Fort Kearny

Daniel Phineas Woodbury, the lieutenant who founded the post, was born in New London, New Hampshire, on December 16, 1812, and graduated from West Point in 1836. After building Forts Kearny and Laramie between 1847 and 1850 he was recalled east and supervised construction of Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas light in Florida. In the Civil War he commanded the Engineer Brigade and was brevetted brigadier general for laying pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg. Given command at Key West late in 1863, he died there of yellow fever on August 15, 1864.

What the plaque says

Fort Kearny The growth of overland emigration to Oregon after 1842 resulted in the establishment of military posts across the West to protect travelers. The first post, Fort Kearny, was established in the spring of 1848 "near the head of the Grand Island" along the Platte River by Lieutenant Daniel P. Woodbury. It was first called Fort Childs, but in 1848 the post was renamed Fort Kearny in honor of General Stephen Watts Kearny. Despite its lack of fortifications, Fort Kearny served as way station, sentinel post, supply depot, and message center for 49'ers bound for California and homeseekers traveling to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. By the 1860's the fort had become a significant stage and freighting station and home station of the Pony Express. During the Indian Wars of 1864-1865 a small stockade was apparently built upon the earth embankment still visible. Although never under attack, the post did serve as an out- fitting depot for several Indian campaigns. One of the fort's final duties was the protection of workers building the Union Pacific. In 1871, two years after the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the fort was discontinued as a military post. This site has been entered on the National Register of Historic Places. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Kearny State Historical Park — steps away
  The 1848 army post on the Platte, built on a strip of Pawnee land bought for $2,000 in goods, where emigrant wagons passed by the thousand and only the cottonwoods outlasted the fort.
• Rowe Sanctuary — 6.5 mi
  Audubon's sanctuary on the Platte near Gibbon, where the river's sandbars are kept bare so that sandhill cranes, more than a million in the valley each spring, can roost safely at night.

More markers nearby

• Dobytown — 2.1 mi
• The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad — 2.8 mi
• The Great Platte River Road — 4.2 mi
• Historic Kearney — 5.3 mi