Overland Trail

 Yesterday with lunch packed and 4 wheel in gear, along with about 25 other people, we trekked along the original Overland trail.  Because the land is now privately owned, we received permission to do this from the owner and it was a Saratoga Museum sponsored event. The site above and monument above is a gift from Mary Ellen Davis and family in memory of her husband,  a frontier banker.  Three local historians presented programs on the graves, history of the Overland trail,  and the Indian attacks.

 Now fenced in, previously these six graves have been here since the 1860's.  The Mr. floated this North Platte river many years ago and visited these graves then where now one of the stones had been vandalized and eventually has disappeared. It read "Killed by Indians". 

We hiked down a stone stairway.  It really was not a stairway, but a narrow cut between two rock walls, with very slippery loose stone and soil.  As always on the high desert, we were warned to watch for rattlesnakes or "buzzworms".  At the bottom near the river banks, the evidence of the many travelers from the east to the west is still evident.  One of the earliest dates we saw was 1866.  This area was near the Emigrant's Crossing where the Bennett's ferry allowed the pioneers and the military to cross at $5.00 a wagon. We received a map and drawing of the ferry and apparently there was another near what is now Pick Bridge.  I won't attempt to detail the information, but it was a trip and lesson in history I won't forget. 

Afterward, we drove a short distance to Patton (Klein, Cline)'s (?) Property to have lunch on his property.  This was a rustic cabin and we lunched on his front porch in the shade and were graciously allowed to used his "facility".  This was when Chris (Chili) Rollison who is an archaeologist, native of the area and expert on Indian history here, spoke and detailed the different tribes occupying the area then.  I know that my father's family came west and settled in Colorado.  The Overland trail came through Julesburg Colorado and I am thinking that they probably did not venture farther north than that if they came by that route.  I had always been told that my grandmother was the first "white" child born in Erie Co.  After this trek, I am not sure that I would have survived as a pioneer traveler knowing some of the hardships they must have encountered.  Some of the old wagon ruts were still very much visible.  It took nearly and hour from the highway to reach this area of the river by 4-wheel drive and was a mere 8.5 miles.  I live just walking distance from the North Platte and always marvel at nature's beauty.  Thanks to those mighty pioneers who ventured west to persue their dreams!!!