NEBRASKA
LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL

A small but vital 2,000-acre wetland refuge along the Missouri River near the Corps of Discovery's campsite of July 28, 1804. The refuge preserves a side channel of the Missouri that flows much as it did during the expedition's passage, supporting abundant waterfowl, deer, and riparian wildlife. Hiking trails follow the chute through cottonwood forest and restored wetland — an intimate counterpoint to the grand monuments elsewhere on the trail.

The single most significant Lewis and Clark site in Nebraska. On July 30, 1804, the Corps camped on this commanding bluff and named it 'Council Bluff.' Tribal representatives arrived on August 2, and the next day the expedition held its first formal council with Native nations — the Otoe and Missouri — establishing the diplomatic protocol used at every subsequent council on the journey. Clark's journal entry calling the spot 'well calculated for a fort' led directly to the founding of Fort Atkinson in 1819, the first U.S. military post west of the Missouri River. Today the fully reconstructed fort includes barracks, a powder magazine, and costumed interpreters bringing 1820s frontier military life to life.

Though technically across the river in Iowa, this is the essential orientation point for understanding the Council Bluff story that played out in Nebraska. Exhibits cover the Lewis and Clark expedition alongside the Mormon, Oregon, and California trails that later passed through this same strategic Missouri River crossing. A natural pairing with a visit to Fort Atkinson on the Nebraska side.

A beautifully developed riverfront park in downtown Omaha named for the expedition, connected to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge spanning the Missouri River between Nebraska and Iowa. While the Corps camped just upriver near present Fort Calhoun, this park serves as Omaha's primary tribute to the expedition, with interpretive markers, river overlooks, and over 130 miles of paved hike-and-bike trails radiating outward along the Missouri River corridor.

A large hand-painted mural in downtown Tekamah depicting the Lewis and Clark expedition's passage through this stretch of the Missouri River corridor. The town sits directly on the Lewis and Clark Scenic Byway (Highway 75), and the mural is a community point of pride marking northeast Nebraska's connection to the expedition. The nearby Burt County Museum, housed in a historic mansion, adds local historical context.

A dramatic bluff overlooking the Missouri River where Omaha chief Blackbird was buried sitting upright on his favorite horse, as he had requested — a powerful and unusual tribute. Lewis and Clark visited the gravesite during their 1804 passage, paying their respects to the influential chief who had died of smallpox the previous year. The overlook offers sweeping views of the river valley and sits within the Omaha Indian Reservation, whose nation has called this stretch of the Missouri home for over 400 years.

The Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Nation's reservation lies along the Lewis and Clark Scenic Byway in northeast Nebraska. The Angel De Cora Memorial Museum and Research Center honors the tribe's celebrated artist and educator while presenting Winnebago history and culture. The striking 'Honoring of the Clans' statue nearby commemorates the tribe's heritage. An essential stop for understanding the Native nations whose homelands the expedition passed through.

Set on dramatic Missouri River bluffs at the eastern gateway to the Missouri National Recreational River — a 59-mile stretch that remains the only unchannelized section of the river bordering Nebraska, looking much as it did when the Corps of Discovery paddled through in 1804. An extensive trail system winds through bluff-top forest with sweeping river views. Camping, cabins, and naturalist programs make this one of the most immersive Lewis and Clark landscapes in the state.

Captain Clark reported touching this riverside bluff and finding it unaccountably warm to the touch — a phenomenon later understood to be caused by the natural oxidation of shale, which generates heat. Clark's journal entry recorded one of the expedition's more curious scientific observations. Though the original bluff has eroded over two centuries, the site near Newcastle commemorates one of the trail's smaller but genuinely fascinating natural history footnotes.

Set at the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers, this 1,632-acre park near the Corps' campsite of September 4, 1804 consists of mature riverine hardwood forest largely unaltered from its natural state. A two-mile trail follows the park's northern boundary, and the interpretive center includes Lewis and Clark exhibits. The expedition saw its first prairie dogs nearby at what is now called Old Baldy Landmark — the men spent hours trying to catch one alive to ship back to President Jefferson in Washington.

On the Nebraska side of the Missouri River, about two miles east of Gavins Point Dam, Calumet Bluff was the site of the expedition's first formal council with the Yankton Sioux Nation in late August 1804. The encounter was notably more cordial than later meetings with the Teton Sioux further upriver. The adjoining Lewis and Clark Recreation Area on the 32,000-acre reservoir offers camping, boating, and river access at the site of one of the expedition's pivotal diplomatic encounters.