad headed west. Beginning in the 1840s, government expeditions sought potential routes across the West, but no consensus emerged, due to fierce political and economic competition. The Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853–1855 reduced the number of candidate routes, increasing speculation. Decatur seemed strategically located, at a narrow river bend along a natural extension of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway crossing central Iowa. Interests to the south, however, argued for their more natural access to the the Platte River Valley. After the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 were inconclusive about a Missouri River crossing, Lincoln issued an 1863 executive order naming Council Bluffs, Iowa as the eastern terminus for westward expansion, sending the railroad sharply south of Decatur. Due to the lack of a bridge, the Union Pacific Railroad began building west from Omaha.
On the frontier, following the Homestead Act of 1862, some of the first buildings erected in Decatur included a post office, a blacksmith’s shop, a hotel, and a tavern. Across the river, a sawmill was established in “Tieville” to transform the abundant cottonwood trees into railroad ties that were floated downriver to the Union Pacific in Omaha. By the 1880s, the Village of Decatur had over 1000 residents, dozens of businesses, two newspapers, and a monthly magazine called “The Round Table.”
Ferries and river boats were essential transportation for Decatur’s residents and bustling businesses. Originally, ferries were flat-bottomed skiffs guided by ropes and horses on either side of the river, transporting people, horses, wagons (later cars), lumber, and other supplies between Decatur and Tieville. River boats from as far away as St. Louis tied up at Decatur Landing, sometimes providing impromptu music and dancing.
One legend of Decatur’s river history is the 1878 sinking of the riverboat “Damsel,” carrying The Dan Rice Circus Show. Other than the crew, the only member of the circus on board was the celebrated horse “Excelsior.” The good people of Decatur saved Excelsior and the crew, together with the ship’s bell, which was presented to the Village in gratitude, and remains today in the belfry of the Trinity Lutheran Church.
The 1910 Federal Census counted 2,132 residents in Decatur Village and Precinct. Decatur was becoming a city, by Nebraska standards. It made sense that a streetcar would run through its busy downtown. And so, another Decatur legend was born. Local merchants created a postcard that appeared to show a streetcar on Decatur’s main street. It was a complete fabrication, meant to attract visitors. The stunt would have passed into history if it weren’t for a conceptual artist, a Byway of Art grant, and a determined group of Decatur citizens who, in 2015, actually brought a trolley car to Decatur. Today you can indeed see a trolley on the main street, at Decatur’s Trolley Park.
Decatur has been subject to many storms and fires over the years, and in 1911 a devastating conflagration burned an entire block of the central business district. Still, Decatur built back, with subsequent decades seeing an ever-changing roster of local businesses. Decatur has been home to mills, stables, blacksmith shops, hardware stores, groceries, restaurants, taverns, hotels, pool halls, milliners, watchmakers, theaters, a roller skating rink, and even an opera house. If there were a word for Decatur’s dynamic history, it might be “reinvention.”
A huge boost to Decatur’s economy came in 1950 with the building of the Decatur-Onawa Bridge. It also brought Decatur national notoriety. After the bridge was approved, the Missouri River shifted course. It was decided, nevertheless, to build over dry land, then send the river back under the bridge upon completion. The bridge was completed, but the Korean War from 1950-1953 delayed funding for re-channeling. Decatur had a two million dollar “bridge to nowhere,” and the national press had a field day. The river was finally redirected in in 1954; first traffic crossed in 1955.
Today, Decatur continues to welcome new faces and new ventures, to grow and to change. The Burt County Economic Development Corporation works with both prospective and existing businesses to stimulate new jobs and capital investment. The Future of Decatur Foundation is dedicated to promoting the Village’s progress and long-term prosperity. And Decatur’s rich history is preserved and promoted by the Decatur Museum. Each June, Decatur comes together for Riverfront Days to celebrate the best of all things Decatur.
