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Washington County has the highest median home value ($114,300 as of the
2000 Census) of any county in the state and ranks second in median
household income ($48,500).
Blair is named after John I. Blair, an official of the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad,
who founded the town in 1869. Because of the town's location on the railroad
line and its proximity to the Missouri River, it grew quickly, and soon wrested the
county seat away from Fort Calhoun.

The Tower of the Four Winds is located in Black Elk-Neihardt Park. The 44-foot
tall monument is a memorial to Lakota Sioux Indian Chief Black Elk and John G.
Neihardt, Nebraska's Poet Laureate. Neihardt edited a book published in 1932
called "Black Elk Speaks," in which Black Elk, who converted to Catholicism in
1904, writes of his life with the Sioux and their religious beliefs. As a boy, he
witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn. He traveled with Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Show in the late 1880s. The tower itself features a mosaic representing Black
Elk's wish for peace and racial harmony.

The Fort Atkinson State Historical Park is located nine miles southeast of Blair,
on the eastern edge of Fort Calhoun. Built in 1819 at a location recommended
by Lewis and Clark, Fort Atkinson was the first U.S. Military installation west of
the Missouri. It was abandoned after just eight years of use. The fort has been
partially reconstructed and living history demonstrations are held here. Visitors
can tour the grounds year-round. The Harold W. Anderson Visitor Center is open
daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Memorial Day to Labor Day and weekends in the
late spring and early fall.