Fort Kearny Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the western U . S . during the middle and late 19th century . The outpost was located along the Oregon Trail near present - day Kearney , Nebraska , which took its name from the fort ( with an incorrect spelling which the U . S . Post Office Department refused to correct ) . Origins and various missions of the fort . The fort was built in response to the growth of overland emigration to Oregon after 1842 . The first post , Fort Kearny , was established in the spring of 1848 " near the head of the Grand Island " along the Platte River by Lieutenant Daniel P . Woodbury . It was first called Fort Childs , but in 1848 the post was renamed Fort Kearny in honor of General Stephen Watts Kearny . Despite its lack of fortifications , Fort Kearny served as way station , sentinel post , supply depot , and message center for 49 ' ers bound for California and homeseekers traveling to California , Oregon and the Pacific Northwest . The earliest surviving photograph of the post , taken in 1858 by Samuel C . Mills , shows the post as a collection of adobe buildings without any wall or fortifications . By the 1860s the fort had become a significant state and freighting station and home station of the Pony Express . During the Indian Wars of 1864 - 1865 a small stockade was apparently built upon the earth embankment still visible . Although never under attack , the post did serve as an outfitting depot for several Indian campaigns . The fort was a precious source of provisions for emigrants on the early section of the trail for several decades during the height of the trail use until its abandonment in 1871 . As it had been founded along the Platte River to protect emigrants on the trail westward , the fort became an important stop along the eastern part of the trail for the following decade , offering the sale of food , reliable mail service and other amenities . At the height of the pioneer trail use in the 1850s , as many as 2 , 000 emigrants and 10 , 000 oxen might pass through in a single day during the height of the trail season in late May . One of the fort ' s final duties was the protection of workers building the Union Pacific . In 1871 , two years after the completion of the transcontinental railroad , the fort was discontinued as a military post . Its buildings were disassembled and moved West to outfit newer posts . Description . The fort was intended mostly as a supply post , and not as defensive position in the Indian Wars . Throughout most of its history , the fort consisted mostly of wooden buildings surrounding a central parade ground without fortified walls . Throughout the decades of its use until the completion of the transcontinental railroad , the character of the buildings became slightly more permanent , changing from adobe and sod structures to wooden frame construction . Although it was in the heart of area inhabited by American Indians aka Native Americans , and was near the center of hostile action in the 1860s , no direct attack was ever made on the fort . History . First Fort Kearny . The fort along the Platte River was the second of two army posts in present - day Nebraska to be named after Colonel Stephen W . Kearny of the U . S . Army . In 1838 , Kearny had scouted the area along the Missouri River at the mouth of Table Creek near present - day Nebraska City looking for a suitable location for an outpost to protect westward travelers . In 1846 , following Kearny ' s recommendation , the United States War Department had ordered the building of an outpost on the site and directed Kearny to construct one there . The Army then sent Colonel Kearny with a detachment of men from Fort Leavenworth up the Missouri to the area with orders to construct an outpost at the selected site . The Army constructed a two - story wooden blockhouse on the site , which became known as Camp Kearny and later Fort Kearny . The Army quickly realized , however , the location was not chosen well , since few emigrants passed the site on their way west . Instead , the main routes of the trails preferred by emigrants lay to the north near Omaha and to the south . Construction was subsequently halted on the site , with the exception of the erection of a number of log huts for temporary quarters for a battalion of troops who wintered there in 1847 – 1848 . Second Fort Kearny . In September 1847 , Kearny sent topographical engineer Lt . Daniel P . Woodbury westward along the Platte looking for a more suitable location for the outpost . Woodbury selected a site in present - day central Nebraska near the spot where the Trail westward from Independence , Missouri joined the trail westward from Omaha and Council Bluffs . Woodbury described the spot in his journals as : In December Woodbury went to Washington , D . C . with orders to secure organization of the new post . Woodbury requested an appropriation of $ 15 , 000 for construction , while advocating the employment of Mormon emigrants for construction . Although he did not receive these provisions , Woodbury received permission to build the fort from scratch with soldier labor . The Army abandoned the Table Creek post in May 1848 and arrived at the new site in June . Woodbury directed construction of the fort with 175 men as labor . They built wooden buildings around a four acre ( 16 , 000 m² ) parade ground , with cottonwood trees planted around the perimeter . Woodbury initially named the fort " Fort Childs " after Col . Thomas Childs , a famous soldier in the Mexican - American War , as well as Woodbury ' s father - in - law . A directive from War Department , however , directed that the name " Fort Kearny " would be transferred to the new fort . The fort grew rapidly into an important trail stop . By June 1849 , Woodbury noted in his journals that 4 , 000 wagons had passed the fort so far that year , mostly on their way to California . The fort accumulated large stores of goods for travelers , with the directive of selling them at a beneficial cost to the emigrants . Specifically , the commander of the fort was authorized to sell goods at cost to emigrants , and in some cases of hardship , to give goods to them for free . In 1850 , the fort acquired regular once - a - month mail service with the arrival of a stagecoach route between Independence , Missouri and Salt Lake City . It was the first regular mail service established along the trail . Role in the Indian Wars . The early years of the fort were relatively peaceful . After 1854 , and the creation of the Nebraska Territory by the Kansas - Nebraska Act , the area around the fort in northern Kansas and southern Nebraska increasingly came under the hostile activity of the Cheyenne and Sioux tribes . In the summer of 1864 , the irritation of the Native Americans at the encroachment by white settlers culminated in violent attacks on wagon trains along the Platte and the Little Blue River . During this time , soldiers from the fort began escorting wagon trains , and the fort became a center for refugees fleeing from attacks . Earthwork fortifications were constructed at the fort , and the Army ordered the deployment of the First Nebraska Cavalry and the Seventh Iowa Cavalry to the fort . By 1865 , the conflict between Native Americans and white settlers had shifted westward away from the area of the fort . Later years and abandonment . The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad across Nebraska starting in 1867 largely marked the end of the need for a fort to protect and supply wagon train emigrants . Following the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 , the U . S . Army issued an order for abandonment of the post on May 22 , 1871 . In 1875 , the buildings were torn down and the materials removed to barracks at North Platte and Sidney . The troops of the fort were restationed to Omaha and its stores were relocated to Fort McPhearson 70 miles ( 110 km ) to the west . In December 1876 , the grounds were given over to the United States Department of the Interior for disbursement to settlements under the Homestead Act . Within several years , little remained of the fort except for cottonwood trees and the 1864 earthwork fortifications . Fort Kearny State Historical Park . In 1928 , the Fort Kearny Memorial Association was formed by Nebraska citizens to raise money to purchase and restore part of the grounds . The organization was able to purchase 40 acres ( 162 , 000 m² ) of the original site , which it offered to the State of Nebraska . The State Legislature authorized the purchase , which became final on March 26 , 1929 . Thus acquired by the State of Nebraska in 1929 , part of the original site is now operated as Fort Kearny State Historical Park by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission . The site has been entered on the National Register of Historic Places . In cooperation with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission , which operates the current State Historic Park , the Nebraska State Historical Society conducts ongoing archaeological investigations of the grounds . These digs have uncovered and marked the foundations of all major building on the site including headquarters , officers and troops quarters , parade grounds , storage and livestock stockade . A small theatre that shows a 20 minute history of the fort , a museum with collected artifacts and a reconstructed blacksmith shop with period cannon s , caissons , tack and other equipment is behind the museum . There is space on the park for RV and trailer parking with some facilities . The park is only open during the summer months . Reenactors fire the authentic cannon every year on 4 July weekend ceremonies . In June 2010 , Governor Dave Heineman signed a Proclamation re - establishing the 2nd Battalion , Nebraska Veteran Cavalry , the unit will be at the Fort on three major holidays , memorial day weekend , 4 July weekend , and Labor day weekend . This historical cavalry unit served at the fort during the Indian Wars , the unit is historically correct in every possible aspect ; bugle calls used by the cavalry can be heard at differing times to announce the activities of the troop at the fort . Depiction in fiction . In the novel " Around the World in Eighty Days " by Jules Verne , a train in the process of being hijacked by Sioux stops at Fort Kearny to request aid from the troops there . Such an event is somewhat of an anachronism , given that the conflicts with Native Americans had largely shifted away from the area by the time of the completion of the railroad . Fort Kearny also appears in the short - lived television western drama series " The Loner " ( 1965 ) starring actor Lloyd Bridges . The series , created and written by Rod Serling of " The Twilight Zone " fame , takes place in the late 1860s and features the fort in an episode titled " Westward the Shoemaker " . The " Westward . . . " episode concerns an Eastern European Jewish immigrant who seeks a new life in Nebraska Territory as a bootmaker but runs afoul of a card shark . The Fort is also referenced in the HBO television series Deadwood in episode 5 of the first series as the closest place to find smallpox vaccine .