Long before the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge defined Omaha’s skyline, the Missouri River was a temperamental, shifting beast that spanned between the dream of the Western United States and the reality of the East. For the first 20 years of Omaha history, if you wanted to get to the fledgling “Gate City” from Council Bluffs, you didn’t just walk across the water; you entrusted your life, your livestock, and your legacy to a boat. This is a history of the Missouri River ferry in Omaha.
The Lone Tree and the First Crossing
The story begins with a man named William D. Brown (1813-1868). In 1849, during the height of the California Gold Rush, Brown saw a golden opportunity—not in the mines, but in the muddy waters of the Big Muddy. Before Omaha even existed, he realized that the “Lone Tree Ferry” landing (named for a solitary giant cottonwood on the Nebraska shore) was the most reliable spot to cross the river and wanted to make money from it. In 1850, he got a charter from the Pottawatomie County Commissioners to start his ferry business.
Next, before Omaha was even an idea, Brown illegally staked out 160 acres of prime Missouri Valley flatland on the Nebraska side. This theft of land from Native Americans was called “squatting” because the land was not yet officially open for settlement became the foundation of the city. His claim was north of present-day Davenport Street and likely included much of the land that the Omaha Claim Club later fought for.
Brown’s business started humbly with a simple flatboat pulled by oars and sheer muscle fighting the current. By 1853, Brown joined forces with a new business called the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company. This wasn’t just a transportation business, but a real estate business: They were going to establish Omaha and sell its lots. Sure, people were crossing the river to go other places, but there wasn’t enough business to get rich. To make the ferry make real money, they needed a destination for people to come to. That year, the company went to Illinois to buy a big steam-driven river ferry, and after significant informal lobbying, Congress signaled that it was going to open the Nebraska Territory for settlement. So on July 4, 1854, Brown and his fellow investors in the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company officially founded the townsite of Omaha.
Today, Brown is recognized as the founder of Omaha.
The Steam Era and the “General Marion”
When the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the floodgates for the settlement of the Nebraska Territory in 1854, the old muscle-powered ferries couldn’t keep up, and soon after the company upgraded to steamboats. A ferry called the General Marion became the pride of the Missouri River as it blew black coal smoke into the prairie sky. Shuttling Europeans west, the boat also carried land speculators and supplies across the water…