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Quartermaster's Office and Commissary

Tour Stop G: Quartermaster's Office and Commissary

CommissaryThroughout 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 ports 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 adjacent to the Union Pacific tracks between 22nd Street and Woolworth Avenue.

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