Varying cultures of
indigenous peoples lived intermittently along the Platte for thousands of years before European exploration. Historical tribes claimed various territories in the region. The Indian tribes typically visited different areas in different seasons, following the
bison herds during hunting seasons. The introduction of horses, which had escaped from early Spanish explorers in the 1540s, dramatically changed life in the Great Plains. Indian tribes could more easily follow the buffalo herds as they migrated from north to south and back. Before 1870, herds of several hundred thousand bison (buffalo) periodically migrated across the Platte in following seasonal grazing. The animals often waded or swam across the Platte. The first known European to see the Platte was the French explorer
Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, in 1714, who named it the
Nebraskier, after its
Oto name, meaning "flat water". The French later applied the
French word
plate (meaning flat, and pronounced
plat, or
platte) to the river. Occupied by various Indian tribes for part of each year, both claimed the Platte River territory
Spanish and
French explorers, who were trying to rule the Great Plains. Spain had claimed all of the Great Plains after Coronado's 1541–42 expedition. Jose Naranjo, an
African-
Hopi who served as a Spanish scout and explorer in the
Southwest, was a war captain of the Spanish Indian auxiliaries. By 1714 (the same year the French explorers reached the Platte), he and a small exploration group from the south had reportedly already reached the Platte three times. He later guided the 1720
Villasur expedition to the area in a Spanish effort to stop French expansion onto the Great Plains. Naranjo and Villasur's party made the northernmost
Spanish exploration trip into the central plains. A
Pawnee and
Otoe Indian attack defeated the Spanish forces; the survivors returned to
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Spanish left the Great Plains to the American Indians. As a result of the
Seven Years' War (1756–1763) (called the
French and Indian War in America), the French ceded all of their lands in North America east of the Mississippi River to the British. The Spanish took over lands west of the Mississippi River. Since there were few
fur-bearing animals on the Platte of interest to the
fur traders, the French and British explorers and fur trappers ignored the Platte territory for some time. During the course of the
Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), France briefly reacquired the land west of the Mississippi River from Spain. In 1804, Napoleon sold the area west of the
Mississippi River to the US in the
Louisiana Purchase; the US roughly doubled its area at a cost of about $15,000,000. In 1820, the
U.S. Army ordered Major
Stephen H. Long to explore and map the area around the Platte. Long described the area as a great American desert, despite its native inhabitants and wildlife, because of a lack of easily cultivated land. As a result of his and other reports, the US initially had little interest in settling the land on the plains. The next "good" land was believed to be in
Oregon or
California, especially the coastal areas, and those were the destinations of most emigrant traffic. The
Mormons settled
Utah, largely due to religious persecution in eastern areas. Various gold and silver strikes attracted further emigration to nearly all western states. The Native American trail west along the Platte, North Platte River, and
Sweetwater River was first written about after its discovery in 1811 by
Wilson Price Hunt of the
Astor Expedition. He was returning to the Missouri River posts from the newly established
Fort Astoria on the
Columbia River near the Pacific Ocean. Because few American trappers and settlers were then in the contested
Oregon Territory, his trail discovery was little used and nearly forgotten. In 1823,
Jedediah Smith and several trappers "rediscovered" the route. The trail along the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers became a major route of fur traders to their summer
Rocky Mountain Rendezvous. In 1824
fur trappers and traders directing mule trains carrying trade goods and supplies for the
mountain men were some of the first European-American parties to use the trail. On their return trip, the fur traders carried out furs destined for eastern markets. The fur trade route was used until about 1840. By about 1832, the fur traders had improved the trail along the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to a rough wagon trail from the Missouri River to the
Green River in Wyoming, where most of the
Rocky Mountain Rendezvous were held. In 1834,
Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer on leave, led an expedition to the west financed by
John Jacob Astor. They took wagons along the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater River trail to the Green River in present-day Wyoming. The notable author
Washington Irving wrote an account of Bonneville's explorations in the West that made him well known in the US. is the black dot. Following the fur traders, the major emigration trails established along the north and south banks of the Platte and North Platte River were the
Oregon (1843–1869),
California (1843–1869), Mormon (1847–1869) and the
Bozeman (1863–68) trails. This network of trails, sometimes called the Emigrant Trails or the
Great Platte River Road, all went west along both sides of the Platte River. The route along the Platte River included these emigration trails and was developed as a major trail used by
wagon trains for westward expansion in the United States after 1841. The settlement of the
Oregon boundary dispute with Britain in 1846, the conclusion of the
Mexican–American War in 1848, and the
California Gold Rush in 1849, along with other gold and silver strikes, rapidly attracted increased emigrant traffic westward. The Platte River in the future state of Nebraska and the North Platte River in Wyoming typically had many channels and islands. The waterways were often too shallow, crooked, muddy, and unpredictable for a canoe to travel far. The Platte River valley provided an easily passable wagon corridor; it sloped gradually up in height as it went almost due west from the Missouri. The Platte route had access to water, grass, buffalo, and buffalo chips, which the Indians and emigrants used as fuel for fires. Long Native American use had created trails on both sides of the muddy, about wide and shallow Platte River. The Platte's water was silty and bad-tasting, but it was usable if no other water was available. Emigrants learned to let it sit in a bucket for an hour or so to allow most of the silt to settle. The trail(s) through the Platte River Valley extended about in the present state of Nebraska. Nearly all the trails from the Missouri converged on the Platte River at or before Fort Kearny in mid-state Nebraska. Historians have estimated that about 400,000 emigrants followed the trails along the Platte. The influx of so many emigrants strained the local ecosystem to the point that in 1846, chief
They Fear Even His Horses demanded compensation from the President of the United States (referred to as
tȟuŋkášila, the Great Father) for the damage Americans caused to the Platte. It also brought an epidemic of
cholera that killed around 15% of the
Lakota people between 1848 and 1849. The Lakota made plans for war, and in response, the United States convened the Lakota and other Plains Indians for the
Treaty of Fort Laramie. The
Pony Express, operational from 1860–61, and the
First Transcontinental Telegraph, completed in 1861, both followed the earlier emigrant trails along the Platte. The completion of the telegraph put the Pony Express out of business as it could provide much faster east–west communication. In 1866, the
Union Pacific portion of the
first Transcontinental Railroad was constructed along the Platte River as it started west from Omaha. In the 20th century, the
Lincoln Highway and later
Interstate 80 were constructed through the Platte Valley. The highways parallel the Platte and the North Platte through much of Nebraska. Many of Nebraska’s larger cities originated on or near the Platte River, as it was the first path of transportation. These include Omaha (est. 1854), Fort Kearny (est. 1848), Grand Island (est. 1857) and North Platte (est. 1869). In 1859, settlers built the first
irrigation ditch to divert water from the Platte for farming. In March 1924, the U.S. Army Air Corps conducted a three-day bombing campaign on an ice gorge that threatened bridges near the town of North Bend. ==Ecosystem==