Council Bluffs, Iowa

Council Bluffs is a city of about 62,700 in western Iowa, on the east bank of the Missouri River opposite Omaha, Nebraska — the county seat and largest city of Pottawattamie County, and the place Congress designated “Mile 0” of the first transcontinental railroad. It began as a fur trading post, became the Mormon town of Kanesville, and today hosts one of Google’s largest data-center campuses alongside its railroad museums.

From Mile 0 to the cloud

In 1853, a 22-year-old railroad surveyor named Grenville M. Dodge arrived to find a Missouri River terminus for the Rock Island Railroad — and chose Council Bluffs. Five years later he met an Illinois railroad lawyer named Abraham Lincoln here; Lincoln visited again in 1859 to deliver a campaign speech. After Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act (July 1, 1862), his November 1863 order placed the transcontinental railroad’s eastern terminus in Iowa, and on March 7, 1864, Congress officially chose Council Bluffs as Mile 0. By 1916 the city had seven railroads and nine passenger depots (Rails to Trails Conservancy, drawing on Union Pacific Railroad Museum curator Patricia LaBounty).

The railroad past is still visible: the Union Pacific Railroad Museum sits downtown in the former 1903 Carnegie library building, and a Great American Rail-Trail historical marker at 99 S. 25th St. commemorates the 1863 Mile 0 designation on what is now the 3,700-mile cross-country rail trail. And the same flat, well-connected ground drew a second act: Google built a $600 million data center here in 2007, expanded it in 2012, 2015, 2024, and 2025, and says it has invested more than $20 billion in Iowa since 2007, including a $7 billion 2025 investment covering the Council Bluffs expansion and a new Cedar Rapids campus.

History

The city’s official chronology begins in 1824, when St. Louis businessman Francois Guittar established Traders Point — “the first white settlement on the western boundary of Iowa Territory” — trading deer, elk, and buffalo hides with local tribes. When Iowa became the 29th state on December 28, 1846, the town was renamed Kanesville after Thomas L. Kane, who helped secure federal permission for the Mormons’ 1846–47 winter encampment; Brigham Young was sustained as the second prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Kanesville Tabernacle, which 200 Mormon pioneers built in two and a half weeks.

By 1852 most Mormons had moved west, and the town took the name Council Bluffs — after the site roughly 20 miles north where the Lewis and Clark Expedition had sat in council with the Otoe Tribe. Cornelius Voorhis was elected the first mayor in 1853.

An 1873 travelogue caught the town mid-boom: “some 10,000 people,” “the oldest and largest in Western Iowa,” “the seat of Pottawattomie County,” formerly Kanesville “peopled chiefly by Mormons,” and “the western terminus of the three great railroad lines” which “made a hard fight with Omaha for the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific.” The civic buildout followed: Squirrel Cage jail (1867), a two-story courthouse (1868), the Iowa School for the Deaf (1870), the first fire department (1883), Children’s Square USA (1883), the second U.S. city with electric trolleys (1886), and St. Bernard’s Hospital (1887). Notable 19th-century citizens included Amelia Jenks Bloomer and Lee de Forest.

Council Bluffs today

The Census Bureau estimates the city’s population at 62,680 (July 1, 2025), down 0.2% from the 2020 Census count of 62,799. It is predominantly white (85.4% white alone, 81.2% white alone not Hispanic or Latino), with 11.6% Hispanic or Latino, 7.3% two or more races, 2.8% Black, and 1.1% Asian residents; 5.0% are foreign-born, and 4,030 veterans live in the city. About 63% of housing units are owner-occupied, with a median home value of $171,800 and median gross rent of $1,030. Education levels: 88.5% of adults 25+ are high school graduates, 21.5% hold a bachelor’s degree. Median household income is $64,578, per capita income $33,937, and 15.1% live in poverty; the mean commute is 17.9 minutes.

FAQ

Why is Council Bluffs called “Mile 0”? President Lincoln’s November 1863 order placed the transcontinental railroad’s eastern terminus in Iowa, and Congress confirmed the choice of Council Bluffs on March 7, 1864. A rail-trail marker at 99 S. 25th St. still commemorates the designation.

Was the Lewis and Clark council actually held in Council Bluffs? Not exactly — the 1804 council with the Otoe Tribe took place about 20 miles north, on the west side of the Missouri near present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. The city borrowed the name from the meeting.

What is Kanesville? The town’s name from 1846 to 1852, honoring Thomas L. Kane. It was overwhelmingly Mormon at the time; the Kanesville Tabernacle is preserved as a historic site.

Is Council Bluffs part of Omaha’s metro? The two cities sit opposite each other across the Missouri River — Council Bluffs on the Iowa side, Omaha on the Nebraska side — and the railroad bridge first connected them in 1873 (the current bridge dates to 1916). This profile does not state the city’s metro statistical area.

How big is the Google presence? Google says it has invested more than $20 billion in Iowa since opening its $600 million Council Bluffs data center in 2007, including a $7 billion 2025 investment for the Council Bluffs expansion and a new Cedar Rapids campus.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not state the city’s exact incorporation or charter date, which the City’s history page does not give.
• The county-seat status is supported by the 1873 travelogue (“the seat of Pottawattomie County”) and the 1868 courthouse; it is not claimed against a separate modern source.
• Google’s investment figures are the company’s own reported numbers.
• The profile does not cover the casino economy or current city government, which were not researched.