Editing Council Bluffs, Iowa (section)

===1852–1900: Council Bluffs and the beginning of the railroad era===
[[File:GrenvilleDodgeHouse CouncilBluffsIA.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Grenville M. Dodge House]] (1869) is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]]]

By 1852, the number of Mormons was declining due to their further westward movement. The town took the name Council Bluffs after a cliff called Council Bluff that was 20 miles to the north. [[Fort Atkinson (Nebraska)|Fort Atkinson]] was built there in 1820. 

That cliff, or bluff, was named after the so-called Otoe council. This was an August 1804 meeting of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] with senior members of the [[Otoe tribe|Otoe]] and [[Missouri tribe|Missouria]] Native American tribes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History {{!}} Council Bluffs, IA - Official Website |url=https://www.councilbluffs-ia.gov/2125/Our-History |access-date=September 5, 2024 |website=www.councilbluffs-ia.gov}}</ref>

Council Bluffs continued as a major outfitting point on the Missouri River for the [[Emigrant Trail]] and [[Pike's Peak Gold Rush]]. A river port, it had a lively [[steamboat]] trade.

In 1863 an anonymous soldier on his way to fight the [[Dakota Uprising]] passed through Council Bluffs. He  described it as a hardscrabble town:

{{Blockquote|text=At Council Bluffs our arrival was greeted by a few rounds from the old six pounder, while the streets were lined with a curiosity-seeking class of humanity, among which could easily be traced the physiognomy of bipeds of almost every clime—all here to make money. The cute Yankee whittling out wooden hams to sell to Pikes' Peak emigrants, the Chatham Street peddler, with his stock of "oht clo's," ready to swear that he had them manufactured expressly for his western trade; the mock auctioneer, the jeweler with his pinchback jewelry of all kinds; horse and mule jockeys, gamblers, thieves, assassin—and the mischief knows what not, rather than what is—all congregated in this little 7×9 city, stuck in a great ravine, 3 miles from the Missouri River. When you understand that this is the great entrepot for emigration across the Plains, you will readily comprehend that this is a good point at which to "take (a) stranger in," and it is done almost every day. Our stay at Council Bluffs was very short (two days) and I think no one was sorry to leave it. |author=Soldier of the 6th Iowa Cavalry |source=''Linn County Register'', 15 August 1863, p.2}}

Council Bluffs (rather than Omaha) was designated by President [[Abraham Lincoln]] as the official starting point of the [[First transcontinental railroad|transcontinental railroad]], which was completed in 1869. The official "Mile 0" start is at 21st Street and 9th Avenue. It is now marked by a gold spike monument, which was erected to promote the movie ''[[Union Pacific (movie)|Union Pacific]].''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.councilbluffs-ia.gov/index.aspx?NID=272 |title=Council Bluffs, IA - Official Website - Golden Spike Monument |access-date=August 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826112445/http://www.councilbluffs-ia.gov/index.aspx?NID=272 |archive-date=August 26, 2016 }}</ref> Council Bluffs' physical connection to the Transcontinental Railroad was delayed until 1872, when the [[Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge]] opened. (Before that, railroad cars had to be ferried across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs to Omaha in the early days of the Transcontinental).

The [[Chicago and North Western Transportation Company]] arrived in 1867. Other railroads operating in the city were the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad]], [[Chicago Great Western Railway]], [[Wabash Railroad]], [[Illinois Central Railroad]], and the [[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad]] as well as the [[Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad]].