Day 75 - Sunday, August 8
When there is the certainty of a plan, the execution is the easy part…
We have the plan that started with wake up at 2:02am and out the door in Mitchell NE at 3am sharp. Run to Lingle WY as planned, shower and drive to Fort Collins to crash Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital with Lucky and see what options exist. I ended up speaking to someone in the urgent care area on the way, Joanne, who told me that checking him in tonight if not totally necessary might stress him and coming early tomorrow and going through urgent would be best course. So, after a great meal at restaurant called Social in downtown Fort Collins we have set up camp and will be at their door 7am sharp.
Leaving so early has its benefits, what a difference running in the low 50’s vs the 100’s during the day!
Lucky was strong today, never leaving my side on the 15 miles we travelled together along Route 26 heading west along the same route all the settlers travelled. All of the major trails; Mormon, California, Pony Express and Oregon all funneled through this narrow space between the Platte River and the ridge on my right.
We continue to gain roughly 200’ per day traveling between 30-35 miles like clockwork. We left Mitchell at 3,953’ and ended in Lingle WY at 4,173’. Air quality is an issue but not affecting me at all.
Since I have left Jacksonville Beach, I have been running along train lines the entire way - starting with CSX in the south heading north andthen on to Union Pacific heading west and now the Burlington Northern / Santa Fe heading west. I wave to all the engineers that go by thinking they may be doing multiple runs and see me along the route. I see them at 3am or 3pm, rain or shine. Today was the first time one of those massive trains acknowledged my wave by blasting the big horn for me and it was great!
We are making real progress on this trip now - I recommend checking out the “Progress” tab to see how far we have come. Nine states crossed, four to go and only 1,400 miles left!
Tomorrow we take a pause and work on Lucky. More to follow…
Thank you for your ongoing support -
Cheers,
David.
Mitchell NE @3am with Lucky
Our first town 7 miles later
Lucky is done for the day on the road - now he takes on copilot duties
Main Street in Henry, Nebraska. 1912.
During the railroad expansion up the Platte Valley in the early 1900s, town sites were created every eight to ten miles, since everything was "horse powered" at that time. In 1908 Yorick Nichols and his wife offered to give the Lincoln Land Company half of the town site if they chose their land. The agreement carried the stipulation that the town be named "Henry" for their adopted son who died in a swimming accident. (Mrs. Nichols was a talented woman who wrote stories for the Saturday Evening Post. )
After the town was laid out, a boxcar was moved in from Pratt, Wyoming, seven miles to the west. With the arrival of the "depot," Henry was officially on the railroad map. School was held in a church a mile southeast of town with Nettie Glenn the first teacher.
Financial reasons, not sentimental ones, caused Henry to grow. Cattle could be shipped cheaper in Nebraska than Wyoming. As soon as cars were available, the Swann Land & Cattle Company shipped 7,000 head of cattle from the new town.
Hilsabeck shipped a load of lumber to Henry from Morrill and put up the first building -- a lumber shed 24' x 140'. Water for irrigation was north of Henry in about 1906. The town's survey is dated 1909.
It took the Anderson brothers two days to drive their new Model T from Furnas County to Henry in 1914. H.V.(Herk) and Rudy Anderson started the Anderson General Merchandise in 1916 when they bought out Vic Bryan. The next year, Lee Anderson bought the hardware stock from Mr.Logan and Lewis Glenn. The Anderson name symbolizes 62 years of continuous association between the family and the Henry community.
For years Herk Anderson spent Sunday afternoons at the stockyards weighing in hogs for the farmers to get enough to ship a carload to Denver. When the returns came, he carefully pro-rated the payments according to weight for each farmer.
In 1916 the North Platte Valley Cooperative Turkey Marketing was started. It put Henry on the map as an important shipping point and developed an annual market of $200,000 in turkey and eggs. During the 1939 season, 33 carloads of dressed turkeys -- 45,000 birds valued at $130,000 -- were loaded in Burlington cars and shipped to eastern cities. The plant at Henry was a year-round proposition. It had one of the finest refrigerator systems in the west. The association was a dream-come-true for the Andersons and others who saw the possibility of profits in turkey raising.
Yorick Nichols built an auto garage in 1920 from locally produced blocks. (Three men worked all summer making the blocks beside Spring Creek. After making their quota of blocks, they carefully carried and stacked the two-day-old blocks into the water to cure for several weeks.) The upstairs became an auditorium where dances, basketball games, school plays, etc., were held.
The State Bank of Henry, founded by Gage Holloway and Frank Powers, closed in the 1920s because the prices that had escalated during World War I, suddenly dropped. As banks failed, some farmers lost their places and a few left the country and their debts.
A couple of years after the war, the village voted bonds to bring electricity from Lyman. This required six miles of power lines. A water system, still in use, was dug by hand. The town paid off the bonds and some said the lower cost of insurance paid for both systems.
Henry wasn't always a nice, clean little town -- as it is today. Cowboys would ride their horses right into the pool hall. When someone put a fence up east of the crossing on the main street, some cowboys decided it was in the way. So they tied the barbed wire to a caboose and it was soon in Wyoming.
Henry, like other small towns dependent on agriculture, is struggling to survive. The population is only 125, but is still very much alive. Spiritually, Henry supports two churches: the Methodist and Bible Churches. The Henry post office, threatened with closing a few years ago, is still thriving in a converted garage.
Main Street in Henry, NE 2021
Jackpot! All the major trails converge between a ridge on the right and the Platte on the left
Cattlewomen recommend eating beef
The view all day
Following the Lewis and Clark Expedition, much of the interior of the western United States remained a mystery and most people traveling to the west coast went by ship. By 1811, at the height of the fur trade, John Jacob Astor, owner of the Pacific Fur Company, pursued an overland route to link his trading empire in the Pacific Northwest to the East. He also recognized the new trading opportunities an overland route would provide for his business. Astor sent companies of men, called Astorians, to scout a route between Astoria, Oregon and St. Louis.
After the 1811 Astorian party proved relatively unsuccessful in finding a route, a second company headed eastward from Astoria, Oregon. Led by Robert Stuart, the expedition left in June 1812. Stuart’s expedition “discovered” major lengths of what became the Oregon Trail. The Rocky Mountains posed difficulties for overland expeditions, but, in October 1812 Stuart crossed the gentle South Pass, the first party of Euro-Americans to do so. Stuart’s group continued across what is now Wyoming in search of a winter campsite. At Bessemer Bend, Stuart’s party built the first known cabin in Wyoming. After an unsettling visit from a party of Arapaho, the Astorians moved further down the North Platte River between present-day Torrington and the Wyoming-Nebraska border. Stuart and his men spent the winter in a shack, hollowing out cottonwood canoes that ultimately proved too heavy for the North Platte when the headed down river in March 1813. Stuart arrived in St. Louis in late April with the news of a passable route across the Rocky Mountains.
Social in Fort Collins - really cool speak easy vibe, great mixed drinks and tapas