Put Carter Lake, Iowa, on your ‘tourism bucket list’

Ever been to Carter Lake, Iowa? This small city with a population of about 3,785 is clearly on the “wrong side” of the Missouri River, the traditional boundary line between the states of Iowa and Nebraska.

Carter Lake is “basically surrounded” by Nebraska. To get the full picture, check Google maps. You will see that Carter Lake is the only community in Iowa that is located west of the Missouri River.

This anomaly or geographic hiccup is especially confusing and amusing to airline travelers flying in and out of Eppley Airfield (OMA), Omaha’s regional airport that serves 33 U.S. markets. From the airport, physically located within Nebraska, the most direct route into downtown Omaha is through Carter Lake, Iowa.

Signage alternates: “Welcome to Nebraska,” “Welcome to Iowa” and “Welcome to Nebraska.”

The reason why Carter Lake is the only city in Iowa located west of the Missouri River is because of a huge flood in 1877.

Reporting for the Flatwater Free Press in Omaha, Jeremy Turley explained: “During a cold snap in March 1877, enormous chunks of ice jammed the Missouri River at a sharp bend north of Omaha,” a place named Saratoga Bend.

 Turley said the flood carved a new channel for the river farther east, leaving an “oxbow lake” along the old bend. Locals called the new body of water “Cut-Off Lake,” because it was now disconnected from the river.

This is the view looking basically toward the east toward Iowa. The lake, though cut off from the river, has been naturally sustained.

There was a huge dispute about whether the Cut-Off Lake territory should belong to Iowa or Nebraska. In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Iowa the winner.

Although the general rule of thumb is that state boundaries follow gradual changes in the course of a river, the Court ruled that “an exception exists when a river avulses one of its bends.” (A broad definition of “avulse” is to “pull away forcefully.”)

The 1,200-acre parcel of land associated with the lake was commonly referred to as “Cut-Off Island.” The community that had developed there was considered to be part of Council Bluffs, Iowa, within Pottawattamie County, according to John Schreier, author of “Carter Lake: A Slice of Iowa in Nebraska.”

To complicate things even more, in 1909, the settlement as well as the lake took the name “Carter Lake,” in memory of industrialist and millionaire Levi Carter, who died in 1903. His home and business operations were in Nebraska, not Iowa.

Carter’s widow Selina Coe Carter donated much of the family’s land along the lake’s north shoreline (in Nebraska) to the City of Omaha for use as a park.

Frustration grew between the residents of Carter Lake and the Council Bluffs government about infrastructure, specifically the lack of the basic city water and sewer services.

The community “successfully seceded” from Council Bluffs in 1927, fully expecting to be annexed by Omaha. But, Omaha didn’t want to pay to extend utilities, either. 

Consequently, Carter Lake voted to incorporate as an independent city within the State of Iowa in 1930…and establish its own “little exclave.”

Today, a major attraction in Carter Lake is the Prairie Flower Casino, built by the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska in 2018 on tribally owned land. 

The facility is named after the daughter of renowned Chief Standing Bear, who led the Ponca people in 1877 from Nebraska to present-day Oklahoma along the “Ponca Trail of Tears.”

Many Native Americans died, including Prairie Flower and her brother Bear Shield.

The chief’s ensuing civil rights lawsuit in 1879 was a landmark case, establishing him as one of the nation’s earliest human rights heroes, eventually giving Native Americans full and equal protection under the law.