COUNCIL BLUFFS, a city of south-western Iowa, U.S.A., near the Missouri river, opposite Omaha; the county seat of Pottawattamie county. It is on Federal highways 3o, 32, 34 and 75; and is served by the Union Pacific, the Burlington, the Chi cago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, the Chicago and North Western, the Chicago Great Western, the Rock Island, the Illinois Central and the Wabash railways. The population in 1900 was 25,882; in 1920, 36,162 (I1% foreign-born white); and in 1930 (Federal census), 42,048. The city lies 98oft. above sea-level, on the broad flood plain of the Missouri river, at the foot of high loess bluffs. It is an important railway and highway centre. Several of the railroads have roundhouses and repair shops here, employing together about 4,000 men. There are many grain elevators, large greenhouses, and varied manufacturing industries, with an output in 1927 valued at $11,783,029. The city has an extensive whole sale and retail trade. The assessed valuation of property in 1927 was $11,500,581. The State school for the deaf is here.
For centuries, according to tradition, these bluffs were used by the Indian tribes as a meeting-place. The name Council Bluffs was originally applied to a place tom. N. of Omaha, where Lewis and Clark in 1804 held a conference with the Indians. The site of the present city was designated by the Federal Government in 1838 as headquarters for the Pottawattamie Indians, from Mis souri. They remained until the arrival of the Mormons (1846-47), who stayed about five years, building a town they called Kanes ville. On their departure for Utah new immigrants quickly came in. During 1849-50 Council Bluffs was an important outfitting point for the California gold-seekers, supplies coming up the river from Saint Louis. It was incorporated as a city in 1853. In 1863 it became the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad, when President Lincoln by executive order established the terminus on the east side of the Missouri.