page_title: U.S. Route 385 in Nebraska
section_title: Black Hills gold rush
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 385 in Nebraska / History / Black Hills gold rush
caption_attribution_description: Original title "The Deadwood Coach" Side view of a stagecoach; formally dressed men sitting in and on top of coach.
context_page_description: U.S. Route 385 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that travels from Big Bend National Park in Texas to US 85 in Deadwood, South Dakota. Within the state of Nebraska, the highway is known as the Gold Rush Byway, one of nine scenic byways across the state. The highway follows along the old Sidney-Black Hills trail which played a crucial role during the Black Hills Gold Rush in the late 1870s. It served as the primary route to transport gold and mining gear between Sidney, Nebraska and the Black Hills to the north. Today, the highway enters Nebraska in the southeastern portion of the Nebraska Panhandle on the state line with Colorado northeast of Julesburg and continues in a northerly direction to the South Dakota state line north of Chadron.
  US 385 was an original entry in the initial development of the US Highway System in 1926. It originally ran from Comfort, Texas to Raton, New Mexico and did not come near Nebraska. In 1935, most of the routing of US 385 was resigned as US 87.
context_section_description: US 385 travels south to north through the Nebraska Panhandle which has been part of the state since it was acquired in 1803 as part of the vast Louisiana Purchase. Much of inland Nebraska, including the Panhandle became important regions for overland travel via horse and wagon. This included the California, Mormon, and Oregon trails as well as the Pony Express route which passed through the region. Settlers to Nebraska were mostly farmers, but the discovery of gold in Wyoming in 1859 sent a rush of speculators westward across the state.
  In 1874, during the Black Hills Expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, the discovery of gold in the region sparked the Black Hills Gold Rush. As prospectors located valuable sources of gold along Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks, thousands more prospectors entered the area looking to stake their claim. In April, 1876, a gold outcropping was discovered near Lead, South Dakota. This gold claim became the Homestake Mine and was the primary source of the placer gold being mined from the surrounding area. Over the next century, ten percent of the world's gold supply would come from this site.
  Sidney, Nebraska became an important city during the gold rush. It was an optimal starting point for gold prospectors. It was adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad and on established trails from the east, as well as to the north via the Sidney-Black Hills Trail. The trail was also preferred as it was shorter and through less treacherous terrain than trails to the west. The construction of Camp Clarke Bridge over the North Platte River in 1876, three miles west of modern-day Bridgeport also boosted its appeal. This allowed prospectors and freight to arrive via rail and continue north into the Black Hills with relative ease. The bridge contained sixty-one wooden trusses and spanned nearly 2,000 feet (610 m). Tolls ranged between $2 and $6 per wagon and up to $10 for heavy freight wagons.
  While prospectors flooded the area, along with them came those who would service the nascent mining industry. This included stagecoach lines that traveled between Sidney and the Black Hills carrying freight and passengers. Sometimes stagecoaches would depart Sidney for Deadwood three times each day. Conditions on the stagecoaches were usually cramped as upwards of sixteen people could be carried at a time. Between 1874 and 1880 most of the supplies and freight coming to and from the gold camps traveled this trail. Thousands of stagecoaches and wagons are estimated to have traveled the route during this time. At the peak of the gold rush in 1878 and 1879, fifty to seventy-five freight wagons left Sidney every day and an estimated 22-million pounds of freight traveled along the trail.
  Each week, gold was shipped out of the Black Hills to Sidney, sometimes with daily loads approaching $200,000 in value (equivalent to $4.7 million in 2018). It was during this time that stagecoach robberies became frequent occurrences. This became such a problem that the Gilmer and Salisbury stage lines manager, Luke Voorhees, attempted to capture the bandits to prevent loss of business along the route. When that wasn't enough, in 1878, he enlisted the help of Concord stagecoach builders, Abbot-Downing Company, to manufacture an armored stagecoach to withstand attacks. These armored stagecoaches were lined with half inch steel, portholes for windows and outfitted with an 800-pound steel safe accompanied by six to eight armed guards. Throughout three years of service, the armored stagecoach, nicknamed "Old Ironsides" was only robbed once.
  In 1880, a railroad between Chicago and Pierre, South Dakota severely damaged the freight business in Sidney. As the faster northerly route became preferred, freight companies moved their business to Pierre, mostly returning Sidney to the quieter times before the Gold Rush.
caption: Concord type stagecoach typically used on the trail
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