Nebraska City-Fort Kearny Cut-Off

The road nearly went unbuilt for want of a payer. Ward B. Burnett, surveyor general at the U.S. land office in Nebraska City, scouted a shorter route in 1858, but Russell, Majors and Waddell expected the town to fund the bridges and fords, and the town expected the federal government to. A February 1860 meeting where Alexander Majors and Governor Samuel Black spoke raised no money. So the firm paid, hiring city engineer August F. Harvey to survey the line. It cut about seventy-five miles from Daniel Woodbury's route, and Majors enlisted settlers to build the crossings.

What the plaque says

Nebraska City-Fort Kearny Cut-Off Massive freighting of supplies by ox and mule trains was a direct result of the establishment of Fort Kearny and other western military posts. The Mormon War and the discovery of gold in the territories of Colorado and Montana increased this trade, and Nebraska City became a major freighting center between 1858 and 1865. Early freighters used the Ox-Bow Trail which looped northward to the Platte Valley and west to Fort Kearny. The competition with other Missouri River towns forced the freighters to seek a shorter, quicker route. The new route, the Nebraska City- Fort Kearny Cut-off, passed near this point. It was originally marked by a plowed furrow of over 180 miles. In 1862 Joseph Brown brought to Nebraska his famed steam wagon, an invention that would hopefully revolutionize plains freighting. Bridges were constructed and other improvements were made to facilitate this machine. The experiment was a failure and the wagon never got beyond the outskirts of Nebraska City; even so, the cut-off is also known as the "Steam Wagon Road." Overland freighting reached its peak in 1865 when over 44 million pounds of supplies were shipped from Nebraska City. The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad across Nebraska, however, signaled the end of major freighting on this trail. York County Historical Society Department of Roads Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Nebraska City-Fort Kearny Cut-Off — 4.5 mi
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• Bradshaw — 7.0 mi
• Porcupine Ranch — 8.8 mi