Mile 642: Bridgeport
"After Bridgeport, Nebraska, the landscape changed dramatically, from grasslands to spare, dry sagebrush country, and the soil turned from sandy brown to pink. We were entering the magic, pastel geology…
Mile 395: Cozad, NE
"In 1879 the explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell, later the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, established the 100th meridian as the "moisture line," often locally called the 'dry line,'…
Mile 238: The Narrows
"The regular correspondent of the St. Louis Missouri Democrat went over the line in June, 1861, and wrote from Denver to his paper (issue of July 9): 'Taking into consideration the distance…
Mile 438: Cottonwood Springs Station
"Usually known as Cottonwood Springs, which by 1863 had a very favorable reputation as a 'home station,' and was also a very good camping place for freighters, because of the abundance of…
Mile 197: Big Sandy Station
"A little after midnight we resumed our way, and in the state which Mohammed described when he made his famous night journey to heaven—bayni 'Z naumi wa 'I yakzan—we crossed the deep shingles,…
Mile 177: Rock Creek
"A weary drive over a rough and dusty road, through chill night air and clouds of musquetoes, which we were warned would accompany us to the Pacific slope of the Rocky Mountains,…
Lodgepole Creek
"Our Camp at Pole Creek the night' of November 4, 1864, was very bleak and dreary. Pole Creek was a vast trough in the plateau. It had a bed wide enough for…
Mile 580: Lodgepole Depot Museum
"The famous Pony Express mail delivery route passed through Lodgepole Creek Valley in 1860 and 1861. Two Pony Express stations were nearby. The Pole Creek No. 2 Pony Express Station…
Mile 432: Cottonwood Springs
"Cottonwood Springs was merely a seep in a gully which had been an old bed of the river, and which had curved up towards Cottonwood Canyon. The water-bed of the river being largely…
Mile 437: Cottonwood Springs
"The next day (13th) we passed by the celebrated 'Cotton-wood Springs' where, in the midst of a scattered grove of majestic cotton-woods, a clear stream gushes forth, famed for its coolness and purity.…
Mile 311: Susan Haile Grave Site
The following lines rely extensively on the article by Randy Brown in the Spring, 2007, issue of Overland Journal, titled The Grave of Susan C. Haile. When I first visited…
Mile 312: Sand Hill/Gravesite Markers
The Nebraska Historical Marker explaining the Susan Haile story was erected by the Kenesaw Centennial Committee and the Nebraska State Historical Society. The smaller marker is inscribed, "In Search of…
Mile 304: Oregon Trail Marker One Mile South of Kenesaw Cemetery
Just west of Kenesaw the trail jogged sharply west and then north to avoid a lagoon that is hardly visible today. John Klusman, while taking a break from planting in…
Mile 303: Summit/Sand Hill/Summit Springs Station
This area was possibly the driest and windiest section of the pull from the Little Blue to the Platte Valley. Summit Station may have been established in 1860 for use…