The crossings of the Oregon and Mormon Trails...

 A historical marker along the road--not the one we were searching for and never found but a nice tribute to this small town and its beginnings along the Mormon Trail.

I forgot to mention that Winter Quarters was into Nebraska (and located in the city of Omaha).  So now we were traveling in Nebraska and were in the area of the famous Platte River. This fort was established to protect travelers on the Oregon Trail.  The Mormon and Oregon Trails parallelled each other with the Oregon Trail following along the southern side of the river and the Mormon Trail mainly on the northern side. The California trail went along the Oregon Trail until they split apart. Many of the historical signs now talked about all three trails--Pioneers went to Oregon to get land and build a better life for their family, to California for gold and riches and on the Mormon Trail to seek religious freedom.

Fort Kearney: This fort was established to protect travelers on the Oregon Trail.  Many pioneers stopped here to get supplies and information about the trail ahead.

Pioneers or other travelers could leave messages here and
hope that friends and family come behind would check and
know that they had made this part of the journey safely.

I am not a gun person but in the pioneer stories of my relatives, guns were very important to help them survive along the trail.  It was the way they added meats to their diets which was critical when food stuffs were getting low.  This particular gun was made for the soldiers.

Jena trying on an old military hat.

Sample of a wagon that traveled the Oregon Trail.

This was a blacksmith shop--notice again the roof which was made from sod and where plants could grow if there was enough rain.

It contained a broad collection of old equipment from that time period.  The browns and greys stood out to me again like in the Tin Shop in Nauvoo.  I guess I notice that because I love the bright colors of blues, greens, and yellows and my house is filled with those colors. Colors were optional back then especially along the trail.

They had rebuilt the walls of the fort with the corner watch out towers.  Inside the fort, they had some maps and other things to learn more about the soldiers who served here.  Mainly this became a fort where pioneers on the trail could restock some of their food items and if needed maybe sell something they decided not to carry across the plains.

Gary and Jena are on the watch

The famous Platte River---even now this river is a muddy, unpredictable river.  The travelers traveled along it and over it many times.  One Mormon Pioneer, Howard Egan said that the braided river "is so shallow that it can't be navigated by even small boats,...The Nebraska part of the river was said to be 'too thick to drink, too thin to plow, hard to cross because of quicksand, impossible to navigate, to yellow to wash in, and to pale to paint with."

These pictures were taken in the area of Ft. Kearney:

No bridge for the pioneers, but I like bridges!!

It was from this point to Ft. Laramie that the Oregon Trail was on the south side of the river while the Mormons traveled on the north side.

Just a few miles west of the fort it was noted that the first Mormon pioneers spotted buffalo on May 1, 1847.  Today as we zipped down I-80 to the west, we didn't see any buffalo but in the prairie grasses along either side you can imagine what a site herds of buffalo would create, especially if they started running.  We tried to find the Sand Hills Ruts located just off I-80 on Highway 30 just passed Cozard, but I made a wrong turn and didn't figure it out until too far down the road to the west. Gary and Jena were sleeping anyway so perhaps it worked out.

We made a stop for gas and then started up Highway 26 to the north west.  Again the pioneer trails were following along the Platte River as it winded its way through the prairie.