Next Lecture
Jeff BarnesHistory Researcher and Author
Lost Forts of the Northern Plains
Sunday, November 8, 2009, 2:00 PM
Joslyn Art Museum, 2201 Dodge Street, Omaha, Nebraska
The Lincoln-Omaha Society of the Archaeological Institute of America announces the third of six lectures on archaeology for the 2009 – 2010 season. Jeff Barnes, from Omaha, will be speaking on his documentation of the US Military forts of the northern plains that were used in the Indian Wars.
This lecture, Lost Forts of the Northern Plains, is a review of seven military post sites that are on the edge of being forgotten by history. In some instances they are not listed on historical documents and contemporary military maps; in others they are presumed lost to time and the elements. The remains of one fort appear only during periods of extreme drought. Barnes visited and photographed each of the sites, and in this lecture presents a brief history and report on what he found. This talk will include a review of seven military forts of the Northern Plains Indian Wars, primarily in the battles with the Sioux (Lakota) people. Barnes, author of the book, “Forts of the Northern Plains,” went beyond the effort of the typical historical traveler to find, document, photograph and update the record of these posts for his book. Sites examined include Fort Ripley (Minnesota), Fort Croghan (Iowa), Fort Brule and the second Fort Sully (South Dakota), the Omaha Quartermaster Depot (Nebraska), Fort Halleck (Wyoming) and Fort Yates (North Dakota).
A freelance writer and fifth-generation Nebraskan, Jeff Barnes is a former newspaper reporter and editor, press secretary for Nebraska Governor Ben Nelson, past chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission, former marketing director for the Durham Western Heritage Museum and present board member of the Douglas County Historical Society. He traveled more than 13,000 miles in researching and photographing "Forts of the Northern Plains," his first book.
