Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by the Metropolitan Community College. A Navy Operational Support Center and

Marine Corps Reserve The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Reserve is an expedi ...

unit, along with an Army Reserve unit occupy the periphery of the fort. The government deeded all but four parcels of the land to the Metropolitan Community College in 1974. The post is where Ponca Chief Standing Bear and 29 fellow Ponca were held prior to the landmark 1879 trial of '' Standing Bear v. Crook''. Judge Elmer Dundy determined that American Indians were persons within the meaning of the law and that the Ponca were illegally detained after leaving the Indian Territory in January 1879. The Fort Omaha

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The district includes the 1879 General Crook House Museum, as well as the 1879 Quartermaster's office, 1878 commissary, 1884 guardhouse, 1883 ordnance magazine and 1887 mule stables.

About

Opened in 1868 as a supply depot for various forts along the

Platte River The Platte River () is a major American river, in the state of Nebraska. It is about long; measured to its farthest source via its tributary, the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, w ...

, Fort Omaha is primarily occupied by the Metropolitan Community College. It continues to house Navy, Marine and Army Reserve units. The fort is located in the present-day

Miller Park American Family Field is a retractable roof stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Located southwest of the intersection of Interstate 94 in Wisconsin, Interstate 94 and Brewers Boulevard, it is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewe ...

neighborhood of North Omaha. The site includes the General Crook House, which is listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The entire fort is listed as an historic district on the NRHP.

History

Sherman Barracks, also known as Camp Sherman, was established on December 5, 1868 by Captain William Sinclair of the 3rd U.S. Artillery and named in honor of Lt. General

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a General officer, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), earning recognit ...

. It was located on an 82.5-acre tract north of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

and south of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Pioneer entrepreneur Augustus Kountze sold land for the installation to the federal government. The following year, the name was changed to Omaha Barracks. General Sherman was said to have complained about such a small site being named after him. On December 30, 1878, the post was designated Fort Omaha. During this same time period, the U.S. Army's

Department of the Platte The Department of the Platte was a military administrative district established by the U.S. Army on March 5, 1866, with boundaries encompassing Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota Territory, Utah Territory and a small portion of Idaho. With headquarters in Oma ...

was organized. The fort was the department's headquarters from 1878 to 1881. The post, however, remained home to upwards of ten companies of the 2nd Infantry until 1896, when the garrison was relocated to Fort Crook near

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. Bellevue or Belle Vue may refer to: Places Australia * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales Canada * Bellevue, Alberta * Bellevue, Newfoundlan ...

. Fort Omaha was the site where Chief Standing Bear was held prior to the 1879 trial of '' Standing Bear v. Crook''. Standing Bear, a

Ponca The Ponca people are a nation primarily located in the Great Plains of North America that share a common Ponca culture, history, and language, identified with two Indigenous nations: the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma or the Ponca Tribe of ...

chief, successfully argued in the U.S. District Court that Native Americans were "persons within the meaning of the law" and had rights of citizenship. During the trial, Standing Bear was assisted by Susette LaFlesche Tibbles, a famous

woman who was the daughter of Iron Eye, the last recognized chief of the Omaha. His lawyer was Andrew Jackson Poppleton, a pioneer Omaha attorney who held the position of general attorney for the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

. The trial was the most important of Poppleton's career. Both the fort's significant role in US military history in relation to the Indian Wars, and this important civil rights trial, contributed to the site's being listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

brought the fort into usage as a muster point for troops from across Nebraska. Camp Meiklejohn, Camp Augur and Camp Vincent were all subordinate troop sites around Omaha under command of the fort. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Fort Omaha was used as a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

to house

Italian Army The Italian Army ( []) is the Army, land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China and Italo-Turkish War, Libya. It ...

soldiers captured in Europe.

Notable personnel

* Major General George Crook * Major General Stuart Heintzelman * Brigadier General Dan Christie Kingman * Brigadier General George G. Lundberg

Fort Omaha Balloon School

In 1907, the Army built a large steel hangar at Fort Omaha for use in experiments with dirigibles, a program that was abandoned in 1909. This program and its successor were part of the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

. A balloon house was built in 1908, and in 1909, the first balloon flight took place. The military acquired additional space for training called Florence Field, at the corner of North 30th and Martin Streets in North Omaha. Shortly after the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

entered

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 800 men immediately enlisted in the

Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the aerial warfare service of the United States from 1914 to 1918, and a direct statutory ancestor of the United States Air Force. It absorbed and replaced the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps, Aer ...

. They were sent to the Fort Omaha Balloon School for training. They later provided forward observations for the artillery. More than 16,000 airmen went through the Balloon School. In 1917, the Army determined that weather conditions at Fort Omaha were not suitable for rapidly training balloon companies. The next year, a contingent of officers and men from Fort Omaha were assigned to Camp John Wise in Texas. The Balloon School at Fort Omaha was soon ended. Meanwhile, at the Florence Field site on May 2, 1918, two soldiers were burned to death and thirteen seriously burned when a Caquot-type balloon exploded.

Notable personnel

* Major Charles DeF. Chandler * Captain Frank Purdy Lahm * Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge * Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois * Lieutenant Kent Curtis

Historic District

There are six extant 19th-century structures in Fort Omaha, and the site overall has been judged significant in US history. Because of this, Fort Omaha has received numerous historical designations. The

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

designated Fort Omaha a historic district, and listed the Crook House on the

. In 1982, the Fort Omaha Guardhouse was designated a Landmark under the City of Omaha's Landmark Heritage Preservation Ordinance.

General Crook House

General George Crook House in Fort Omaha

In 1879, this

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

-style house was completed for General and Mrs. Crook for the general's continued administration of the

Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, was a conflict initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas agains ...

. Today, it is used as the museum of the Douglas County Historical Society. It is filled with 19th-century Victorian-style furniture, in addition to military exhibits, and offices of the Douglas County Historical Society. Ornate Victorian-style gardens have been restored on the property. It is located in the middle of Fort Omaha, at 5730 North 30th Street. It was listed on the

in 1969.

Headquarters building

Built in 1879 by the U.S. Army, the Headquarters Building at Fort Omaha first served as the home of the

during the command of General

George Crook George R. Crook (September 8, 1828 – March 21, 1890) was a career United States Army officer who served in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. He is best known for commanding U.S. forces in the Geronimo Campaign, 1886 campaign that ...

. In 1881, the headquarters moved back to

Downtown Omaha Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east ...

to be closer to the railroads. Today, the building serves as the community college's library.

Guardhouse

Originally constructed in 1861, the current guardhouse, which sits at Bourke Gate, was built in 1883. Expanded several times, it was designated an Omaha Landmark in 1982.

Current usage

After World War II, Fort Omaha was placed under control of the US Navy. Today, several perimeter facilities are used as a training locations for the Marine Corps Reserve, as well as storage and repair areas for Navy vehicles. The remainder of Fort Omaha houses a campus of the Metropolitan Community College, in addition to the Douglas County Historical Society at the General Crook House and Library Archives Center. More than 25 structures at Fort Omaha are included in the designation of this area as a

on the

by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

.''A North Omaha History Guide to Fort Omaha'' by Adam Fletcher Sasse with photos by Michaela Armetta. (2016) NorthOmahaHistory.com. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
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