The Oregon Trail Journal

Sunday June 17 – We traveled to Fort Kearny State Historic Park, Nebraska (Waymark Code: WM1RWE). In its 23 years as a military post, Fort Kearny came to symbolize westward expansion. It was the first Western military fort of six major forts built to protect emigrants on the Oregon Trail and other western routes. We watched a short film in the interpretive center. I walked around the beautiful tree-shaded grounds taking several photographs.

We traveled to The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney. The seven-story Archway spans all four lanes of I-80 east of Kearney. It is a trail-themed visitor center with fascinating exhibits. I took photographs and coordinates of the covered wagon, and the 1914 historic bridge (Waymark Code: WM1RWB).

Around noon we traveled to Ehmen Park in Gothenburg at 15th & Lake Avenue for a picnic lunch. I visited a historic log building which was used as a fur trading post/ranch house along the Oregon Trail, now a museum. It was moved from its original site and rebuilt in Ehmen Park in 1931. The museum has been open to the public since 1954. I found various markers and a time capsule (Waymark Code: WM1RWA) in front of the building.

Leaving the park, we visited a gift shop in a barn, and a sod house replica with sparse interior furnishings and a covered wagon in the yard.

Mid-afternoon we visited the historic Buffalo Bill’s Scouts Rest. Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846-1917) built the magnificent 1880s North Platte house during the heyday of his famous Wild West Show. I toured the house, line cabin, and huge barn. The site featured Wild West show memorabilia. Near the barn I saw four shaggy bison in a fenced area.

At the Lincoln County Historical Museum I visited the museum and a couple buildings including a log Headquarters Building from Fort McPherson. I took photographs and coordinates of the historic Fort McPherson sign and building. Nothing remains of the fort itself.

We have passed large sandhills (loess) covered with rich native grass which act as natural reservoirs for irrigation water. This also was the area in which the emigrants first caught up with the Platte, which would guide them for hundreds of miles into present-day Wyoming.

We traveled to Ogallala and the BW Stagecoach Inn (time change). Ogallala is the jumping-off place for western Nebraska’s Oregon Trail landmarks: Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff. This evening we went to Valentino’s Italian Buffet for dinner.