Scenic Missouri Valley

The Missouri River valley here includes a view west to Gavins Point Dam and the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area. The dam was built to harness a river whose destructive power was repeatedly shown, including in 1881 when crushing ice and water swept away the small village on Green Island on the Nebraska bottom opposite Yankton, South Dakota. Across the river near Yankton are the red bluffs and juniper trees of the "Butifull Plain" described by Lewis and Clark in 1804. Later observers said the unusually thick stands of timber seen in 1804 had been thinned, possibly cut for steamboat fuel. The region's abundant game and natural vegetation supported the nomadic Sioux and the more sedentary Ponca and Omaha, and the enduring richness of its alluvial soil remains visible in the cultivated fields surrounding this point, while the plain recorded by Captain Clark flourishes under modern conservation and agricultural practice.

Nebraska · United States