South Platte Trail

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Historical trails of Colorado
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Pony Express across the Plains

South Platte Trail was a historic trail that followed the southern side of South Platte River from Fort Kearny in Nebraska to Denver, Colorado. [1] [2] [3] [4] Plains Indians, such as the Cheyenne and the Arapaho, hunted in the lands around the South Platte River. They also traded at trading posts along the route, as did white travelers. [3] Travelers included trappers, traders, explorers, the military, and those following the gold rush. The trail was also used by the Pony Express. [3]

Stage stations provided fresh horses and food. Simple buildings of sod, logs, or adobe, the stations were located about every 10 to 15 miles apart along the trail. In some cases, they also offered lodging and supplies for travelers. [5]

History

The Holladay Overland Mail & Express Co. stagecoach office was on the southwest corner of fifteenth and Market Streets in Denver. Circa 1860s. Holladay Overland Stagecoach at Denver office.jpg
The Holladay Overland Mail & Express Co. stagecoach office was on the southwest corner of fifteenth and Market Streets in Denver. Circa 1860s.

Julesburg, established in 1850, was a supply hub for Denver via the South Platte Trail. It became an important station on the Overland Stage Route for the delivery of passengers and mail between Atchison, Kansas and Salt Lake City. [6] The Overland Trail followed much of the South Platte Trail to and from Denver, before heading north to Wyoming. [5] Julesburg was also near the connection to the Oregon-California Trail [6] at the North Platte River. [7]

It is estimated that the Pike's Peak Gold Rush drew about 100,000 people to Colorado. There were three routes, the safest of which was the South Platte Trail, the others were Smoky Hill Trail and the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie and then south to Denver. [8] In 1859, a branch of the trail away from the South Platte River was established in the wilderness near the present day city of Fort Morgan during the gold rush to reduce the length of the trip to Denver. Fort Morgan [9] and Fort Sedgwick were established in the mid-1860s as a defensive measure against the threat of attack by Native Americans. [5] Fort Sedgwick was built on the south side of the South Platte River and one mile west of Julesburg. [6]

A number of Cheyenne north of Denver on the South Platte Trail were killed by soldiers of the First Colorado Cavalry in the spring of 1864. [3] Julesburg was attacked on January 7, 1865 by about 1,000 Cheyenne and Sioux men in retribution for the Sand Creek massacre (November 29, 1864). [10] At Fort Sedgwick, several Native Americans and some soldiers were killed, and there was so much food looted from Julesburg that it took three days to remove it to their village at Cherry Creek [11] [10] or Sand Creek. [10] After that, three groups of Native Americans, the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux, engaged in an attack on stage stations and ranches along the South Platte Trail over a period of six days. They killed more people than were killed at the Sand Creek Massacre, burned building, tore down telegraph lines, and looted horses, 2000 cattle, and wagon trains, one of which had 22 wagons. [10] There were further attacks in 1865 between Julesburg and Fort Morgan, including burning down the town of Julesburg in February. The town was rebuilt. [12]

A group of 120 men of the newly formed Colorado militia was tasked with guarding the trail beginning about 1865. [13] In 1866, George Armstrong Custer drove the 7th Cavalry Regiment to South Platte. There were other conflicts near the South Platte Trail in the later 1860s. [3]

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The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. Its drainage basin includes much of the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, much of the populated region known as the Colorado Front Range and Eastern Plains, and a portion of southeastern Wyoming in the vicinity of the city of Cheyenne. It joins the North Platte River in western Nebraska to form the Platte, which then flows across Nebraska to the Missouri. The river serves as the principal source of water for eastern Colorado. In its valley along the foothills in Colorado, it has permitted agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid.

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The Overland Trail was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as a route alternative to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming. The Overland Trail was famously used by the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 1860s. Starting from Atchison, Kansas, the trail descended into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger. The stage line operated until 1869 when the completion of the First transcontinental railroad eliminated the need for mail service via stagecoach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Julesburg</span>

The Battle of Julesburg took place on January 7, 1865, near Julesburg, Colorado between 1,000 Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Indians and about 60 soldiers of the U.S. army and 40 to 50 civilians. The Indians defeated the soldiers and over the next few weeks plundered ranches and stagecoach stations up and down the South Platte River valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Mud Springs</span>

The Battle of Mud Springs took place February 4–6, 1865, in Nebraska between the U.S. army and warriors of the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. It was part of a series of retaliations by the Native American alliance after the U.S. army committed the Sand Creek Massacre. The battle was inconclusive, although the Indians succeeded in capturing some Army horses and a herd of several hundred cattle. Mud Springs is located 8 mi northwest of Dalton, Nebraska, and is today a National Historic Site.

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The Battle of Platte Bridge, also called the Battle of Platte Bridge Station, on July 26, 1865, was the culmination of a summer offensive by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians against the United States army. In May and June the Indians raided army outposts and stagecoach stations over a wide swath of Wyoming and Montana. In July, they assembled a large army, estimated by Cheyenne warrior George Bent to number 3,000 warriors, and descended upon Platte Bridge. The bridge, across the North Platte River near present-day Casper, Wyoming, was guarded by 120 soldiers. In an engagement near the bridge, and another against a wagon train guarded by 28 soldiers a few miles away, the Indians killed 29 soldiers while also suffering at least eight dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Sedgwick</span> U.S. military post in Colorado, United States

Fort Sedgwick, also known as Post at Julesburg, Camp Rankin, and Fort Rankin was a U.S. military post from 1864 to 1871, in Sedgwick County, Colorado. There are two historical markers for the former post. The town was named for Fort Sedgwick, which was named after John Sedgwick, who was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Wicked</span> Civilian fort in Colorado, United States

Fort Wicked was a ranch and stage station on the Overland Trail from 1864 to 1868 in present-day Merino, Colorado. A historical marker commemorating the ranch is located at US 6 and CR-2.5. The ranch itself was located near a ford of the South Platte River, near where US-6 now crosses over the river. Fort Wicked was one of the few places along the trail to Denver that withstood an attack by Lakota (Souix), Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native Americans (Indians) in the Colorado War of 1864. It was named Fort Wicked for the "bitter defence" made by Holon Godfrey, his family, and his employees.

Margaret Poisal was "the only woman who was an official witness, interpreter, and consultant at many meetings and treaty councils held along or in close proximity to the Santa Fe Trail." The daughter of French Canadian trapper John Poisal and Arapaho Snake Woman, Poisal was educated at a convent school. She married Thomas Fitzpatrick, an Indian agent, and they worked together negotiating peace between Native American tribes and the United States government. After Fitzpatrick died, Poisal continued to work as an interpreter and peacemaker.

References

  1. ↑ Susan Badger Doyle (2000). Journeys to the Land of Gold: Emigrant Diaries from the Bozeman Trail, 1863-1866. Montana Historical Society. p. 41. ISBN   978-0-917298-48-6.
  2. ↑ Douglas D. Scott; Peter Bleed; Amanda Renner (October 31, 2016). Battlespace 1865: Archaeology of the Landscapes, Strategies, and Tactics of the North Platte Campaign, Nebraska. Oxbow Books. p. 11. ISBN   978-1-78570-342-3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Stan Hoig (2006). A Travel Guide to the Plains Indian Wars. UNM Press. pp. 32, 152. ISBN   978-0-8263-3934-8.
  4. ↑ James C. Olson (1997). History of Nebraska. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN   0-8032-8605-8.
  5. 1 2 3 American Cowboy. Active Interest Media, Inc. May–June 2006. pp. 90–91.
  6. 1 2 3 Jerry Keenan (April 12, 2016). The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846-1890. McFarland. p. 166. ISBN   978-0-7864-9940-3.
  7. ↑ Susan Badger Doyle (2000). Journeys to the Land of Gold: Emigrant Diaries from the Bozeman Trail, 1863-1866. Montana Historical Society. p. 751. ISBN   978-0-917298-48-6.
  8. ↑ Phyllis J. Perry (May 7, 2010). A Kid's Look at Colorado (Large Print 16pt). ReadHowYouWant.com. p. 117. ISBN   978-1-4587-5653-4.
  9. ↑ Jennifer Patten (June 11, 2011). In View of the Mountains: A History of Fort Morgan, Colorado. Jennifer Patten. p. PT14. ISBN   978-1-4581-2397-8.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Angie Debo (April 17, 2013). A History of the Indians of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 196. ISBN   978-0-8061-7955-1.
  11. ↑ Jerry Keenan (April 12, 2016). The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846-1890. McFarland. pp. 166–167. ISBN   978-0-7864-9940-3.
  12. ↑ Jean Gray (June 11, 2013). Homesteading Haxtun and the High Plains: Northeastern Colorado History. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p. PT12. ISBN   978-1-61423-967-3.
  13. ↑ Jerry Keenan (April 12, 2016). The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846-1890. McFarland. p. 171. ISBN   978-0-7864-9940-3.


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