The Great Platte River Road: The Covered Wagon Mainline via Fort Kearny to Fort Laramie

by Merrill J. Mattes

The Great Platte River Road through Nebraska and Wyoming was the grand corridor of America's westward expansion. A number of famous trails converged in the broad valley of the Platte, forming a kind of primitive superhighway for the great covered wagon migration from 1841 to 1866. From jumping-off places along the Missouri River—notably the Omaha-Council Bluffs, St. Joseph, and Kansas City areas—the emigrant throngs came together at Fort Kearny, Nebraska. Although they continued on to South Pass, Wyoming, and beyond, this book focuses on the feeder mutes and the more than three hundred miles between Fort Kearny and Fort Laramie. The Great Platte River Road looks at border towns, trail routes, river crossings, stage stations, military posts, and such landmarks as Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff. It goes far beyond geography and Indian encounters in revealing cultural aspects of the great food, dress, equipment, organization, camping, traffic patterns, sex ratios, morals, manners, religion, crime, accidents, disease, death, and burial customs.

Genres: History

600 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having grown up in Kearney, Nebraska, I'm intimately familiar with the setting for this marvelous tribute to the courageous, bold and determined men and women who trekked across Nebraska bound for a better life in Oregon and California. How little I knew about them, their trials and tribulations and this expanse of prairie upon which some crossed while so many others died trying. Thanks to Mr. Mattes, I'll be learning more about them and this blessed land we call Nebraska after the river that provided their pathway to their dreams.

[Eric Graves · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is such a thing as too much information. The book does not flow well but it is very descriptive and opens to door to many primary sources. That latter part is arguably its best quality.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author and historian Mattes did extensive research to pull together this quote-heavy account from diaries of pioneers about life along the Great Platte River Road--there was a grave on average every 20 feet. My parents grew up in this region not long after it was over and my great grandparents traveled this first superhighway that millions traveled to California and Oregon. I found it not only personal but intensely engaging. Really, it was such a short time ago---170 years at its peak. I never imagined the depth of hardship before of this government and media-created migration. "There's gold in them there hills!" PS the Natives were for the most part friendly and even helpful, but cholera was swift and deadly. Nothing like the mild "pandemic" we are experiencing today. Many thousands of families were suddenly wiped out overnight. You don't see that in cowboy shows...

[Leah Angstman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for researching the area. Not necessarily an exciting read 'story-wise,' but very good for historical research purposes and for learning the layout of the land and its early pioneers.