The Overland Stage and Telegraph Lines

The Overland Stage and Telegraph Lines

The following military, stage, and telegraph stations along the trails to the West, each in turn protected the emigrants or the passengers in the stage coaches, through the watchfulness and bravery of the soldiers and civilians stationed along the route. A few landmarks along the trail are also included:

Independence, Missouri. The starting point for those who were to go either by the Santa Fe Trail or the Oregon Trail to the far West.

Fort Kearny, Nebraska, three hundred and sixteen miles from Independence, two hundred and fifty-three miles from Fort Atchison, and four hundred miles from Denver. On the south side of the Platte River; a significant military post to which troops were first brought in 1847; the soldiers usually being assigned from here to all of the stations along the trails. From here went the North Platte route to the northwest, or the Oregon Trail.

Fort Kearny by William Henry Jackson, courtesy
Scotts Bluff National Monument

Chimney Rock, five hundred and seventy-one miles from Independence, on the North Platte and Oregon Trail. A castle-like formation. No one going to the West in the early days over this trail failed to make mention of this famous landmark.

Fort Mitchell, six hundred miles from Independence, (eighty-seven miles from the Lodge Pole Creek crossing) built in 1864, on the Oregon Trail, just east of the Wyoming-Nebraska boundary; used also as a telegraph station. Named for Brigadier General Robert B. Mitchell, who, in 1865, was in command against the hostile Indians of the Overland Trail from Omaha to South Pass. This station had, in 1866, one company of sixty soldiers to hold back the stealthy hordes of warriors of the plains! It was but a feeble menace to the thousands of dissatisfied warriors who were then waiting to see what the soldiers could and would do with their ancient hunting ground.

Fort Laramie, about one hundred and eighty-four miles west of Julesburg. The most imposing and substantial of all the military posts on the Oregon Trail. Many of the Indian conferences with the whites were held here, and many treaties made and signed within its walls. All of the buildings were on the south side of the North Platte River at its confluence with the Laramie River. Between the years 1846 and 1869 Fort Laramie was in five territories, viz: Missouri, Nebraska, Idaho, Dakota, and Wyoming.

Horseshoe Station, thirty-six miles west of Fort Laramie; not on the North Platte, but on the Oregon Trail, which, from Fort Laramie to Deer Creek, did not follow the river, but went directly northwest, being several miles south of the river. In 1862 this station, also a telegraph station, was the headquarters of the notorious John A. Slade. (About eight miles east of present Glendo, Wyoming.) It was to this telegraph station on December 25, 1866, that John "Portugee" Phillips, the courier from Fort Phil Kearney, came to send word by wire to Fort Laramie conveying the news of the terrible Fetterman disaster.

Camp Marshall, also known as La Bonte; telegraph station about sixty-six miles west of Fort Laramie. Ten miles east of this old station, in 1857, Jim Bridger had a ferry which was in operation for the two following years. The site of the old ferry is a few miles east of Orin Junction of today, where the railroad bridge crosses the North Platte. From this point the old Bozeman Trail, on its way to the Powder River country, left the North Platte.

Fort Laramie, 1843, courtesy Library of Congress

La Prele, about eighty-two miles west of Fort Laramie station; also a telegraph station. At this station, on April 15th, 1865, the telegraph message was received telling of the assassination of President Lincoln.

Deer Creek Station, one hundred and two miles from Fort Laramie, and thirty miles, east of Platte Bridge. This fort and military station was on the largest tributary of the North Platte since leaving Fort Laramie. This was an important emigrant camping place, where a ferry was in operation. (Station where now is the town of Glenrock).

Additional soldiers were frequently called to this station from Fort Caspar, as it was constantly being besieged by Indians; not only on the Oregon Trail, but the Indian trails running north and south. In 1852 the emigrants crossed the North Platte at this point by a ferry. In Stansbury's report appears the following: "Deer Creek, July 25, 1852. Just above the mouth of the stream there was a ferry over the north fork of the Platte, at which I determined to cross the train. The means employed for this purpose were of the rudest and simplest kind. The ferry boat was constructed of seven canoes, dug out from cottonwood logs, fastened side by side with poles, a couple of hewn logs being secured across the tops, upon which the wheels of the wagons rested. This rude raft was drawn back and forth by means of a rope stretched across the river, and secured
at the ends to either bank."

Platte Bridge Station, seven hundred and ninety- four miles from Independence and about one hundred and thirty miles from Fort Laramie; on the south side of the Platte; a strategic point for attack by the Indians. The station had a stockade, inside of which were accommodations for about one hundred men; about fifty rods from the station was the bridge of same name. A ferry was established here in 1847. From July 29, 1858, to April 20, 1859, a bridge in the meantime having been built by Louis Ganard over the Platte, United States troops were placed at this point on the Oregon Trail to keep open the communication with Salt Lake, and to aid in the prompt forwarding of supplies. From April 2oth, 1859, there were no troops at the Platte Bridge until May, 1862, when the bridge was guarded by volunteer troops who were serving as escort for emigrants, and for the protection of the telegraph line. A year later this post at the bridge was established, accommodating several companies of regulars.

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