[22] There were two routes across from the head of Little Blue River to the Platte. The first left the trail near the site of Leroy, Nebraska, and came in to the Platte about twenty miles below Grand Island; the second continued farther west, about ten miles, then crossed northwest to the Platte near the site of Fort Kearney. See military map of Nebraska and Dakota, prepared in 1855-57 by Lieutenant G. K. Warren of the topographical engineer corps. For the Platte River see our volume xiv, p. 219, note 170.—Ed.
[23] For this tribe, see our volume vi, p. 61, note 17; also our volume xv, pp. 143-165; and xxviii, p. 149, note 94.—Ed.
[24] Thomas Fulton Stephens joined the Oregon caravan from Illinois. The year after his arrival in Oregon he took up donation land near the site of Portland and erected thereon a saw-mill. His death occurred in 1884.—Ed.
[25] John Foster was born in Ohio in 1822, removed to Missouri in early life, and in 1897 was still residing in Oregon.—Ed.
[26] Orville Risley was born in New York state about 1807. In early life he removed to Ohio, where he joined the Oregon emigrants of 1845. Upon reaching the Willamette valley he took up land in Clackamas County, and later was a merchant at Lafayette. In his last years he resided principally at Portland, where he was known as Judge Risley, from having once held the office of justice of the peace. His death occurred at his Clackamas farm in 1884.—Ed.
[27] For the fords of the South Platte see our volume xxi, p. 173, note 27.—Ed.
[28] Ash Hollow, called by Frémont Coulée des Frênes, was a well known landmark, where the Oregon Trail crossed the North Platte. It is now known as Ash Creek, in Deuel County, Nebraska.—Ed.
[29] Spring Creek was probably the one now known as Rush, formed by springs issuing in Cheyenne County, Nebraska. The second creek was that now entitled Pumpkinseed. In the days of trail-travelling it was called Gonneville, from a trapper who had been killed thereon. The Solitary Tower is on its bank—a huge mass of indurated clay, more frequently known as the Court House or the Castle.—Ed.
[30] For a note on Chimney Rock consult De Smet's Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 219, note 89. See also engraving in Frémont's "Exploring Tour," Senate Docs., 28 Cong., 2 sess., 174, p. 38.—Ed.
[31] This story is told with variations by many writers, notably Washington Irving in his Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia, 1837), i, pp. 45, 46. The event appears to have occurred about 1830. The range of bluffs, about nine hundred yards in length, still retains the name. It is situated on the western borders of Nebraska, in a county of the same name.—Ed.