The Platte River
"The Platte is a wonderful river. For several hundred miles before it empties into the Missouri it is a very shallow stream, and in many places it has the appearance…
Dobytown
"Two miles west of Fort Kearney was the worst place on the entire overland route. A town had been laid out and christened 'Kearney City. (It was called 'Dobytown' for…
Platte Valley
"Going over the rolling prairies into the valley of the Platte, the surroundings suddenly change. Spread out before us is the wide but shallow river, running eastward to the Missouri,…
Sublette and the Oregon Trail
"To Milton Sublette belongs the honor of first having used commercial wagons on what has been later entitled the 'Oregon Trail.' He began the journey near the mouth of the Kansas River, followed…
Platte Valley
"The country from Fort Carney [Kearney] for four hundred miles up the Platte river valley and back from the high bluffs, that skirted the river on either side, was one vast rolling plain with…
Kansas Boundary
"Though Kansas theoretically extends to the mountains, Big Blue is considered the boundary line of the territory, and the great ocean of Indian country; indeed we were not unlike a vessel outward bound, nor…
Ports of the Prairie Sea
"Based somewhat on geographical factors but also on the enterprise of the local merchants, the ports of the prairie sea tended to specialize. Kansas City had a practical monopoly of…
The River Towns
"The river towns, as they developed, were all much alike. At the river's edge was a levee, sometimes macadamized for all-weather use. Between the levee and the bluffs was the…
West of the Great Bend
"West of the Great Bend [of the Arkansas River], there was, and still is, a marked change in the appearance of the countryside: the green fields gave way to great…
Recall of Mormon Missionaries
"Of greater significance was the closing of two missions in the West, Carson Valley in present-day Nevada and San Bernardino on the Coast. Begun by private individuals in 1849, .…
Changing Landscape
"This country was quite different from that we had passed over. From Leavenworth across to where we struck the Platte River near Fort Kearny, it was a fine, beautiful country…
Utah Gets News of Coming War
"On July 24, 1857, the Saints held their annual celebration of Pioneers' Day at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon, some twenty-five miles southeast of Salt Lake City and 10,000…
Provisional State of Deseret
"When the Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Basin, their plans for their New Zion envisaged the creation of a vast empire in the West, with a number of far-flung…
Mormons and the Green River Area
"[T]he uneasy situation in the Green River region worsened. Pursuing the Church's effort to extend its jurisdiction over the area, at the same time following its established practice of bestowing…
Mile 753: Fort Laramie Milestone
"Fort Laramie marked the end of the High Plains, the beginning of the long upgrade haul to the Rocky Mountains. It was the end of the line for the sick,…