Forts along the Oregon Trail - Part Two

The actual Oregon Trail was not a single trail, but more of a series of trails the would wind their way along the different rivers between Independence and Oregon City in Oregon. The trip usually took four to five months depending on breakdowns and weather.

Parts of the Oregon Trail were also used by the Mormons as they moved from Nauvoo to Utah although they tended to stay on the opposite side of the Platte River from the wagon trains of settlers bound for the riches of Oregon and the Willamette Valley.

The first major destination for the traveling wagons and the settlers who accompanied them was Fort Kearney. It was eventually two different forts, with the second Fort Kearney being the place that the wagon trains headed.

In 1844, pressure for more protection for additional whites was growing. The U.S. Secretary of War recommended that a chain of posts be built from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains to protect the Oregon migration. Col. Stephen Watts Kearny was ordered to construct a new fort and he chose a site on Table Creek, now Nebraska City. It would be named Fort Kearny.

The location of the fort in 1846 at Table Creek was a bad decision. The Table Creek site was not on the main route of overland traffic and few emigrants passed nearby. So the War Department ordered that a different fort should be built where the road to California met the Platte River.

In 1847, Lt. Daniel P. Woodbury, an officer in the Corps of Engineers, left Fort Kearny at Table Creek with about 70 men. When he got to the Platte, Woodbury described the site he chose in an official report:

“I have located the post opposite a group of wooded islands in the Platte River ... three hundred seventeen miles from Independence, Missouri, one hundred ninety-seven miles from Fort Kearny on the Missouri and three miles from the head of the group of islands called Grand Island.”

Woodbury cited three advantages for the location of the fort:

1. A slight elevation that guaranteed against flooding.

2. Nearby was the heaviest timber of the Grand Island group.

3. Natural hay bottoms and a good location for keeping the peace between the warring Pawnee and Sioux.

So, the second Fort Kearny was built in 1848 in present day Kearney County, where the various trails westward met. The fort was laid out in a square with buildings surrounding a parade ground of four acres. A flagstaff was placed in the center and cottonwood trees were planted around the parade ground.

Woodbury had given the name Fort Childs to the new post and headed his reports accordingly. The new post was named in honor of Col. Thomas Childs of Mexican War fame and he was also Woodbury’s father-in-law. But a general order from the War Department in December of 1848, stipulated that, “the new post established at Grand Island, Platte River, will be known as Fort Kearny.” Thus, the name of the illustrious soldier, Stephen W. Kearny, was transferred to the Platte River post.

The fort was built on a widely used main branch of the Oregon Trail, and its most important function was helping travelers. It was the only fort between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, and thousands of wagons camped there every summer. Some days over 500 ox teams passed the fort.

Fort Kearny was in the heart of the Indian country and could have been exposed to great danger from any fighting among the Indians. Still, the number of soldiers at Fort Kearny was usually not large, often around 500. Like Fort Atkinson, there was never a direct attack on the post, and there were never any major Indian fights in the area nearby.

Fort Kearney became the first place that offered the travelers the opportunity to re-stock supplies that had been used over the course of the first 300 plus miles that they had traveled.

Many never began a journey with the proper supplies to begin with and it was a constant struggle for them to keep themselves fed, especially as with the nearly 400,000 people who were searching for the riches of the West, local game and wild vegetation disappeared rapidly.

It was very common for the settlers to use wagons, often called prairie schooners for their travels and they were stacked high with belongings, which left little room for the day-to-day necessities like food, water, and equipment for repairs. The general belief was they could stock up along the way, they just forgot the part of the 300 miles plus that had to be negotiated first. The stretch of land from Independence, Missouri, to Fort Kearney often took between 17 and 20 days and most settlers only brought the bare necessities with them when it came to food.

Most meals along this part of the Oregon Trail consisted of bacon, beans, coffee and the occasional fried bread made from flour and water and fried in the bacon fat left from the bacon and beans. If the traveler were lucky, they could even had a dessert of dried fruit.

Soon after the building of Fort Kearney, the trading posts became available, which helped the travelers immensely, but not without the high prices (for the times) that accompanied them.

There were even a few entrepreneurs that would load up a wagon of supplies and follow the wagon, selling to the settlers as they ran out of supplies in the trek from Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, the second leg of the long journey to the West. It was with the traveling traders that many a fight broke out along the way.

The dangers of the Oregon Trail built up along the way. Early on, there were the usual assortment of injuries like broken bones, cuts and bruises, fatigue that was caused by walking alongside of the wagons that were loaded way past capacity, forcing the travelers to walk.

There were also the injuries associated with the animals that were pulling the wagons, most often oxen because of the strength and durability and their ability to forage for themselves. Most wagons were pulled by a pair of oxen, but the more prepared of the settlers had teams of four, which shared the load among more animals and they would arrive in much better shape when they got to their destination.

Oxen in those days were roughly $50 to purchase, with wagons usually about the same price and the harness used to pull the wagons another $35 or $40. The most common thing to have to repair on the trip were broken wheels, which sometimes needed to be fashioned along side the trail while others passed them by.

There were also fights between the travelers, but not as many fights between Native American tribes and the settlers as you might imagine. Most often, when those fights or battles ensued, it was because one of the travelers shot a member of a tribe and by the time the tribe got prepared to retaliate, it was a following wagon train that paid the price, not the wagon train that was actually to blame.

Next up in this series on the Forts along the Oregon Trail, Fort Laramie and the first sight of the Rocky Mountains for the traveling settlers.