GCTJYC Nebraska City - Fort Kearney Cutoff (Traditional Cache) in Nebraska, United States created by Contryguy

GCTJYC ▼

A cache by Contryguy Message this owner

Hidden : 2/23/2006

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

This is a small cache container (bring your own writing insturment) located at a Historical Site along Highway 14 about 1 mile South of Interstate 80.

You are near the old freighting trail of the Nebraska City-Fort Kearney Cutoff. Prior to railroad construction, thousands of wagons transported supplies to Fort Kearney and other military posts throughout the West. The Mormon War and the discovery of gold in the Colorado and Montana Territories brought Nebraska City to prominence as a freighting center between 1858-1865. Early freighters used the Ox-Bow Trail which looped north to the Platte Valley. It provided abundant grass and water but it was overly long and often plagued by muddy lowlands. Because of competition from other Missouri River towns, Nebraska City freighters sought a more direct route. The Nebraska City-Fort Kearney Cutoff, proposed in 1858 and first traveled in 1860. 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.

Nothing has to be taken apart or any stones or bricks moved in any way to find or retrieve this cache container.
Do not log a find if you don't sign the log as I do check the log sheet!!!!