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April 29, 2011 Friday
North Platte, NE. Weather clear, 56 degrees and very windy. Mileage 4379; got gas at $3.789 per gal. Buffalo Bill Cody had a ranch in this town, which was a surprise to us. We expected Montana or Wyoming, but not Nebraska! One of the biggest freight yards for the Union Pacific Railroad is located here.
Drove interstate 80 to Brule (not to be confused with Buhl, which we go through later), and then on Highway 30 (which seems to be THE old Oregon Trail road) to a dirt road to see the California Hill ruts. This was the typical directions that we were following. “Drive west through Brule on US 30 for about 4 miles. Watch for a granite 1912 Neb. State Historical monument for the Oregon Trail on the north side of the road . About ½ mile beyond that, turn on a gravel road, Road West MN. One-half mile from that turn, stop and park. There is a pedestrian pass-through in the fence line. Enter the pasture and walk to the ruts. Nothing mentioned the fact that it
was a cattle pasture with dried cow patties.
After this very interesting adventure where we walked in the ruts made by the wagons, we drove across country on a VERY bad/rough 15 miles of country road to highway 26. Found the visitors center closed at Ash Hollow near Lewellen. The pioneers had to find their way down the bluffs here to the river; sometimes they used ropes to help them descend without the wagons running away. Here is a picture of the Platte River from bluffs.
We ate lunch at local dinner spot at Oshkosh, a town of around 650 people. Surprisingly, before we were out of the restaurant we had talked with 3 groups of people who had visited Alaska or had sons living in Alaska. All offered advice freely on restaurants, fishing, and other sights. Saw Frog’s head bluff west of the town of Lisco—rock formation looks like a frog presiding over the trail/road. Drove by Courthouse rock and Chimney Rock and then through Scotts Bluff. These were described similarly in both diaries. However, they did not mention the numerous coal trains on Union Pacific tracks that paralleled
the highway.
Amanda’s diary: “June the 1st… we are now in sight of court house rock, or solitary tower some 12 miles distant, also chimney rock, some 20 miles distant, travld about 22 miles, campt opposite court house rock, this is a singular structure resembling some public edifice…the inexperienced travelers on this route begins to be deceived in relation to distance and size of objects.”
At Bridgeport we crossed the N. Platte and saw a white pelican in the river. Didn’t know pelicans lived away from the sea shore. Apparently white pelicans do as we saw later on also. Continued on highway 26 and crossed into WY. Got gas in Torrington at $3.55 per gal mileage at 4619. Drove around Fort Laramie and as it is late and the park was closing we decided to leave and return in the morning to go through it.
Spent night at Guernsey State Park---drove around dammed up Platte River—very pretty place. No electric hook-up and very cold. Saw some bluebirds around where we registered for the park. Valerie flashed park ranger. We thought we were the only ones in the park.
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