MORRILL COUNTY NEGENWEB PROJECT

N THE bleak, cold Christmas day of 1812, seven weary travelers led by Robert Stuart entered Morrill County -- the first white men on record to view this Nebraska panhandle region. At a camp midway between the present sites of Bayard and Bridgeport, the men made two important decisions: they were traveling along the great Nebraska (Platte) river; they would retrace their route three days travel and spend the winter in a grove of cottonwood trees near where Torrington, Wyoming is now located. Stuart, a fur company agent, kept a detailed log of his wanderings, and today his path is easily retraced

On Dec. 26, the men packed their meager camp equipage on the back of "Resonate," their only horse, and returned to the cottonwood grove. There they constructed a crude hut out of branches. This was their home until the following March, when they again began traveling westward, stopping at their former camp site and again near Broadwater before leaving Morrill County's present borders.

Stuart realized the route to the far west which he had traveled was suitable for a pack train and wagon road to transport trade goods to frontier trading posts and to return furs to eastern markets. It was a much shorter distance than the old Missouri river route. But he did not foresee that thousands of wooden wagon wheels would carve the great Oregon Trail along his path.

In the decade beginning with 1820, pack trains followed Stuart's route, carrying supplies and baubles to be exchanged with the Indians for furs. In 1830 the first wheeled vehicle, a small cannon being taken northeast by a man named Wyeth and a band of traders, moved along this trail. Six years later the first immigrant homemaker came through Morrill County on the way to the Oregon country. In this wagon train were the first two white women to see Morrill County, Mrs. Marcus Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding. Both were wives of missionaries. Mrs. Whitman, in her diary,, says every evening after eating, the party gathered in a circle to sing gospel songs, offering thanks to God for their safe journey thus far.

Letters written by these two women and tales of traders and trappers were printed in eastern newspapers, and soon hundreds of pioneer adventurers set out to make their fortunes in the northwest.

From 1836 through 1860, thousands of pioneers passed over the route discovered by Stuart. Hardships and Indian depredations killed many; they were buried in unmarked graves near the trail. Occasionally one of them is discovered accidentally, such as that of one Amanda Lammon, of Dovenshire, England, who was buried on the old trail about six miles east of Bridgeport in 1852.

In 1847 a band of pioneers passed along the trail. They were the Mormons, who left their Illinois homes because of objections to their religious beliefs. Brigham Young led the advance party of this immigration, and on June 24, 1847, this group camped near Broadwater, within Morrill County's present limits. Later they camped near the present site of Bridgeport. A diary kept by one of the party mentions a large encampment of Indians on the south side of the river, just opposite the Mormons.

In 1849 the California gold seekers passed through Morrill County along this same trail. The first groups of these adventurers went over the old Oregon Trail, but later travelers made a trail up the South Platte to near where Julesburg, Colo., now stands. From there they proceeded north up the Lodgepole valley past Sidney over the table land to Mud Springs in the southern part of the present Morrill County. Passing the eastern base of Courthouse Rock, they joined the older trail about five miles east of Chimney Rock.

In 1854 an irregular mail service was established across the continent. Pack trains and wagons, carrying mail camped within Morrill County's borders.

Stimulated by the desire to hear news of the Civil War a new era of rapid communication dawned in 1860. On April. 3, 1860, Pony Express service began, and four days later the first rider entered Mud Springs from the south. At the Mud Springs station rider Hogan handed the mail pouches to Henry Avis, who dashed to Pumpkin Creek station, Chimney Rock station, and Ficklin's Springs station east of Scottsbluff. Meanwhile, Hogan was resting at Mud Springs for his return trip to Fort Sedgwick. But this spectacular communication system lasted only sixteen months, for less than a year after its founding construction of the transcontinental telegraph began.

The first telegraph wire followed the Pony Express route, and early in September, 1861, the movable station came into the old Mud Springs pony express post. This telegraph station was

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