The Overland Trails of Nebraska by Addison Erwin Sheldon

Overland Trails of Nebraska

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The second important trail across Nebraska is the one which started from the banks of the Missouri River near Bellevue and Florence, followed up the north side of the Platte and North Platte to Fort Laramie, where it joined the older Oregon Trail. This was the route across Nebraska of the returning Astorians in 1813 and some of the early fur traders. The Mormons made this a wagon road in 1847 when their great company which wintered at Florence and Bellevue took this way to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. It was often called the Mormon Trail. Some of the immigrants to Oregon and California went over this route and hence it is sometimes called the Oregon Trail or California Trail. There was less travel on this trail than on the one south of the Platte because there was more sand here. This north side trail ran through the counties of Douglas, Sarpy, Dodge, Colfax, Platte, Merrick, Hall, Buffalo, Dawson, Lincoln, Garden, Morrill and Scotts Bluff.

The third celebrated trail across Nebraska was from the Missouri River to Denver and was called the Denver Trail. It had many branches between the Missouri River and Fort Kearney. Near this point they united and followed up the south bank of the Platte to Denver. The route from Omaha to Denver was up the north bank of the Platte to Shinn's ferry in Butler County where it crossed to the south side and continued up the river to Fort Kearney. There was also a road from Nebraska City up the south bank of the Platte, which was joined by the Omaha road after it crossed the river. It was called the Fort Kearney and Nebraska City Road. A new and more direct road was laid out in 1860 from Nebraska City west through the counties of Otoe, Lancaster, Seward, York, Hall and Kearney. This was the shortest and best road to Denver. It was called the Nebraska City Cut-off. It became very popular and during the years from 1862 to 1869 was traveled by thousands of immigrants and freighters. Over the Denver Trail went the Pike's Peak immigrants and the supplies and machinery for opening the mines in Colorado.

The First Ride by Charles Hargens, hangs in the

Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri

After a few years the mail and stage coach and Pony Express followed the immigrant and freight wagons along the overland trails. In 1850 the first monthly mail coaches began running from the Missouri River to Salt Lake and California. The hard winter of 1856-57 blocked this route for several months. The California mail coach was then placed on a southern route through Arizona but with the breaking out of the Civil War it was brought north again and in 1861 the first daily overland mail began running from the Missouri River to California. This mail at first started from St. Joseph. After a few months it ran from Atchison, joining the Oregon Trail a few miles south of the Nebraska state line and following it as far as the crossing of the South Platte near Julesburg, where it diverged making a new road, called the Central Route, through the mountains to Salt Lake City.

This was said to be the greatest stage line in the world. From 1861 to 1866 daily coaches ran both ways except for a few months during the Indian war in 1864. Over this line also ran the Pony Express beginning April 3, 1860, and continuing for eighteen months until the completion of the telegraph line to San Francisco.

The Pony Express was a man on horseback carrying a mail bag and riding as fast as the horse could run. As the horse and man, covered with dust and foam, dashed into a station another man on horseback snatched the bag and raced to the next station. So the bag of letters and dispatches rushed day and night across the plains and mountains from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The quickest time ever made by the Pony Express was in March, 1861, when President Lincoln's inaugural address was carried from St. Joseph to Sacramento, 1980 miles, in seven days and seventeen hours.

The old overland trails fell out of use with the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869. Short stretches from one settlement to another were used as roads but they were no longer the great highways of travel. The sunflower and tumble weed settled in their furrows and for many years these trails could be traced across Nebraska prairies by a wide ribbon. With passing years the breaking plow ran its furrows across the furrows of the wagon wheels and the harrow and cultivator smoothed away their wrinkles until over a large part of our state the old overland trails can be traced only by the records of the early surveyors and the recollections of the few old-timers. In the far western part of Nebraska, and especially along the course of the Oregon Trail on the south side of the North Platte, the old wagon tracks still remain and the long ribbons of sunflowers still trace the routes of the old trails across our country.

Added June, 2005

Excerpted from the book, History and Stories of Nebraska, by Addison Erwin Sheldon, 1913. (now in the public domain.)

Addison Erwin Sheldon (1861-1943) was director of the Nebraska Historic Society, and wrote numerous books devoted to the history of Nebraska. Many of the photographs and illustrations in his many texts were also taken and drawn by Sheldon.

Albert Bierstadt's Oregon Trail, 1869, at Joslyn

Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska

Actual Pony Express Rider in 1860 or 1861,

courtesy National Archives.

This image available for photographic prints

and downloads HERE!

Also See:

The California Trail - Rush to Gold

Oregon Trail - Pathway to the West

Pony Express - Fasted Mail Across the West

Rock Creek Station and the McCanles Massacre

Tales & Trails of the American West

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