6 "Che Conservative.
Tun CONSEUVA-
KOADS AND
TOWNS. TIVE has been
asked by a gentle-
innii who is writing a history of the fur-
trade , to designate the routes of the old
trails across Nebraska by means of the
names of existing towns ; and has been
obliged to answer him that the thing is
not feasible , for the reason that the two
do not coincide. Where the old roads
ran is not where the towns are found at
present. The roads did not avoid the
towns , for there were none to avoid ; nor
would it be entirely correct to Fay that
the towns avoided the roads. Never
theless , so far as Tnn CONSERVATIVE'S
information goes , there are , throughout
the entire length of those famous high
ways between the Missouri River and
the Rocky Mountains , only two ppots
marked by the sites of modern towns ;
those two being Mnrysville , Kansas ,
where the Kansas Oity trail crossed the
Big Blue , and Ashland , Nebraska , where
the old "military , " "emigrant" or
"California" trail from Nebraska City
cropsed Salt Creek ; both crossings being
effected by means of fords. That the
remainder of these routes , lying for a
good part of the distance through thick
ly-settled communities , should bo wholly
barren of towns or villages , is so curious
a phenomenon as to justify a few words
of comment.
In accounting for it , the reason that
will cover the greatest part of the ground
is this , that most of the modern towns
are the offspring of the railroads , and
the routes of the railroads and of
the freighting-trails were selected on
opposing principles. The trails always
followed the high land , keeping along
the ridges of the divides between parallel
river-valleys and going around the heads
of the minor tributary streams. It was
immaterial whether the road was leveler
or not : there was no objection to a roll
ing country provided its surface in detail
was even ; the object was to avoid the
crossing of water-courses , which , even
if dry , offered serious impediments to
ox-teams in the steepness of their banks.
"When the railroads came to lay out
their routes , however , they were directed
by precisely contrary
The Railroads.
trary considera
tions. A level grade was the great de
sideratum with them , and they therefore
followed the river-bottoms wherever it
was practicable to do so. Whereas the
freighters found it easier to go around a
gully than to cross it , the railroad filled
it up and thought nothing of it. And
SP' ' whereas , in the few cases where local
capital took in hand the improvement of
some part of a trail , it was thought
cheaper to avoid a stream than to bridge
tl it , the railroad , building for the future ,
would bridge it ns a matter of course.
So that it may be laid down as a general
rule that the freighting-roads are found
upon the ridges and the railroads in the
m
valleys.
This statement will apply equally to
the two classes of freighting-trails ,
Diinula Trulls. which . , . . . may . bo .
called the natural
and the artificial. The origin of some
of these highways must always bo a
matter of conjecture. If they were not
always there , they are at any rate so old
that no one can do more than guess who
made them. Senator Bentou , in an
often-quoted statement , attributed them
to the double annual migration of the
buffalo ; who in that case , having a good
section of geologic time on their hands ,
would have been inexcusable if they had
not in the long run hit upon the easiest
routes and the most reliable fords.
Granting that the buffalo made a trail
of this sort from east to west , nothing
could be more natural than that the
Indians should accept their guidance ,
the French trapper that of the Indian
and the American immigrant that of the
trapper. In this way it is possible to explain -
plain the existence of the ready-niadb
liighway which Pathfinder Fremont trod
across Nebraska in 1842.
Other roads again were laid out in
later days by the surveyor in the inter-
. , , , est8 ; of certain set-
„ .
Tim Other Kind. .
tlements. Of this
kind was the original steam-wagon road ,
which was devised to facilitate travel
from Nebraska Oity to Fort Kearney ,
and the route of which lay across un
trodden new country. But even in such
a case the surveyor took a leaf out of
the buffalo's note-book ; or rather , their
interests being identical , they were led
to the same results ; at all events , both
the primitive and the artificial trails
kept to the ridges.
This applies of course only to the
country between the Missouri River
towns , where the story begins , and the
Platte. Once within the marches of
that slipshod but efficient stream , and
buffalo , Indian , bull whacker and rail
road surveyor had alike their choice
between the same two things ; either to
cross its dubious channel or to continue
along beside it. So that here freighting-
trail and railroad must practically coin
cide , except in so far as they elected to
follow opposite sides of the river.
Having then these two diametrically
opposed systems , it is easy to understand
the history of the
The Towns. . , . ,
towns that sprang
up along the route of each. The stage-
stations died with the destruction of the
freighting business , and the railroad
towns are the ones that appear upon the
map today. They have lived , because
the railroads brought the farmer , and
the farmer must have his postoffice ,
his store and his shipping-station.
The others died , because their location
was adapted only to the peculiar service
for which they wore established. When
the stage-coach and the ox-train ceased
to pass , there was no longer any reason
for their existence. They were not
calculated for permanency in the first
place ; merely a place where the stage-
driver could change his horses and the
passenger secure the square meal for a
dollar , of which he always wrote so
pathetically afterward. If there was
any thing like a store , it was designed ,
not for a stationary surrounding popu
lation , but for the passing stream of
humanity rushing to the mines or the
Indian country. When this traffic
ceased , on the opening of the Pacific
Railway , the back country lay vacant
for a time ; and when , with the exten
sion of the railroad systems , towns of
the new and permanent kind were
located , there was no object in reviving
the old sites , inconvenient for the new
order of things , and no doubt already
tialf forgotten.
Marysville and Ashland survived , be
cause they were so located that the rail
road would in any
Inceptions. , , . ,
case have claimed
them for its own , and because they
possessed each an advantage in its waterpower -
power , which , being utilized at an early
day , gave those settlements a more per
manent character from the start. As
early as 1855 Dennis Dean setup a grist
mill at the Ashland crossing ; it stood
beside the ford , and the traveler from
the car window and Mr. Dean from his
front gate can see them both to this day.
He had to bring his wheat from Iowa ,
but the convenience to the emigrants
was too great to be allowed to lapse , and
it is to this that Ashland owes its con
tinuous and continued existence.
As to the Platte valley , there may be
towns on the Union Pacific east of
Kearney which had local habitations
and names before the railroad was built ;
but that route was not one of the great
freighting trails. Omaha lay too far up
the river , and the difficulties encountered
on the north side of the Platte were too
great. Much if not most of the travel
on that route crossed to the south side
as soon as Shinn's Ferry was reached ;
this place was a few miles west of Fre
mont and has vanished like the rest.
And since the Union Pacific adhered
throughout to the north side of the
Platte , whereas all the freighting came
sooner or later to the south side , our
main statement holds good , that the
towns of today are the children of the
railroads , while the older places have
disappeared.
Unquestionably other causes have
contributed to the separation of the
towns from the
Other Reasons. . , _ ,
trails. The first
agricultural settlers in the interior of
the state clung to the bottom-lands along
the larger and smaller streams ; it was
long before any of them ventured upon
the uplands where the trails lay ; the
land was thought not to be good for
their uses. Then too there was an
antipathy from the start between the
freighters and the serious settlers. It
may naturally be supposed that a peace-