Editing Sarpy County, Nebraska (section)

==History==
This was part of the territory of the [[Omaha people]]. Explored in 1805 by the [[Lewis and Clark]] expedition following the [[Louisiana Purchase]] of 1803 by the United States, this area was settled by European-American fur traders, adventurers, farmers, and finally, entrepreneurs. All initially depended on the [[Missouri River]] as a main transportation corridor and source of water. Sarpy County has served as the springboard for Nebraska's settlement and expansion. The county is named for [[Peter Sarpy]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burr, George L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=InM_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136 |title=History of Hamilton and Clay Counties, Nebraska, Vol. 1 |publisher=S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. |year=1921 |page=136}}</ref> an early fur trader at [[Fontenelle's Post]] in the [[Bellevue, Nebraska|Bellevue]] area in the 1840s. He also had Sarpy's post in what became [[Decatur, Nebraska|Decatur]]; Sarpy died in [[Plattsmouth, Nebraska|Plattsmouth]] in 1865.

The area of present Sarpy County was a part of [[Douglas County, Nebraska|Douglas County]] until February 1, 1857, when the Territorial Legislature partitioned off that county's southern half and proclaimed it a separate organization.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030506220830/http://www.kancoll.org/books/andreas_ne/sarpy/sarpy-p1.html ''Sarpy County - Part I'' (accessed January 27, 2019)]</ref>

The Omaha people were forced onto a reservation in the 19th century, losing most of their land to the United States who then opened it for settlement by non-Native Americans who were U.S. citizens or immigrants from certain (mostly European) countries.

[[Offutt Air Force Base#Fort Crook|Fort Crook]], the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] post south of [[Bellevue, Nebraska|Bellevue]], was established in the 1890s and added Offutt Field in the 1920s. Its [[Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant]] produced over two thousand aircraft during [[World War II]], including the notable [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress|B-29's]] ''[[Enola Gay]]'' and ''[[Bockscar]]''. [[Offutt Air Force Base]] was the headquarters of the [[Strategic Air Command]] (SAC) during the [[Cold War]] and continues as the home of [[United States Strategic Command|U.S. Strategic Command]].

In the [[Vehicle registration plates of Nebraska|Nebraska license plate system]], Sarpy County was represented by the [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] "59" (it had the 59th largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922). Many license plates issued in Sarpy County featured the stacked format of the 59 code. The county, just south of [[Omaha]], had grown significantly in population in the decades following 1922 and therefore required five characters rather than the four allowed by a standard double-digit county code. In 2002, the state discontinued the 1922 system in Sarpy as well as [[Douglas County, Nebraska|Douglas]] and [[Lancaster County, Nebraska|Lancaster]] counties.