Fort McPherson, Nebraska

There was a large island in the river of several thousand acres, upon which grew the finest grass to be found in the country, and there were some scrubby willows and cottonwoods; so that the Indians coming from the north found it a good stopping-place to feed their ponies either in summer or winter, because in the winter the ponies could eat the cottonwood brush.

It was an outpost to protect travelers along the Oregon and California Trails, between Fort Kearny and Colorado and to keep the peace with the local Native Americans.

The fort was built by troops of the 7th Regiment Iowa Volunteer Cavalry using cedar logs cut in Cottonwood Canyon.

The most important was the expedition of General Eugene Asa Carr which finished with the defeat of the Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of Summit Springs.

In 1873, Captain Charles Meinhold and his small command from the fort were the first to travel up the Massacre Canyon after a large-scale Pawnee-Sioux battle.

[3] "We advanced from the mouth of the ravine to its head and found fifty-nine dead Pawnees...", wrote Army doctor David Franklin Powell.