Camp Clarke Bridge Site | |
Nearest city | Bridgeport, Nebraska |
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Coordinates | 41°40′12.59″N103°10′8.08″W / 41.6701639°N 103.1689111°W |
Area | 120 acres (49 ha) |
Built | 1875 |
Built by | Clarke, Henry T. |
NRHP reference No. | 74001129 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 8, 1974 |
The Camp Clarke Bridge Site in Morrill County, Nebraska, near Bridgeport dates from 1875. Also known as 25 MO 68, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. [1]
It is the location of a toll bridge built in 1875 by entrepreneur Henry T. Clarke, who provided a crossing over the North Platte River for what became the Sidney-Black Hills Trail. The trail provided access for freight wagons, stagecoaches and other vehicles headed to and from the Dakota gold fields, from the Union Pacific railway trailhead at Fort Sidney, Nebraska. [2]
It is about 9 miles east from Chimney Rock and three miles west of Bridgeport, Nebraska. Historic photos show a wooden truss bridge built on pilings in the soft ground of the river. It was "a massive structure... Two thousand feet in length with a solid six to one truss span." It was the only reliable crossing between Fort Laramie and North Platte, Nebraska. [2]
At the time of the NRHP listing in 1974, the North Platte no longer flowed through the bridge location, but was rather slightly to the north. [2]
On February 12, 1899, Camp Clarke recorded a daily minimum temperature of −47 °F (−44 °C), which is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the state of Nebraska.
Bridgeport is a city in Morrill County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,454 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Morrill County.
The Mormon Trail is the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) long route from Illinois to Utah on which Mormon pioneers traveled from 1846–47. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
Fort Laramie was a significant 19th-century trading post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte Rivers. They joined in the upper Platte River Valley in the eastern part of the present-day US state of Wyoming. The fort was founded as a private trading-post in the 1830s to service the overland fur trade; in 1849, it was purchased by the United States Army. The site was located east of the long climb leading to the best and lowest crossing-point over the Rocky Mountains at South Pass and became a popular stopping-point for migrants on the Oregon Trail. Along with Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, the trading post and its supporting industries and businesses were the most significant economic hub of commerce in the region.
Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the Western United States during the middle and late 19th century. The fort was named after Colonel and later General Stephen Watts Kearny. The outpost was located along the Oregon Trail near Kearney, Nebraska. The town of Kearney took its name from the fort. The "e" was added to Kearny by postmen who consistently misspelled the town name. A portion of the original site is preserved as Fort Kearny State Historical Park by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Courthouse and Jail Rocks are two rock formations located near Bridgeport in the Nebraska Panhandle.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) is the state government agency charged with building and maintaining the state highways in the U.S. state of Nebraska, as well as the state's airports. The main headquarters of the agency is located in Lincoln, the capital city. There are currently eight NDOT district offices located across the state.
Nebraska Highway 92 is a highway that enters the state from Nebraska's western border at the Wyoming state line west of Lyman, Nebraska, to the state's eastern border on the South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Missouri River in Omaha, where it enters Iowa. Nebraska Highway 92 passes, follows, or runs through a number of the state's principal attractions, including Scotts Bluff National Monument, the Oregon Trail, Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Ash Hollow State Historical Park, Lake McConaughy, the Nebraska Sand Hills, and the City of Omaha. Nebraska Highway 92 is the longest state route in the state at a total of 489.1 miles (787.1 km), and is part of a continuous 886-mile (1,426 km) four-state "Highway 92" which begins in Torrington, Wyoming, goes through Nebraska and Iowa and ends in La Moille, Illinois. It is the only Nebraska Highway to run from the west border to the east border of Nebraska; along the way it crosses the Platte River or its tributary North Platte River a total of five times.
Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era United States Army supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by the Metropolitan Community College. A Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve unit, along with an Army Reserve unit occupy the periphery of the 82.5 acres (33.4 ha) fort. The government deeded all but four parcels of the land to the Metropolitan Community College in 1974.
The King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company was a late-19th-century bridge building company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by Zenas King (1818–1892) in 1858 and subsequently managed by his sons, James A. King and Harry W. King and then his grandson, Norman C. King, until the mid-1920s. Many of the bridges built by the company were used during America's expansion west in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and some of these bridges are still standing today.
The Emigrant Trail in Wyoming, which is the path followed by Western pioneers using the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, spans 400 miles (640 km) through the U.S. state of Wyoming. The trail entered from Nebraska on the eastern border of the state near the present day town of Torrington and exited on the western border near the towns of Cokeville and Afton. An estimated 350,000 to 400,000 settlers traveled on the trail through Wyoming between 1841 and 1868. All three trails follow the same path through most of the state. The Mormon Trail splits at Fort Bridger and enters Utah, while the Oregon and California Trails continue to Idaho.
The Great Platte River Road was a major overland travel corridor approximately following the course of the Platte River in present-day Nebraska and Wyoming that was shared by several popular emigrant trails during the 19th century, including the Trapper's Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express route, and the military road connecting Fort Leavenworth and Fort Laramie. The road, which extended nearly 370 miles (600 km) from the Second Fort Kearny to Fort Laramie, was utilized primarily from 1841 to 1866. In modern times it is often regarded as a sort of superhighway of its era, and has been referred to as "the grand corridor of America's westward expansion".
Fort Sidney is a historic fort located in Sidney, Nebraska, United States. The 37th Infantry Regiment established "Sidney Station" at a point midway between the Platte Rivers, where the modern community of Sidney, Nebraska, now stands. Initially the installation was a block house on a bluff with soldiers residing in tents nearby. That Spring, Fort Sedgewick, Colorado, was abandoned and the wooden buildings moved by mule train to a location beneath the bluffs and on the Lodgepole creek. This new garrison was named Sidney Barracks and would remain so until 1879, when it was designated Fort Sidney.
The Sidney Black Hills Stage Road or Route was a trail connecting Sidney, Nebraska, Sidney Barracks, and the Union Pacific Railroad with Fort Robinson, Red Cloud Agency, Spotted Tail Agency, Custer City, Dakota Territory, and Deadwood, Dakota Territory between 1876 and 1887, when it was replaced.
The historic 2,170-mile (3,490 km) Oregon Trail connected various towns along the Missouri River to Oregon's Willamette Valley. It was used during the 19th century by Great Plains pioneers who were seeking fertile land in the West and North.
The Mud Springs Station Archaeological District, which includes the Mud Springs Pony Express Station Site, near Dalton, Nebraska, has significance dating to the mid-19th century. The Pony Express station at Mud Springs, staffed by U.S. soldiers, was attacked by Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribesmen during February 4–6, 1865, in what became known as the Battle of Mud Springs.
The DMJ Pick Bridge is a Parker through truss bridge located near Saratoga, Wyoming, which carries Carbon County Road CN6-508 across the North Platte River. The bridge was built from 1909 to 1910 by contractor Charles G. Sheely; it was originally located south of Fort Steele. In 1934, the bridge was moved up the river to its current location, as a new bridge had been built at its original site five years earlier. The bridge is the only Parker truss bridge remaining in Wyoming, after the Arvada Bridge was replaced in 1990.
The DML Butler Bridge is a historic bridge over the North Platte River in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
The DUX Bessemer Bend Bridge was a Warren through truss bridge in Bessemer Bend, Wyoming, which carried Natrona County Road CN1-58 across the North Platte River. The bridge was built from 1921 to 1922. When nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, it was one of only three Warren through truss bridges remaining on Wyoming county highways. In addition, the bridge was located at the site of a historic river crossing on the Oregon Trail.
Deadwood Draw is part of the Sidney-Black Hills Trail near Sidney, Nebraska, which provided supplies for gold mining operations in the Black Hills from 1874 to 1881. The draw served as a staging area for freight wagons carrying supplies to the Black Hills and contains ruts caused by the wheels of the freight wagons and the animals that pulled them. The draw is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
U.S. Route 385 (US 385) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that travels from Big Bend National Park in Texas to US 85 in Deadwood, South Dakota. Within the state of Nebraska, the highway is known as the Gold Rush Byway, one of nine scenic byways across the state. The highway follows along the old Sidney-Black Hills trail which played a crucial role during the Black Hills Gold Rush in the late 1870s. It served as the primary route to transport gold and mining gear between Sidney, Nebraska and the Black Hills to the north. Today, the highway enters Nebraska in the southeastern portion of the Nebraska Panhandle on the state line with Colorado northeast of Julesburg and continues in a northerly direction to the South Dakota state line north of Chadron.