La Platte Nebraska

Unincorporated community · Sarpy County · Population 50 (2020 census) · post office 1871–1955 (Larimer City from 1858)

About La Platte

La Platte is a small community and census-designated place of 50 people (2020) in southeastern Sarpy County, on US 75 near where the Platte River meets the Missouri, about 6 miles south of Bellevue. US 34 splits from US 75 here toward its Missouri River bridge. It uses the Bellevue ZIP code, 68123.

History

A first La Platte was founded on the Missouri just above the Platte about 1855 and abandoned within a year, mainly because of floods. Inland, Larimer City had a post office from 1858 to 1860 and Larimer Mills, with its sawmill, from 1865 to 1871; the two-story Larimer Hotel was advertised in 1859. When the Omaha & Southwestern Railroad (later the Burlington) opened in 1870, the present La Platte was laid out as a station, and its post office ran from 1871 to 1955.

In 1890 La Platte had about 60 people, a flour mill, general stores, a hotel and a station agent. Baptist missionary Moses Merrill's Otoe mission of 1835 stood about 4 miles west-northwest; its site is on the National Register. Residents along the rivers here were told to evacuate in the March 2019 flood.

Things to see

The Moses Merrill Mission and Oto Indian Village site (National Register; location restricted) and the "Oto Mission" state marker south of Bellevue · the La Platte Cemetery · Fontenelle Forest, about 6 mi north