Going west on the Union Pacific Railway 200 miles from Omaha we came to the City of Kearney, and found the Oregon trail close to the Platte, on the opposite (south) side of the river. . . . [Across the bridge and three miles to the east] we came to clumps and rows of very large cottonwood trees on the site of the old "Adobe Town", also called Kear ney City. In front of the farmhouse on this site is a fence made of part of an old pontoon bridge — one that Fremont had built, so we were told. Sitting in the shade of the cot- tonwoods, preparing dinner, we found the widow of Major Talbot, who was stationed at the fort two miles farther to the east. The trail was right alongside this old adobe town, taking up a width of some 30 rods; but, as the field had been cultivated, no traces of ruts or grooves were left. Going on two miles east we found the site of Fort Kearney, marked by similar groves of cottonwood trees, and by clearly de fined mounds and trenches, the remains of the earthworks of the fort. . . . Along the northeast side of these works are easily discernible traces of wagon ruts bearing to the north west. As these coincided with the location of the trail given several pioneers of Kearney of the original trail, we took them for such.
For 175 miles the trail keeps along up the south side of the Platte and south fork, occupying the second bench from the river. Some 70 miles above the forks of the Platte, near the site of the present station of Brule, the trail crosses the south fork and strikes almost due north to Ash Hollow, where the Oregon pioneers had their first notable experience in descending a cliff. Cliffs rise here from the north fork some 500 feet. Colonel Loring's mounted riflemen in making this descent in 1849 on their way to Oregon, in response to the call for assistance conveyed by Joe Meek, at the time of the Whitman massacre, had to have 30 men on each rope holding back their wagons, although the wheels were chained. We are told that pioneers used capstans in letting down their wagons.
