Our First Day Caching in South Sioux City 8/9/2010

Today was our first day here in SSC so we decided to do a few of the caches that were right around the campground area.


Our first cache was at a historical marker in the park where we are staying at the site Lewis & Clark set up a camp in 1804. Lewis and Clark set-up camp on August 13, this was an attempt to meet the surviving Omaha's. Five men were dispatched to find Tonwantonga (Big Village to deliver an invitation to a council. The Corps stayed in the area for a week and never met the Omaha's. An important Omaha Indian village called Tonwantonga (Large Village) by the Omaha stood on Omaha Creek. Ruled by the great chief Blackbird, an estimated 1,100 people lived in this earthlodge town about 1795 and it played an important role in Indian and exploratory history.
Many explorers and fur traders visited this spot before 1800. Near it the Spanish built a fort, armed it with heavy guns, and named it Fort Charles honoring Charles IV.
The Lewis and Clark expedition visited the village August 13, 1804, finding it deserted, as the Omaha were away on an extended buffalo hunt. The explorers stayed near the site for a week and held a conference with three chiefs of the Oto tribe who had come to make peace with the absent Omaha.
In 1800 disaster had struck the village as smallpox killed an estimated 400 including the famous Chief Blackbird. After Blackbird's death the village ceased to play so important a role in the struggle for control of the Missouri Valley and the Plains beyond.

Our next cache was in the same park under a light post skirt, next was a cache on a sign also in the park, then it was a cache at the YWCA also in a sign post, the next 3 caches were in small parks, 2 hanging in pine trees and the other sitting in the crotch of a tree and our last cache was a tiny nano cache located along a bike trail on a fence. As you can see there was only the one interesting or historical cache today. After we finished we had the car washed and stopped at Wal Mart to pick up a small vacuum to replace the one the power surge fried in Salina, KS. We stopped on the way back to the campgrounds and I vacuumed the car out as the new vacuum had to be charged. Then we drove back to the coach and I cleaned the inside of the car and wiped down the front of the coach and we had lunch. Well that's about it from here for today so until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick