Great Platte River Road

At some point along the Platte, the travelers would cross to the north side, frequently at great hazard, in order to continue following the road to Fort Laramie.

Thousands of settlers began to move west along the routes of earlier trail blazers, many of which simply followed the east-west course of the Platte River, which offered an easy navigational aid and a dependable source of water for the first leg of any westward journey.

The Platte River corridor eventually became the primary avenue of transcontinental travel in the United States, a route so straightforward that it was used simultaneously by several of the most popular pioneer trails of the era.

Following attacks in the spring and summer of 1864 by the Colorado Volunteers on the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians, a state of war developed along the South Platte, with numerous raids on stage stations, ranches and freighters along the road.

[6] The route has remained an important travel corridor in the modern era, being the path of choice for the transcontinental Lincoln Highway beginning in 1913 and eventually Interstate 80.

Routes of western emigrant trails in Nebraska. The Mormon Trail is in blue; the Oregon and California Trails and the Pony Express route in red; an alternate Oregon/California route in dashed red; lesser-used trails in orange. Fort Kearny is the black dot.
U.S. 26 along the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska follows the historic transcontinental trails
A photo of the former overland trails, with historic trails marker, through Mitchell Pass at Scotts Bluff National Monument.
Independence Rock, a site along the Mormon Trail
East of Lexington, Nebraska . Triple Tracks replaced the original single track from the 1860s.