Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-06-05

|
troughs between the undulations, where stag
nant pools of water arc sometimes found, ant
sometimes running streams, though not yer,
| large or numerous.
Long before arriving at Fort Kearny We
! found ourselves among the last settlements
These consisted of small and often untenantec
| huts, made each of single ox-cart load of lum
her which the settler had brought from the Mis-
souri, River, with plow on the top to plow W
a field around the hut when once built, and thus
to gain claim to preemption. While some o
them were occupied, by far the most of them
resounded to no other voice than that of the
lone winds. They could be seen dotting the
| country far to the north and south of our west.
ward road, glistening in the morning sun like
the foam of the waves of emigration heaving in
with strong tide from the old restless ocean
of humanity in the East.
At Fort Kearny we struck Platte River, which
makes turn loft to the northward at that point
and empties into the Missouri some consider
able distance above Leavenworth. 1t is one OF
the most extraordinary geological features on
the face of the globe. Imagine a large ditch
delved through such a prairie country as have
described, some three hundred feet in depth and
five miles ur more in width, in the middle of
which shallow threads of water course along Il
strip of sand which is about mile wide Such
q
'tis qucksand) with water flowing in threads
along it, than river Of water flowing over sand
Nature never intended it for navigation thus
showing clearly that the wide country through
which it flows is barren, and will never he pro-
ductlve OF any thing to be sent to market. In
fact by leaving the valley and going up out of
the ditch, one comes into the prairie land again.
its undulations all burnt, sere and brown and
looking as arid a beaten road. The truth is
that to the westward of Fort Kearny. or say
west of the Tooth degree of west longitude ali
the way down to the northern boundary of Mex
ico there is an immense region of country which
contains but very little of good or arabic land.
Much, very much of it is a desert which has
never been used never can be inhabited $50
that the child has long since been born who will
see the time when Uncle Sam will no longer
have any desirable land to sell.
But from amidst the barrenness over which
the eye courses from the top of the ditch, turn
and look downward into the valley. 1t is
pleasant peaceful sight. Away down there the
river is seen, its course marked out bv clumps
Of cotton wood trees delightfully."- green; the
bottom of the valley is all covered with fresh
luxuriant grass beautiied with numerous flow
ers amidst which the sunhower turns its honest
domestic face to the sun herds of buffalo are
feeding peacefully along the stream, and up
and down the road which runs parallel with the
Platte are meeting parties of travellers of all
ages, sexes and conditions, mounted and dis
mounted in all manner of ways, on their way
from one seaboard to the other of this great
continent. The Indian and buffalo from the rv-
er prairies look down upon this scene with sur
prise and strange conjecture.
The valley of the Platte has indeed become
a great thoroughfare of travel between the At
lantic and Pacific While Il journey to and from
California and Oregon by this route is cheaper
than the voyage by sea, it is also free from the
sickness and discomforts 70 which the sea voy-
age is subject 1t moreover presents greater
novelties and gives one some idea of his own
country. There is hence so much travel in this
direction that i was high time the government
the peculiar community which has become cs-
tabshed upon its ronte. There is necessary
hostility between the Mormons and the travellers
who pass through Their country; and our gov
ernment could not remain inactive if it would
with the view of letting Mormonism die out of
its own extravaganza; for protection to the
travellers is due and must be given. 1t is Gu
rious to observe that just as soon as our terri
tory has all become occupied and organized
Just as soon as there is no wilderness where eX-
travagance may die out of its own accord for
want of opposition, that moment our democrat
ic government begins, like the old crowded coun-
tries of Europe, to make use of the army as
means of repression. If an army is needed for
the preservation of order among us now, what
shall We not need in the course of few years
when our population shall have become doubled?
At the distance of about one hundred and
twenty miles from Fort Kearny, following along
the Platte, we came to the junction Of Its two
principal forks, called the South and North
Platte. Fording the South Platte we passed
over a very undulating-not to say hilly country,
and at the end of some fifteen miles travel de-
scended through Ash Hollow to the right bank
of the North Platte This is a very bad, diff
cult and dangerous point on the route which
might be easily avoided by going to the left /;
but of which we will speak hereafter
At length we arrived at Fort Laramie which
is upwards of six hundred miles from Fort Lea
yenworth, and where spurs ofthe Rocky Noun
tains first begun to peer at from the hori-
zon in the west. We had heard so much of
them ever since our school days-ever since
we first heard the walls of that temple of learn
ing in Agiers resound to their oft repeated
name, that they looked as familiar to us as the
face of an old friend. The first summit that one
notices is Laramie's Peak, so called after an old
French fur trader by the name of Laramie from
which comes also Fort Laramie, Laramie's Fork
and Laramie's Plains.
For Laramie is, and has been for long time
the center of the buffalo robe trade; and the
point was doubtless first established with that
view rather than as depot on an interoceanic
route. Yet Colonel Benton seems to think that
buffalos and Col. Fremont are the best engineers
for selecting routes of travel, always passing he
says, the shortest and best lines between any
two points. But this depends, it appears to
me, upon the objects had in view. The object
of the buffalo is good grass and water and the
object of old Laramie was to get the buffalo
furs, not to establish great route of travel and
traffic between two oceans.
No, the best route for road to the Pacific is
considerably south of Laramie. Instead of fol-
lowing the old traders road, as Col. Fremont
did, and crossing the South Platte at the point
where we struck it, we should have followed it
up some miles farther before crossing, then gone
up Lodge Pole Creek then through the Cheyenne
and Bridgers passes-not the South Pass, then
down Bear River to Soda Springs, and from
that point the way is open either to Oregon or
California. This is undoubtedly the best route
for railroad, and as preliminary step to this
also for postal road. With relay stations es-
tablished along the streams which have men,
toned, viz. the Platte, South Platte, Lodge Pole
Creek and Bear River where the soil is sufficient