Platte River

“ The Platte is not a dangerous river if forded properly, but it looks threatening to timid people. It is nearly one mile wide, and it is about breast deep in ordinary stages. It runs over a bed of sand, and the secret of safety is to keep on the sand bars and keep moving. A halt, even for a few minutes, allows the feet of animals, or the wagon wheels to sink into the sands, and they are not easily extricated. Upon reaching the bank of the river, horsemen upon the best horses survey the route by zigzagging up and down, finding the shallowest water upon the bars, which are constantly shifting. ”

“ The whole bottom along the Platte is mostly sand which in dry season on account of the violent winds which prevail here, nothing being here to break its force, is a great inconvenience to travelers. The Platte river bottom below and above Fort Kearney up to where the road meets with the bluffs, is very little above the level of its waters, varying from five to fifteen feet above that, however, till when you strike the above mentioned point, its altitude is about twenty-five feet. ”

“ At Fort Laramie we crossed the Platte river by fording. The stream, as I remember it, was near a mile wide, but not waist deep. Thirty and forty oxen were hitched to one wagon, to effect the crossing. But woe to the hapless team that stalled in the treacherous quicksands. They must be kept going, as it required but a short stop for the treacherous sands to engulf team and wagon alike. Men wading on either side of the string of oxen kept them moving, and soon all were safely on the north side of the Platte river. ”

“ Travel nine miles in the forenoon and six in the afternoon. Our course is up the Platte River, the valley of which is nearly level and is several miles wide on either side. We camp tonight where there is no wood on the mainland, and we waded a branch of the river about twenty rods to an island to procure it. The water is not deep, but the current is quite rapid. There are numerous islands in the river. ”

“ An excellent example of the latter type of stream is the Platte River, which is swift and loaded with sediment in its descent from the Rocky Mountains, but, on reaching the relatively more nearly level Nebraska country, it has its current sufficiently checked to force it to deposit sediment and build up its channel along many miles of its course, and this in spite of the fact that it still maintains a considerable current. In a mountainous arid region a more or less intermittent stream at times of flood becomes heavily loaded with rock débris and rushes down the mountain side. ”

“ Clear river [now called Platte river] is a beautiful little stream of about 80 yards in width, which heads in some swamps and small lakes [Platte, Ogechie, etc.] on which the Sauteaux of Lower Red Cedar Lake and Sandy Lake frequently come to hunt. The soil of the prairies from above the falls is sandy, but would raise small grain in abundance; the bottoms are rich, and fit for corn or hemp.
Pine creek [now Swan river] is a small stream which comes in on the W. shore, and bears nearly W. It is bordered by large groves of white and red pine. ”

“ We re-crossed the river by swimming our horses. Hitching our teams, we drove to the bridge and after paying three dollars toll for each wagon, crossed upon it and camped on the Platte River bottoms, near the junction of the Laramie and North Platte. ”

“ The Platte River above the Fort Laramie takes a different appearance from its lower course. The low fertile land through which it runs for nearly seven hundred to eight hundred miles to its mouth, is changed into a highland scene. Its course is rapid and cut through the solid granite rocks which must have taken many a century to open such passes and to such an extent as we met in this part of our journey. ”

“ It is a bad country for wagons to travel through, having so many sloughs and bad creeks; the teams were often stalled, and made very slow progress. We had three rivers and creeks to cross before we reached the Platte River. The Platte River has good grass—plenty of it—but is destitute of timber; here we saw the first buffalo—they were poor and tough. We saw a few of the Pawnee Indians. They are fine looking fellows, and no doubt, live well on buffalo meat; they are quite treacherous. We reached the crossing of Platte on the twenty-sixth day of July, a little more than one month out. ”

“ A large river with a light load reaches grade on a faint slope, while a smaller stream heavily burdened with waste requires a steep slope to give it velocity sufficient to move the load.
The Platte, a graded river of Nebraska with its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains, is enfeebled by the semi-arid climate of the Great Plains and surcharged with the waste brought down both by its branches in the mountains and by those whose tracks lie over the soft rocks of the plains. It is compelled to maintain a gradient of eight feet to the mile in western Nebraska. ”

“ Is located in an oak grove on the Northern Pacific railroad, twenty miles above Sauk Rapids, and ten below Little Falls near the south line of Morrison county. It includes some lands in Benton county. Platte river flows through the village and furnishes a water power of 8 feet head, improved by a dam, supplying a flour mill which has a capacity of 250 barrels per day, and a saw mill with a capacity of 40,000 feet. There is 65 feet fall on the Platte within five miles of Royalton below, and 45 feet above the village, yet unimproved. ”

“ After ninety-four miles’ marching, the Mormons are ferried across Loup Fork, a stream thirteen rods wide, full of bars, with banks and a bottom all quicksand. Another 150 miles takes them to the Platte River, where they find good camping-places, with plenty of water, buffalo-chips, and grass. Eighty-two miles beyond that point (a total of 306) , they arrive at “Last Timber,” a station so called because, for the next 300 miles on the north side of the Platte, the only sign of vegetation is “Lone Tree.” Many emigrants avoid this dreary “spell” by crossing the Platte opposite Ash Hollow. ”

“ The regimen of the natural flow of the North Platte River below Pathfinder Dam shall not be changed, except that not more than 40,000 acre feet of the natural flow of the North Platte River and its tributaries which cannot be stored in upstream reservoirs under the provisions of this decree may be stored in the Glendo Reservoir during any water year, in addition to evaporation losses on such storage, and, further, the amount of such storage water that may be held in storage at any one time, including carryover storage, shall never exceed 100,000 acre feet. ”

“ Encamped at night near the bank of the Platte, after traveling ten miles.
Tuesday, June 20.—This morning myself and twenty other men started ahead of the company with horses and mules to hunt and pack skins and buffalo meat to the crossing up the South Fork by the time the company should arrive at that point. Encamped at night at a small creek called Ash Creek.
Wednesday, June 21.—Traveled up the Platte River till evening. Killed a buffalo bull and calf, and two antelope, and suffered very much from a very hard, cold rain. Waded a slough and camped on the river bank among some willows. ”

“ Proceeding westward, the sand becomes deeper and more unmixed; not a rock or a stone, in place or out of place, is to be met with for some hundreds of miles. It is believed that no rocky bluffs appear along the valley of the Platte, within three hundred miles of its mouth, though a small part of this distance, on the lower portion of the river, has not hitherto been explored. ”

“ We chased them down the stream, and they finally turned to the left, went north, and crossed the South Platte river five miles above Ogallala. We pushed rapidly after them, following them across the North Platte and on through the sand-hills towards the Niobrara; but as they were making much better time than we, the pursuit was abandoned. ”

“ But possibly time may make the discovery of coal-mines, which would render the country habitable.
The source of La Platte is situated in the same chain of mountains with the Arkansaw (see chart) , and comes from that grand reservoir of snows and fountains which gives birth on its northeastern side to the Red river of the Missouri 524 (the yellow stone river of Lewis [and Clark] , its great southwestern branch) , and La Platte; on its southwestern side it produces the Rio Colorado of California; on its east the Arkansaw; and on its south the Rio del Norte of North Mexico. ”

“ For a distance of nearly two hundred miles, commencing at the confluence of the North and South forks, and extending westwardly towards the mountains, the country is almost entirely destitute of woodland, scarcely a tree, bush, or even a shrub, making its appearance.
{228} The Platte is seldom navigable, except for skin canoes, requiring but a moderate depth of water, and for these only when a freshet prevails in the river. No attempts have ever been made to ascend the river in canoes for any great distance ”

“ From the point where the two roads again unite, the trail follows the North Fork to the crossing, never leaving it far. In the bottoms of the stream, there is grass sufficient for camps, and an inexhaustable quantity of wood. The River here, at this season, can generally be forded. If it be high, recourse must be had to rafting, unless emigrants are otherwise provided. Timber is not wanting. Immediately after crossing the Platte, the trail leaves the river entirely, and bears to the right, over a high and uneven country, which affords very little of either wood, water, or grass ”

“ The bluffs which skirt the valley present considerable variety, and as the route is continued, they become more elevated and broken. The soil of the valley becomes less fertile and the vegetation is thin and short. After traversing the valley of the Platte for the distance of one hundred and thirty miles, the trail crosses the river and continues along the northern bank of the south fork for about twelve miles, when it diverges from the stream to pass over the prairie to the north fork. ”

“ At length they came to an immense plain, where no vestige of timber was to be seen; nor a single quadruped to enliven the desolate landscape. Here, then, their hearts failed them, and they held another consultation. The width of the river, which was upwards of a mile, its extreme shallowness, the frequency of quicksands, and various other characteristics, had at length made them sensible of their errors with respect to it, and they now came to the correct conclusion, that they were on the banks of the Platte or Shallow River. What were they to do? Pursue its course to the Missouri? ”

“ The Platte runs a course of fifteen degrees of longitude, from west to east, or more than eight hundred miles.
The Kansas River has a considerable resemblance to the Missouri, but its current is more moderate, and its water less turbid, except at times of high floods. Its valley, like that of the Missouri, has a deep and fertile soil, bearing forests of cotton-wood, sycamore, and other trees, interspersed with meadows; but in ascending, trees become more and more scattered, and at length disappear almost entirely, the country at its sources being one immense prairie. ”

“ The water-partings are characteristically level uplands, often with shallow depressions, once lakes, and some of them still so. The valleys of the greatest streams are huge shallow troughs. The valley floor of the North Platte in the foot-hills, the flood-plain of an older river, is in places 700 ft. ”

“ Westward from this point the granite ridges rise from the northern bank of the river in rugged cliffs. The country in general, while very interesting, is barren, the chief vegetation being the artemesia or wild sage, which in those parts is found growing to a large size, so as to furnish very good fuel.
On the evening of July 26, 1866, we camped at Three Crossings, forty-two miles west of Platte Bridge. Within a few rods it was necessary to ford the rapidly running Sweetwater three times. ”

“ The low grounds on the south near the junction of the two rivers, are rich, but subject to be overflowed. Farther up, the banks are higher, and opposite our camp the first hills approach the river, and are covered with timber, such as oak, walnut, and elm. The intermediate country is watered by the Papillon, or Butterfly creek, of about eighteen yards wide, and three miles from the Platte; on the north are high open plains and prairies, and at nine miles from the Platte, the Musquitoe creek, and two or three small willow islands. ”

“ It proves to be pure water if allowed to stand and settle. A bucket of water standing over night in the morning will be clear, with an inch of pure sand on the bottom. If the old maxim is true, "A fellow needs sand in his craw," he easily gets it on the Platte. Our immigrant party, wisely directed, forded the river safely with all its stock. Care was taken in fording all rivers to place heavy articles not easily injured by water low in the bed of the wagon. ”

“ The state, which is a prairie one, is without any great eleavtions, though in the north and west the surface is diversified by hills. Its chief waterways are the Platte or Nebraska River, which courses across the state from west to east, and the Missouri River, which flanks it on the east and forms part of its northeastern boundary. The soil is rich and fertile, with a dry climate, the rainfall being light ”