Little Platte River

The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, about 200 miles (320 km) long, in southwestern Iowa and northwestern Missouri in the United States. It is sometimes known as the Little Platte River to distinguish it from the larger Platte River, also a tributary of the Missouri, in nearby Nebraska; the Platte River of Missouri itself has a tributary known as the "Little Platte River" The relatively gentle first leg of the Oregon Trail route along the Platte River was a time for the emigrants to settle into travel mode. This meant getting used to hitching and unhitching the oxen, cattle and mules whenever a stop was made - hard and dangerous work. It also meant constant wagon maintenance, foraging for firewood and clean water, cooking over open fires and learning how to break and set camp every day. Where the Oregon Trail out of Independence met the Platte River, the first of many forts was built to protect plains emigrants. Forts operated by the US Army usually had post offices where emigrants could send home letters, and eastbound riders headed back to the United States were sometimes willing to take along letters from westbound emigrants. The Platte River itself was another major obstacle, as in June it consisted mostly of shallow, stagnant pools separated by mud flats, sandbars, and a three foot deep main channel that meandered from bank to bank. It was too wide to be bridged and too shallow to for a ferry. Crossing the Platte from the northern Council Bluffs Road (the Mormon Trail) to the Oregon Trail on the Platte's south shore required a risky trek following a path of willow poles set out to mark stable sandbars that would support the weight of wagon.