36 Nebraskaland • June 2023
sea. It looked wider than the Mississippi … Judge my surprise
when I learned that it was only three or four feet deep …
The water is exceedingly muddy, or I should say sandy, and
what adds greatly to the singular appearance of this river,
the water is so completely fi lled with glittering particles of
micah or isinglass that its shining waves look to be rich with
fl oating gold."
No bridges spanned the Platte during most of the overland
trail era. In 1876, the Camp Clarke Bridge (below) opened near
present-day Bridgeport. Spanning the North Platte River, the
2,000-foot wooden truss toll bridge served travelers during
the Black Hills gold rush.
How diffi cult was it to cross the Platte without a bridge?
The 1866 map on page 34 gives you some idea. The river was
notorious for its braided channel and patches of quicksand.
The map shows the best places to ford.
But some of the map's labels are confusing to modern eyes.
What is Kearney City (lower left) doing south of the river
and west of the fort? And what's this about Grand Island
being north of the fort? Kearney City, informally known as
Dobytown for its adobe buildings, was described by an 1860
visitor as a "gambling hell" populated by "as bad a crowd
of men and women as ever got together on the plains." The
present city of Kearney was founded in 1872 north of the
river.
Grand Island, meanwhile, was a long island between
channels of the Platte. It was named "La Grande Isle" by 18th
century French traders. The city originally known as Grand
Island Station was founded the same year this map was
drawn, but well to the east.
Now, consider a 4-foot-high, 100-pound steamboat
anchor (right) from History Nebraska's collection. In 1985,
Gloria Liljestrand-Barber found it mostly buried on her
parents' farm near Brady. In the 1890s, a similar anchor was
discovered three miles away. Both anchors were not far from
the shifting channels of the Platte River.
Does this mean steamboats were navigating the Platte?
Legend has it that the steamboat El Paso traveled up the
Camp Clarke Bridge near present-day Bridgeport, looking south toward the Wildcat Hills. HISTORY NEBRASKA, RG3289-0-24-A2
