South Platte River

“ We continued our march up the south fork of the Platte some ten miles, where we crossed over the bluffs which lie between the two streams, and after going two miles we reached the north fork at about noon. In the afternoon we continued up on [Pg 33] the south side of the north flat. At this point the river wears the same general characteristics as the lower Platte. The banks are lower and the soil less productive, but the stream is wide, shallow, and filled with islands or sand-bars. Tonight we feed our cattle on two of these little islands, near the south shore. The grass is very poor here. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The drainage system of the state is naturally very complicated. Eleven topographical and climatic divisions are recognized by the United States Weather Bureau within its borders, including the several parks, the continental divide, and various river valleys. Of the rivers, the North Platte has its sources in North Park, the Colorado (the Gunnison and Grand branches) in Middle Park, the Arkansas and South Platte in South Park—where their waters drain in opposite directions from Palmer’s Lake—the Rio Grande in San Luis Park. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The river is very shallow, and for that reason was called by the Otoes, whose country embraced the region at its mouth, the Ne-bras-ka, and re-christened the Platte by the French trappers, a term synonymous to that given by the Indians.
The Platte River, nearly three-quarters of a century ago, was called
by Washington Irving,
The most magnificent and most useless of streams. Abstraction
made of its defects, nothing can be more pleasing than the
perspective which it presents to the eye. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It was a real treat to see the blooming flowers and green lawns of the "Forest City;" I was almost tempted to pluck a snow-ball from a bush in the railroad garden. I certainly was carried past greener fields as the train bounded westward along the Platte valley, than I had seen north on the Elkhorn.
The Platte river is a broad, shallow stream, with low banks, and barren of everything but sand. Now we are close to its banks, and again it is lost in the distance. The valley is very wide; all the land occupied and much under cultivation. ”

“ It is supplied with water made of vapour that is taken up from the Atlantic Ocean. Taking the Amazon, therefore, out of the count, the Rio de la Plata is the only great river of the southern hemisphere. There is no large river in New Holland. The South Sea Islands give rise to none, nor is there one in South Africa entitled to be called great that we know of. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This stream is certainly in the summer season, or in the long absence of rain, nothing more than a mere chain of ponds, serving as a channel to convey the waters from the eastward over this low tract. It is certain that no waters join this river from its source to this point; and passing, as it does, for the most part, through a line of country so low as to be frequently overflowed, and to an extent north and south perfectly unknown. but certainly at this place exceeding forty miles, it must cause the country to remain for ever uninhabitable, and useless for all the purposes of civilized man. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is on the right bank, on the verge of the upland prairie, about forty feet above the river, of which the immediate valley is about six hundred yards wide. The stream is divided into various branches by small islands, among which it runs with a swift current. The bed of the river is sand and gravel, the water very clear, and here may be called a mountain-stream. This region appears to be entirely free from the limestones and marls which give to the Lower Platte its yellow and dirty color. The Black hills lie between the stream and the mountains, whose snowy peaks glitter a few miles beyond. ”

“ 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 river itself continues undiminished, and is a fine stream, with nothing to impede the navigation; its windings, however, are very considerable. The banks appear lower by nearly three feet than yesterday: there are still no marks of flood rising upon the land above a foot on either side: the depth of the stream is from twenty to twenty-four feet, breadth from sixty to one hundred and sixty, and its current is about a mile and a half per hour. The river has fallen yesterday and to-day nearly eighteen inches. ”

“ SE. of Buenos Ayres city; rapidly built, it has continued to grow, and has now some handsome buildings, a college, and cotton and woollen manufactures; a canal connects it with the La Plata River.
La Plata River, a broad estuary in South America, from 28 to 140 m. broad and 200 m. long, with Uruguay on the N. and the Argentine Republic on the S., through which the Uruguay and Paraná rivers pour into the Atlantic; it is much exposed to storms; its best harbour is at Monte Video. ”

“ The country north-east of us, along the dry edge of which we were obliged to keep, is as bad as possible, being in wet seasons full of water-holes, and consequently impassable. The river still continues undiminished, as we find that the branches and small streams that frequently run from it join it again at short distances, and that they owe their existence at this time to the full state of the river, which is certainly some feet above its usual level. ”

“ The general course of the river during the day was very little to the south of east, its banks still maintaining the same rocky and precipitous character, marks of inundation being frequently observed at the height of thirty feet above the present stream, which now was only running gently in a channel not more than thirty yards wide, but when in flood occupying the whole of the valley, which averages a quarter of a mile in width. The larger pools are lined with flags and reeds, and contain numbers of small fish resembling trout, similar to those found in the Lyons and Gascoyne Rivers. ”

“ 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. ”