Fontenelle Forest

	Fontenelle Forest Historic District
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. Historic district
	Boardwalk trail on upper level of Fontenelle Forest, near visitor center
Location	Bellevue, Nebraska
Coordinates	41°10′48″N 95°55′4″W / 41.18000°N 95.91778°W
NRHP reference No.	74001139
Added to NRHP	January 21, 1974

Fontenelle Forest is a 1,500-acre (6 km²)

marshlands

.

History

After settlement by

Woodland culture Indians for a thousand years prior to the arrival of whites, the Lewis and Clark Expedition

camped near or at the location of the forest on July 27, 1804.

Otoe peoples. The French-American trader Lucien Fontenelle, from New Orleans

, later bought the post from Pilcher, and it became known as Fontenelle's Post.

With the declining

interpreter for the US Indian agent at the Agency. His mother was the daughter of the Omaha principal chief, Big Elk

; and he spoke Omaha, English and French.

The younger Fontenelle participated as interpreter in negotiations for the Omaha cession of land in its 1854 treaty with the United States, and many European Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries thought he was a chief. In 1919 the historian Melvin R. Gilmore wrote an article explaining the Omaha

patrilineal gente system, which he believed prohibited Fontenelle as a chief because of his American father, as he was never adopted into the tribe. Because Fontenelle's father was a white man, the Omaha classified him as also white.^[4]

Both father and son are buried in the forest, although the exact location is unknown.

Dr. A.A. Tyler and

Dr. Harold Gifford, Sr. founded the Fontenelle Forest Association in 1913 with a mission to preserve the woodlands south of Omaha, Nebraska along the Missouri River

. They bought their first preservation land in 1920. The association named the forest after Logan Fontenelle.

A small nature center was opened in 1966 for the popular educational hikes led by volunteers. In 2000, the Fontenelle Forest Association officially changed its name to Fontenelle Nature Association. In 2012, Fontenelle Nature Association changed its name back to Fontenelle Forest. Today, Fontenelle Forest keeps more than 2,000 acres of riparian forest, prairies, swamps, and other lands in preservation. The lands encompass one of the largest natural deciduous forests in Nebraska.^[5]^[6]

Facilities

Fontenelle Forest includes several facilities. The Katherine and Fred Buffett Forest Learning Center is the main building in the forest. Built in 2000, it has space for school programs, public education events and private events. Two miles from the Learning Center is the Gilbert and Martha Hitchcock Wetlands Learning Center. It offers educational spaces adjacent to the Gifford Memorial Boardwalk, a 3/8-mile path that leads to a two-story observation tower overlooking the Great Marsh, and was opened in 1999.

Fontenelle Forest also owns and operates Neale Woods, located north of Omaha.

Wildlife

Situated along the

whip-poor-will

.