Mile 1215: Needle Rocks and Echo Canyon
"After fording Bear River [At Evanston, Wy?] this part of the land was quite a grave-yard we passed over rough ground, and, descending into a bush, were shown on a ridge to…
Climate West of South Pass
"The climate in this part, as indeed every where between the South Pass and the Great Salt Lake Valley, was an exaggeration of the Italian, with hot days, cool nights, and an incomparable…
Black’s Fork
"Emerging from the river plain we entered upon another mauvaise terre, with knobs and elevations of clay and green gault, striped and banded with lines of stone and pebbles: it was a barren,…
Mile 1140: Green River
"The Green River is the Rio Verde of the Spaniards, who named it from its timbered shores and grassy islets: it is called by the Yuta Indians Piya Ogwe, or the Great…
Mile 1113: Big Sandy
"After a long stage of twenty-nine miles we made Big Sandy Creek, an important influent of the Green River; the stream, then shrunken, was in breadth not less than five rods, each =…
Mile 1075: South Pass
"Ten miles beyond Ford No. 9, hilly miles, ending in a long champaign having some of the characteristics of a rolling prairie . . . led us to the South Pass, the great…
Names of the Upper Crossing
"The Upper Crossing of the South Fork of the Platte apparently went by several names including 'Laramie Crossing,' 'Goodale's Crossing,' 'Morrell's Crossing,' and later 'Julesburg' or 'Overland City,' although Julesburg came…
American Desert
"We had now [at the forks pf the Platte] entered upon the outskirts of the American wilderness, which has not one feature in common with the deserts of the Old World. In…
Wild Sage
"This hideous growth, which is to weary our eyes as far as central valleys of the Sierra Nevada, will require a few words of notice. The artemisia, absinthe, or wild sage differs…
Platte River
"The Canadian voyageurs first named it La Platte, the Flat River, discarding, or rather translating after their fashion, the musical and picturesque aboriginal term, 'Nebraska,' the 'shallow stream:' the word has happily been…
Mile 137: Marysville
"Passing by Marysville, in old maps Palmetto City, a county town which thrives by selling whisky to ruffians of all descriptions, we forded before sunset the 'Big Blue,' a well-known tributary of the…
Mountain Grasses
"The mountain region westward of the sage and saleratus desert, extending between the 105th and 111th meridian (G.) a little more than 400 miles will in time become sparsely peopled. Though in many…
Territories
"In the space of twenty years, 1848-1868, twelve huge territories were created, and, as the process went on, each territory was changed, divided, and subdivided ad infinitum. . . .…
Early Leavenworth
"[Leavenworth City] was on the Delaware reserve, and was not open for settlement; indeed the U.S. Government had warned all squatters off it by proclamation, under heavy penalties. But these were 'paper penalties'…
The Name Nebraska
"Ne-bras-ka was the original name of the river, given it by the Otoe Indians, who lived near where it empties into the Missouri. Ever since the first French trappers came…