Platte River History

The likely Elkhorn crossing lies about six miles east, where in 1847 the river ran about 160 feet wide and four feet deep, too fast to drive wagons through. The vanguard reached the east bank around noon on April 10 and found a raft of cottonwood logs left by scouts. Oxen towed it back and forth for two days; by late on April 11 the company's 72 wagons were rolling down the west bank. Latter-day Saints later ran a toll ferry there. The trains gathered at the Liberty Pole camp near Fremont, and the trek west began April 19.

What the plaque says

Platte River History Just to the southwest is the Platte River, whose valley was one of the great roadways to the west, used by fur traders, emigrants, military expeditions, gold seekers, and Mormons. Mormon migration to the Salt Lake Valley began at Winter Quarters, present-day Florence, in the spring of 1847. The Mormons crossed Big and Little Papillion creeks and the Elkhorn River, then continued along the north side of the Platte River to Fort Laramie in Wyoming. This route from the Missouri River, often referred to as the "Mormon Trail," and later known as the "Council Bluffs Road," follows present-day State Highway 36. It is estimated some 165,000 travelers used the route before the transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869. The Platte River appears on maps of North America dating to the eighteenth century. It is designated by different names including "Panis" based on the name Pawnee, "LaPlatte" ("The Flat") as referred to by French fur traders, and "Nebraska River," an Indian term meaning "flat water." Historic Highway 36 Association Nebraska State Historical Society Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 21 mi
  The first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri, a garrison town of more than a thousand people on Council Bluff from 1820 to 1827, rebuilt on its own foundations.
• Winter Quarters and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery — 23 mi
  The Latter-day Saint camp of 1846 to 1848 on Omaha land in what is now Florence, where hundreds died the first winter, and the cemetery and trail center beside it.
• Malcolm X Birthsite — 24 mi
  The North Omaha lot where Malcolm Little was born in May 1925 and his family was driven out by the Klan, saved by Rowena Moore and now planned as a cultural center.

More markers nearby

• Pawnee Villages — 5.0 mi
• Fremont, Nebraska — 5.9 mi
• Marshall Nurseries — 7.2 mi
• Dodge County Poor Farm — 9.2 mi