Platte River Trail

Long's expedition came up the South Platte past the site of Denver in July 1820, and its report pinned a reputation on these plains that lasted a generation. Edwin James, the party's botanist and chronicler, judged the country unfit for farming, and Long's map lettered it Great Desert. Four decades later the same river road carried everyone the bronze lists, from goldseekers to stagecoaches. The state's own civil service employees paid for the plaque alongside the Hall Foundation in 1932.

What the plaque says

This memorial is the property of the State of Colorado Commemorating the route of the Platte River Trail principal route of Colorado pioneers trail of Major S. H. Long in 1820 trappers' trail of 1830s and 1840s the 1858-9 route of goldseekers with pick and pan, homeseekers in covered wagons, bullwhackers with ox teams, stagecoaches with treasure and mail. The path that became an empire. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by State Civil Service Employees of Colorado 1932

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado State Capitol — 3.8 mi
  A capitol of Colorado granite, marble, onyx and gold, with three different steps claiming to stand exactly a mile high.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — 4.5 mi
  Mustard gas, nerve agent and pesticides for forty years, then bald eagles, bison and black-footed ferrets on the same ground.
• Dinosaur Ridge — 14 mi
  A hogback near Morrison with the bones of 1877 on one flank and the footprints a road crew blasted open in 1937 on the other.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre — 16 mi
  Walker's Garden of the Titans, finished by the CCC between Ship Rock and Creation Rock and dedicated on June 15, 1941.

More markers nearby

• Silas S. Soule — 3.6 mi
• Elephant Corral — 3.7 mi
• The Rocky Mountain News — 3.7 mi
• Smoky Hill Trail — 3.8 mi