N39 47.482 W 104 57.569
The Platte River Trail Route, part of the Great Platte River Road, was used by Native Americans, trapper, Mormons, gold and silver seekers, settlers and the Pony Express, the railroads.
This plaque commerates the Platte River Trail Route; one of the major routes pioneers took to settle in Colorado. An estimated 400,000 emigrants used this trail, though not all settled in Colorado. The text reads as follows:
Principal route of Colorado pioneers
Trail of Major S.H. Long in 1820
Trappers' trail in 1830s and 1840s
The 1858-9 route of Goldseekers with
pick and pan, Homeseekers in covered
wagons. Bullwackers with oxteams.
Stagecoaches with treasure and mail.
The path that became an empire.
Located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado
Erected by
The State Historical Society of Colorado
from
The Mrs. J.N. Hall Foundation
and by
State Civil Service Employees of Colorado
1932
"The Native American trail west along the Platte, North Platte River and Sweetwater River was first written about after its discovery in 1811 by Wilson Price Hunt of the Astor Expedition. He was returning to the Missouri River posts from the newly established Fort Astoria on the Columbia River near the Pacific Ocean. Because few American trappers and settlers were then in the contested Oregon Territory, his trail discovery was little used and nearly forgotten.
In 1823 Jedediah Smith and several trappers "rediscovered" the route. The trail along the Platte, North Platte and Sweetwater rivers became a major route of fur traders to their summer Rocky Mountain Rendezvous. In 1824 fur trappers and traders directing mule trains carrying trade goods and supplies for the mountain men were some of the first European-American parties to use the trail. On their return trip, the fur traders carried out for furs destined for eastern markets. The fur trade route was used to about 1840.
By about 1832, the fur traders had improved the trail along the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to a rough wagon trail from the Missouri River to the Green River in Wyoming, where most of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous were held. In 1834 Benjamin Bonneville, a United States Army officer on leave, led an expedition to the west financed by John Jacob Astor. They took wagons along the Platte, North Platte and Sweetwater River trail to the Green River in present-day Wyoming. The notable author Washington Irving wrote an account of Bonneville's explorations in the west that made him well known in the United States.
Following the fur traders, the major emigration trails established along the north and south banks of the Platte and North Platte River were the Oregon (1843–1869), California (1843–1869), Mormon (1847–1869) and the Bozeman (1863–68) trails. This network of trails, sometimes called the Emigrant Trails or the Great Platte River Road, all went west along both sides of the Platte River. The route along the Platte River included all these emigration trails and was developed as an important trail route used by migrant wagon trains for westward United States expansion after 1841. The settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain in 1846, the conclusion of the Mexican American War in 1848, and the California Gold Rush in 1849 and other gold and silver strikes rapidly attracted increased emigrant traffic west.
The Platte River in the future state of Nebraska and the North Platte River in Wyoming typically had many channels and islands. The waterways were often too shallow, crooked, muddy and unpredictable for even a canoe to travel far. The Platte River valley provided an easily passable wagon corridor; it sloped gradually up in height as it went almost due west from the Missouri. The Platte route had access to water, grass, buffalo and buffalo 'chips,' which the Indians and emigrants used as fuel for fires.[15] Long Native American use had created trails on both sides of the muddy, about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and shallow (2 inches (5.1 cm) to 60 inches (150 cm)) Platte River. The Platte's water was silty and bad tasting, but it was usable if no other water was available. Emigrants learned to let it sit in a bucket for an hour or so to settle most of the silt. The trail(s) through the Platte River Valley extended about 450 miles (720 km) in the present state of Nebraska. Nearly all the trails from the Missouri converged on the Platte River at or before Fort Kearny in mid-state Nebraska. Historians have estimated about 400,000 emigrants followed the trails along the Platte.
The Pony Express, operational from 1860–61, and the First Transcontinental Telegraph, completed in 1861, both followed the earlier emigrant trails along the Platte. The completion of the telegraph put the Pony Express out of business as it could provide much faster east-west communication. In 1866 the Union Pacific portion of the first transcontinental railroad was constructed along the Platte River as it started west from Omaha. In the 20th century, the Lincoln Highway and later Interstate 80 were constructed through the Platte valley; the highways parallel the Platte and the North Platte through much of Nebraska." (from (
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