The New American Digest

Submitted by illinoisbeekeeper; commentary by yours truly.

I-80W MM159 10-09-2014 mid afternoon as I recall

Bricks in the concrete walkway are exactly when the wagons’ tracks were. The wagon wheel rims in the background of the info tablet are positioned on the original trail.

The Great Platte River Road
This is the Platte River Valley, America’s great road west. It provided a natural pathway for westbound expansion across the continent during the nineteenth century. Here passed the Oregon Trail, following the South Platte River along much the same route as the highway over which you now travel. Beginning in 1841, nearly 250,000 travelers crossed the plains to Oregon and California over this important overland route. Here at O’Fallon’s Bluffs, the wagon trains faced one of the most difficult and dangerous spots on the trail. The Platte River cut directly across the bluff, making it necessary to travel the narrow pathway over O’Fallon’s Bluffs. Deep sand caught the wagon wheels, and Indian attacks were always a danger. A few feet southeast of this point, cuts made by the thousands of wagon wheels still remain. Although first traveled primarily by immigrants, the trail was later used by the Pony Express and became an important freight and military route. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad across Nebraska in 1867, travel on the trail declined. Although the danger and hardships faced by earlier travelers no longer exist, the Grate Platte River Valley route remains an important modern thoroughfare across Nebraska and across the nation.

From Wiki:
O’Fallons Bluff is a section of bluffs about 20 mi long that run along the south side of the Platte River near Sutherland in Lincoln County, Nebraska. The Oregon and California trails ran up and over these bluffs. They were characterized by American pioneers heading west to Oregon and California as sparse in vegetation with a number of violent incidents involving Native Americans. In the early 1860s, a Pony Express station was located about 5 mi west of where the wagon trails went up the bluff. During construction of Interstate 80, the steep part of the bluffs were cut away but wagon ruts remained, which are marked by iron hoops signifying wagon wheels.

Also the route of the Overland Stage lines. The Mormon Trail followed the north shore (as does much of modern US30), the Oregon/California Trail followed the south (as does much of modern I-80 through Nebraska) … but not as a hard and fast rule. The trail split at what is now North Platte where the river split; the South Platte leads to what is now Denver but the trail headed north into Wyoming near Greeley, CO. There’s been enough settlement that with some exceptions, much of the trails are now under pavement or plowed fields.

The N. Platte route headed to Ft Laramie then west to roughly Casper, WY and over across the Divide at South Pass, WY. The two trails joined again at Granger, WY or Ft Bridger, then split again; the Oregon Trail heading north roughly along US189 to Ft Hall (where another split occurred) and along the Snake River to Oregon or the California Trail south through Echo Canyon, Salt Lake, and on to the Humboldt River across Nevada to California.

There are many variations to the routes taken at the time as explorers and scam artists attempted to find easier passage.

One of my soapbox topics … 🙂
So I dig into maps … Giggle is good for something, just not all things.

From DiveMedic re Big Country ex-Pat

“On Tuesday, Big Country asked that his blog be closed. He was the first to share the server that this blog is on. The reasons were shared on his blog, and if you were a reader of his, you know why. I was planning on leaving his stuff up and online, but he requested that I nuke his blog today.“

“As for me, that is why I attempt to remain anonymous. I don’t need someone trying to come after me IRL.“

“Let’s just say that he was doxxed, and someone used the information to attack him and leave it at that.“

So I remain “DT”.

published by Jean Apr 4, 2010

Author: Jean; Intro: DT

Jean’s husband committed suicide almost 30 years ago. Ten years later, in response, she wrote of her experience in a 6-part series on her blog site, Pondering. She suggested it might be appropriate to re-post here.

This is a subject intensely personal but Jean was willing to share her experience that others in the same situation might gain some degree of peace.

“I think there’s value in knowing what people will do to others and often, eventually, to themselves. What they end up doing to themselves is also doing to others. The others are the ones who have to live with what happened and deal with it for the rest of their lives. The others have to choose how much guilt they will allow themselves to live with and for how long. It is often a long process.

Guilt is often not deserved or necessary. Even forgiveness isn’t always necessary because the others probably did nothing to cause the suicide. The others still have a life to live…for themselves. The best they can do is to live their life outside the shadow of what happened. Live in light.“

The subject is disturbing to some so the (very long) article is not directly posted. If you wish to read the article, you can access it here.

originally posted by Jean Oct 9, 2011

it’s been days and days.
many
many
more than one day.
so many days that
memory did forget
any other days that
were not as this day.
gray
dull
listless, lifeless,
soundless swirl.
blending endlessly
each day
into
every day.
some day
begins.
no day
ends.