Quartermaster's Office and Commissary
Fort Omaha Walking Tour
Throughout the frontier era, the Quartermaster’s Department oversaw post construction, supply procurement and transportation. It worked closely with the Subsistence Department which purchased and assigned rations. To both agencies, Fort Omaha represented the best distribution site for the Department of the Platte because the nearby city of Omaha provided ample food, livestock and building materials to isolated western posts via three railroad lines.
In 1866 the War Department ordered construction of the Omaha Quartermaster Depot (Government Corral) along the Union Pacific at 13th and Webster Streets, including stables, wagon yard, storehouses and loading platform. The depot was abandoned in 1879 when operations were transferred to new warehouses at Fort Omaha.
Pressured by angry local businessmen who wanted the lucrative business closer to downtown, the War Department authorized a new depot between 22nd Street and Woolworth Avenue adjacent to the Union Pacific tracks.
The old Quartermaster’s office and Commissary now serve as classroom buildings for Metropolitan Community College.
Marker is on East Road, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
