Council Bluffs

City and administrative headquarters of Pottawattamie County, southwest Iowa, on the Missouri River opposite Omaha, Nebraska; population (2000) 58,300. It became the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1859. It has an agricultural economy, though the railway has stimulated some industrial development, including food processing and metal manufacturing. The largest employers are the three casinos which each provide over 1,000 jobs.

The city was named in 1853 after the 1804 council between American Indians and the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark; a monument to the two explorers stands in the town. As a Mormon settlement 1846-52, it was called Hart's Bluff, Miller's Hollow, and then Kanesville.

The city is home to Iowa Western Community College (1966). Attractions include General Dodge House, a 14-room mansion, home to the Civil War general who was also a significant railway engineer, and who lived in Council Bluffs 1853-1916. There is a railroad museum, and Pottawattamie County jail (1885), which is also called the Squirrel Cage jail, as the inmates are held in a round cage.